EARTTHROB is probably the most expensive computer display in the world. It is a $500.000 diamond brooch having a heart rate monitor. Which makes it change its colour to red, in synchrony with its wearer's heartbeat! Several research labs are developing wearable computers, and monitoring of heart rate, rather Asobtrusively unlike Heartthrob, is among their serious concerns.

Why this paradigm shift from hardware to soft wear or from laptop to Laptop. What can a wearable computer do which the other one's cannot? Why computerise a T-shirt, a belt or a shoe. Wearable computers can be used in many areas.
Dr Sundaresan Jayaraman of Georgia Institute of Technology invented the smart T-shirt. It integrates optical fibres and threads into the fabric of the shirt and the shirt is made without cutting and sewing the cloth.

He calls it a wearable motherboard. The military is eyeing it for soldiers on the battlefield. The shirt worn on the body can send SOS signals to the nearest medical facility, as soon as a bullet pierces the body, transmitting along with it other vital signs, heart rate, temperature, etc, as digital information. Fire-fighters and the police too stand to benefit by the computerised shirt as the shirt can be customised ,by incorporating different sensors for different applications. Sensors for sensing hazardous gases ard oxygen levels can be incorporated into the shirt used by the fire fighter, for instance. In addition, a microphone can be attached to get the wearer's voice data at the monitoring station.

On the civilian side, old people suffering from memory loss or depression who need to be monitored constantly and people discharged after major surgeries, whose vital signs need to be closely watched are some of the beneficiaries. Wearable computer is also useful for continuous monitoring of astronauts in space whose hands remains free. The belt computer developed by the IBM researchers lets the users surf, dictate and edit documents while they are moving around. IBM is also working on PAN (Personal Area Network) technology, which takes advantage of the natural electrical conductivity of the human body to transmit electronic data. An exchange of visiting cards just by a handshake may be possible in future with PAN technology.

The shoe computer gets its energy from walking instead of batteries. And data from it can flow through the body to an earring or eyeglass from where messages can be sent out. For example to authorise a purchase without disclosing one's identity.

Life magazine identified Wearable Motherboard as one of the breakthroughs that could change our life in the 21st century. A Smart Clothes Fashion Show, a design collaboration between the students and faculty of a fashion school in Paris and a professor of Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US, had the goal of envisioning the impending union of fashion and wearable computers.