Technology has moved up fast from desktops to laptops to wearables. Cell phones are fast becoming history as newer versions of wireless connectivity is evolving. Welcome to the world of wireless jewellery. You can wear it in your ears or in your spectacles. And you can reach beyond text and verbal communication. The IBM Almaden Research Center has developed an eyeglass wearable camera cube. Hardly perceptible to the other, it can take a snapshot of a person's face, even as you shake hands with him.

Software specialists have used algorithms in the form of Query By Image Content (QBIC) software. With this algorithm, should you happen to meet this person even after a gap of a year, it can whisper back into your ears, where and when you met him the last time through the wireless jewellery.

The technology has immense possibilities. As you walk through the corridors of your favourite five star hotels, and look at the fine portraits or paintings, it can tell you all you may want to know about the painting. And should you happen to cast a glance at a piece of jewellery, which you would like to buy for your spouse, no bother if you do not have the time to do the shopping right away, the QBIC software can capture the particular piece that has deserved your attention. By pressing a button on your ring, you could check out the source, the price, place the order and clear the payment as well. Unbelievable, does it sound? Not really. The truth is technology is racing far ahead of how companies can market them!

The memory caught by our wearable computer can easily transfer itself to the internet, search the shopping sites, locate it and order it. Your onboard camera captures the image, searches the Internet using QBIC, and locates the item; then, all you need do is depress the input device on your ring to place the order.

Obviously, IBM is taking pervasive computing, a phrase most credit Big Blue with coining, very seriously. "If you have something with you all the time, you might as well be able to wear it," says Cameron Miner, the founder of the design lab and lead scientist on the Digital Jewelry project. The jewelry was created by Denise Chan, one of the first to graduate Stanford's masters program in mechanical engineering from the School of Product Design, which combines engineering and art.

The thinking behind digital jewelry is that as you push more functionality into pervasive devices, they are getting harder to use: smaller screens, tiny inputs, or just trying to talk and input at the same time; all these become a challenge. By taking the interface apart, putting it in the appropriate places, and allowing them to communicate wirelessly, IBM thinks it has a practical way to solve the problem. So we have a microphone on a pin or necklace, an ear piece on an earring or ear cuff, and a ring with a track point. There's a bracelet with text entry or dialing capability as well, or it might even have a small display. Technology is fast moving from weareables to wireless sensors. Work has already begun on what is nicknamed 'emotion sensing'. This monitors your personal area net work. More of that later.