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High-tech performance artist Stelarc was one of the presenters at an international handheld and mobile computing symposium hosted by Hewlett-Packard Labs in Bristol this week.

Using the web, video and computers, he staged man-and-technology demonstrations at the second Handheld and Ubiquitous Computing (HUC2k) conference.

Advances in ultra-portable computing were discussed by leading researchers in the field, such as David May, head of Bristol's department of computer science; Tim Kindberg, from HP's Internet and Mobile Systems Lab in Palo Alto, California; and Jakub Wejchert, of the European Commission.

Lancaster University unveiled a mobile interactive tourist guide that is context aware, has a positioning system and can learn its user's preferences. It can, for example, suggest a route for a walking tour of a city.

Bristol's Wearable Computing Group demonstrated the Cyber Jacket, which allows the wearer to draw context-specific information, such as the names and addresses of restaurants, from the web.

Details: HUC2k:

Stelarc:

HP: