A recent MIT Media Lab fashion show featured wearable computers, including a music synthesizer woven into a dress and a tunic that translates the wearer's speech into a foreign language. "People have always had a fascination with making themselves personally more powerful," says a Media Lab professor. "We used to associate that with magic.

Now, we're getting close to working that magic into fully realized designs." Ideas for the future include using special conductive thread to reproduce a flexible printed circuit board woven right into a garment.

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