EYEGLASS COMPUTER DISPLAY - MicroOptical will demonstrate technology that the company calls the first practical head-mounted display (HMD) at next month's Society for Information Display conference. Eyeglass Display can be clipped onto or built into ordinary eyeglasses. Traditionally, workers who require a hands-free screen have had to use heavy and costly headgear. MicroOptical's Tom Holzel says the concept of HMDs is popular, but "nobody's gotten the ergonomics right." The Eyeglass Display is "a featherweight personal display with an appearance nearly indistinguishable from conventional glasses," says Holzel. The display is located either in the temple piece of the eyeglasses or in an L-shaped optics module that clips onto the temple. A small lens/mirror combiner sits in front of the eye, either on a transparent stalk or as part of the eyeglass lens, and reflects images into the eye. The stalk or lens provides the optical path from the display to the combiner. The Eyeglass Display uses "see-through" monitor technology, allowing users to easily switch their focus between the display image and their normal view of the world. (EE Times Online 04/22/99 - Edupage 23 Apr 99)

WORM AND OTHER BIOBOTS - Scientists and researchers from the fields of biology and computing are exploring connections between the two sciences that could lead to a better understanding of living creatures and to advanced computers that handle information in a similar manner as animals and humans. Shawn Lockery and researchers at the University of Oregon's Institute of Neuroscience have created a worm robot or "biobot" that is programmed to "think" and act like a round worm searching for food. Instead of sniffing levels of chemical concentrations to find food as an actual round worm would do, the worm robot detects a range of light intensities. Round worms have neuron signaling far more powerful than the computing used by desktop computers, and the worm robot could lead to computers that better adapt to changing conditions and component failures. Meanwhile, a group of researchers at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland are working on a robotic hexapod, resembling a cockroach, and robots similar to crickets and ants have been developed at European universities. (Popular Science 03/99 - Edupage 9 Apr 99)

HIP-BASED EMAIL PAGERS - Elliott Masie of the Masie Institute recently tested a new hip-based two way email pager enabling him to get and send emails as he walked down the airline terminals to his gate. "Clearly," he says, "the convergence of wireless technology will place all of us in a more connected context. Next, we will have to set expectation levels for response. I sent a test message to a colleague and he did respond to my hip in just 2 minutes. Yet, later he sent me an email and when he didn't get a response in a few minutes he sent another one. Rising expectations? The device is Motorola's PageWriter with service from SkyTel: www.skytel.com (Techlearn Trends #119 24 April 1999 )