Computer in Wrist Watch

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excerpts from ISSCC 2000 conference where the invention was presented

ISSCC: 'Dick Tracy' watch watchers disagree

By Peter Clarke
EE Times
(02/08/00, 9:12 p.m. EST)
 
  SAN FRANCISCO -- Panelists at a Monday evening (Feb. 7) panel session
  at the International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) here
  failed to agree on when the public will be able to buy a "Dick Tracy"
  style watch for Christmas, with estimates ranging from almost
  immediately to not within the next decade.
 
  Steve Mann, a professor at the University of Toronto, was hailed as
  the father of the wearable computer and the ISSCC's first virtual
  panelist, by moderator Woodward Yang of Harvard University (Cambridge
  Mass.).

...

  Not surprisingly, Mann was generally upbeat at least about the
  technical possibilities of distributed body-worn computing, showing
  that he had already developed a combination wristwatch and imaging
  device that can send and receive video over short distances.

  Meanwhile, in the debate from the floor that followed the panel
  discussion, ideas were thrown up, such as shoes as a mobile phone --
  powered by the mechanical energy of walking, and using the Dick Tracy
  watch as the user interface -- and a more distributed model where
  spectacles are used to provide the visual interface; an ear piece to
  provide audio; and even clothing to provide a key-pad or display.