Wearable computers have been a dream of many for a long time. The idea of this type of device goes much farther back than the computer itself and can been seen in comics and science fiction movies and books. Some examples of the gadgets are Dick Tracy’s two-way communicator wrist watch, Michael Knight’s Communicator/Computer watch from the TV Series Knight Rider and of Course Buzz Lightyear’s wrist computer. Ok so that last one was not really a good example, but you can see that there is no shortage of examples out there. Still, even with these examples we have not really reached the level where we have true wearable computing; we are getting close and some of the devices that are out on the market are impressive, but we are not there just yet.
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We intend to explore the history behind these concepts as well as how technology has moved toward the goal of true wearable computing devices in a series of articles and reviews of some of the products that you can buy today. We will also cover some of the hurdles that need to be overcome before we can see this goal. Let’s kick things off with a walk down the idea of portable computing and what helped to make this not only a reality, but a part of our everyday lives.