In addition to showing off new contraptions, company executives were helping to coordinate a series of high-powered fashion shows designed to spread the gospel of the borg and to raise money for Infocharms through corporate sponsorships. The best of the hobbyists are now trying to make it mainstream. Researchers like to date the concept of wearable technology to 1268, when the English scientist Roger Bacon wrote about lenses to improve vision. A more reasonable date would be in the early 1990's, when technologists like Dr. Starner and Steve Mann, now a professor at the University of Toronto, founded a research group focused on practical, portable computing devices at the M.I.T. Media Lab. In the last decade, borg attire has become less obtrusive.
Computers are thinner and more discreet.
Some of the first people researching the devices had to wear bulky display goggles that obstructed their vision. Now they wear smaller devices that attach to one side of their eyeglasses. He even wears it to bed at night, checking e-mail while his wife sleeps next to him. There is nothing to wake her up. For Dr. Starner, being a borg means always being wired.