Wearing Your Computer on Your Sleeve

Michael Liebhold, a senior researcher specializing in wearable computing at the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto, Calif., predicts that the next step in technology is the blurring of the real and virtual worlds.

Over the next 10 years, he says, he envisions that people will be wearing glasses with built-in screens and, eventually, contact lenses — with working displays.

“Kids will play virtual games with their friends, where they meet in a park and run around chasing virtual creatures for points,” he said.

According to Nick Bilton, wearable computers will become a new standard as people become “more absorbed by the [smartphone] screen.” While it’s hard to envision what exactly these prototypes could look like, it’s reported that Apple and Google have already begun testing prototypes of their own.

If anything, the smartphone — which already takes up a significant part of our daily lives, both in time and attention — will only grow in importance. And if Google and Apple are placing heavy bets in building and developing technologies around this device, then we have to assume that smartphones aren’t going away anytime soon.