The FT has a piece about wearable computing: The shirt that checks your heart, the hat that checks your brain (By Alan Cane). Even though it's very geeky, there is an interesting metaphor:

Professor Sandy Pentland of MIT’s prestigious Media Lab, one of the world’s leading experts on the topic, says that for “wearable computer” read “mobile phone”.

He argues: “The mobile phone is the first truly pervasive computing platform. The question is not: ‘is the wearable computer a gimmick?’ but whether it will be people’s primary computing platform and push all others decisively aside.”

He backs this view with a commercial rather than social argument: “With telecoms operators’ revenues from voice services dropping quickly, everyone is looking for digital data services to stoke growth. The model of a wearable computer is exactly that... and it is working. “Google maps for handhelds, push e-mail and digital cameras are all computer applications migrating to the mobile. Even the physical aspect of the mobile is being designed around wearability. Look at the Moto line, the Oakley Bluetooth glasses and Bluetooth headsets.”

Then they discuss the use of various technologies in medicine/health (using body sensors and "intelligent clothing conversing with chips inside the body to monitor well-being").

Why do I blog this? this also connects to the workshop at Nordichi about the "near-field interactions". However, I am quite dubious about direct transfer of desktop applications to cell phone. Using google maps on my cell phone is not always easy and pertinent for example.