Wearable Computers Get Much Needed Infrastructure

Many of you know that I'm a wearable computer geek, and one of the findings from my graduate thesis was that wearable computers will not be adopted by consumers until there is ubiquitous wireless internet. Well folks, that might be just around the corner. An article in the Washington Post Express mentions that Sprint Nextel Corp has successfully garnered the funding to build a Wimax network that will provide free wireless access regardless of the hardware you have in your hand. If you're device is wireless enabled, you'll be able to pick up a signal.

If you combine this with Google's announcement of it's integration of Google Street view and it's maps that means that in the not-so-distant future the following scenario is possible:

[scene]
A man on travel in San Diego, CA walks down the street with sunglasses on, and from his perspective, he's seeing images of the buildings that he's walking past streetview in route to the new restaurant that his friend recommended (directions provided by Google). He stops when the photo displayed by his glasses matches the building in front of him, and his handheld vibrates displaying a coupon for 10% off his meal.
[end scene]

It was a scenario that my focus group dreamed up and GPS based mobile advertising is a reality, you can get microoptical video sunglasses to go with your iPhone, and once Wimaz is rolled out, we'll be able to experience what seemed like science fiction only 5 years ago.