When I was invited to write about the future of mobile in Stefan Bertschi’s book Thumb Culture, I was adamant about the widespread use of wearable display technology within the next 10 years. I’ve been in various labs and used this stuff. It’s an incredible experience, much better than you might think. My original interest stems from my research back in the early 90s into mobile augmented reality, which I now believe is imminent, though not how I originally imagined it.

Interestingly, the price point for affordable and usable wearable displays is not a technology issue. It is mostly an economy of scale issue. There simply isn’t a high enough demand for these products.

My dream mobile device has always been an ultra-portable projector. That’s why I was blown away when I saw that those clever socks at Microvision were showing one at CES 2008.

With the ability to visualise digital data with incredible richness whilst mobile, all kinds of new behaviours will emerge. With the additional use of accelerometers and LBS, visual augmentation takes on a whole new meaning.

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