FEATURE ARTICLE (A00012):

"March of miniaturizations in electronics presents engineers with ever-increasing ways of
Combining gadgets.

The vision of the future which includes mobile telephones with full Internet access through virtual screens and a wearable computer controlled by your voice.

But the public's reaction is as mixed as it was for the first mobile telephones and personal stereos; a prototype of a wearable computer called VisionPad has been produced. The processor is housed in cigarette-box-sized case. It is controlled using voice-recognition software and viewed through a small screen mounted on a head set.

It certainly looks odd and when the BBC asked Londoners for their opinion, its appearance was a common thread: "If everyone was doing it, it would be normal. But now, it looks silly."

Others were not enthused by the idea of being constantly wired: "I'd rather be detach from my computer a good deal of the time."

However, some were attracted: "If it was cheap enough it would be a good idea."

The Cyber Phone received a more positive reactionhis mobile telephone concept has a miniature projection display built into the flip-out cover of thehandset. When the gadget is held to the ear, the projector creates a virtual image, which looks like an 11 inch screen.

Users can surf the Net using their voice and a thumb-operated track-point.