Microsoft's Gates Shows Latest Offering: 'Smart' Watches, Consumer Gadgets

Touting an array of "smart" watches and portable video players, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates is offering further evidence that the world's largest software company sees slick consumer gadgets as computing's future.

Gates was expected to address on Wednesday evening the International Consumer Electronics Show, a gathering of thousands of vendors hawking the latest in everything from televisions to robots.

This fall, watchmakers Fossil, Citizen and Finland's Suunto plan to begin selling wristwatches equipped with a chip that can receive a constant, low bandwidth stream of data over the FM radio spectrum, Microsoft officials said.

The live connection will allow the watches to be kept at exact atomic time, and automatically update to new time zones. The watches' tiny liquid crystal display screens can be set to receive streams of traffic, weather and news data.

The Microsoft software at the center of the announcement -- so-called smart personal object technology -- was heralded by Gates at last year's CES show, when he displayed a mock alarm clock that received similar updates.

The watches, which will cost from $200 to more than $1,000, are the first devices to employ the technology.

Gates was also to demonstrate Wednesday conceptual "smart" refrigerator magnets that could be programmed to receive traffic data, a child's school lunch menu or ads from local restaurants via the same FM subcarrier transmissions.

Microsoft plans to use its so-called DirectBand FM transmissions to stream data updates to other emerging "smart" gadgets.

The software giant is also supplying a new version of its operating system for portable devices, dubbed CE .NET, for an array of personal video players made by ViewSonic, Sanyo, Samsung and SONICblue whose release is expected in the fall.

Gates was to demonstrate a prototype of the machines, which can download and store up to 10 hours of digital video, or 20 gigabytes, and play it back on a 4-inch screen.

Microsoft's push toward devices for the home and consumer has it cooperating -- and competing with -- traditional consumer electronics vendors at the CES show.

The company's XP Media Center -- also touted by Gates -- aims to be the nerve center of a home entertainment system, bundling together audio and video and serving them up from a personal computer to the home's stereo, TV or PC screen. Hewlett-Packard, Gateway and others already offer such media center PCs, and Gates said Toshiba, Alienware and others would offer laptop versions.

Consumer electronics companies like Philips, Sony and Panasonic are expected to offer competing visions for the same home gateway. Rather than PC-centric, they will be based on an Internet-connected set-top box, said Rob Enderle, technology analyst with Giga Information Group.

Gates was also expected to display other "smart" device prototypes, including a Bernina Artista sewing machine that could download stitch and embroidery patterns from the Internet, and an exercise bike with an Internet-connected game panel.

Microsoft-fueled smart display screens, which Gates unveiled at last year's CES, were to hit stores before Wednesday's speech. The portable tablet screens connect with a mother ship PC via a wireless connection, and can be toted around the house.

Microsoft also announced a new video compression format that Panasonic will adopt on a forthcoming DVD player. The format allows PC files to be played on TV via the DVD player, which is loaded with Microsoft's software.

Copyright © 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

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