Your glasses may someday replace your smartphone, and some New Yorkers are ready for the switch. Some in the city can't wait to try them on and use the maps and GPS that the futuristic eyewear is likely to include.

    “ I'd use it if I were hanging out with friends at 3 a. m. and going to the [bar and wanted to see what was open,” said Walter Choo, 40, of Fort Greene.

    The smartphone-like glasses will likely come out this year and cost between $250 and $600, the Times said, possibly including a variation of augmented(增强的) reality, a technology already available on smartphones and tablets (平板电脑) that overlays information onto the screen about one's surroundings. So, for example, if you were walking down a street, indicators would____showing you the nearest coffee shop or directions could be plotted out and come into view right on the sidewalk in front of you.

    "As far as a mainstream consumer product, this just isn't something anybody needs,” said Sam Biddle, who writes for Gizmodo.com.  “ We're accustomed to having one thing in our pocket to do all these things,” he added, “and the average consumer isn't gonna be able to afford another device (装置) that's hundreds and hundreds of dollars.”9to5Google publisher Seth Weintraub, who has been reporting on the smartphone-like glasses since late last year, said he is confident that this type of wearable device will eventually be as common as smartphones.

    “It's just like smartphones 10 years ago,” Weintraub said. “A few people started getting emails on their phones, and people thought that was crazy. Same kind of thing. We see people bending their heads to look at their smartphones, and it's unnatural,” he said. “ There's gonna be improvements to that, and this a step there.”

    When you see someone you know, the easiest way to recognize them is by their face—but not everyone can do this. Many people have prosopagnosia, or face blindness, which is a neurological（神经病学的）condition where the part of the brain that recognizes faces fails to develop. It can stop people recognizing partners, family members, friends or even their own reflection. It was once thought to be caused by brain injury (acquired prosopagnosia) but now a genetic link has been proved (development prosopagnosia).

    Acquired prosopagnosia is a very rare but as many as one in 50 people may have developmental prosopagnosia. There's no specific treatment, but training programmes are being developed to help improve facial recognition.

    For many, the situation can be dangerous. I've heard stories of people being robbed by strangers claiming to be family members, or of children wandering off strange men.

    It was only is this century that researchers began to realize exactly how many people in this world were quietly living with the condition.

    Like a blind person who can recognize family members by their footsteps, prosopagnosics are forced to develop unusual ways of discovering who it is they're meeting or talking to. From the obvious markers like hair and voice, to the way one sits, stands or walks, they rely on dozens of means to get through ordinary life.

    Faces are an important part of identity. Not to be recognized feels terrible—it's as if you've been overlooked, like someone's saying you don't matter. But it's nothing to the pain of knowing that you're hurting people's feelings constantly, and yet being completely unaware that you're doing it in the moment. To be alienated（隔离的）from the world of faces is a strange position to be in, but I'm comforted by the thought that articles like this will do a little to help people forgive me and others like me.

    Tourism wasn't as important as it is today. In the past, only people with a good deal of money could travel on holidays to other countries. More people travel today than in the past because there is a growing middle class in many parts of the world; that is to say, people now have more money for travel. Special plane fares(费用) for tourists make travel less expensive and more attractive than ever before. One person doesn't travel for the same reason as another. But most people enjoy seeing countries that are different from their own. They also like to meet new people and to taste new food.

    Tourism causes many changes in a country and in people's lives. People build new hotels and restaurants and train native men and women as guides to show visitors interesting places. There're new nightclubs and other amusements. International tourism is clearly a big business.

    Houses have been getting progressively "smarter" for decades, but the next generation of smart homes may offer what two Case Western Reserve University scientists are calling an "Internet of Ears."

    Today's smart home features appliances, entertainment systems, security cameras and lighting, heating and cooling systems that are connected to each other and the Internet. They can be accessed and controlled remotely by computer or smartphone apps.

    But a group of electrical engineering and computer science professors in the Case School of Engineering have been experimenting with a new suite of sensors (传感器). This system would read not only the vibrations (震动), sounds and even other movements associated with people and animals in a building, but also any slight changes in the existing electrical field.

    While there still maybe a decade or so away, the home of the future could be a building that adjusts to your activity with only a few small, hidden sensors in the walls and floor with-out the need for monitoring cameras.

    "We are trying to make a building that is able t0 61isten' to the humans inside," said Ming-Chun Huang, an assistant professor in electrical engineering and computer science. "We are using principles similar to those of the human ear, where vibrations are picked up and our algorithms (计算程序) recognize them to determine your specific movements. That's why we call it the 61nternet of Ears'. "

    “There is actually a constant 60 Hz electrical field all around us, and because people are somewhat conductive, they short out the field just a little," Huang said. "So, by measuring the disturbance in that field, we are able to determine their presence, or even their breathing, even when there are no vibrations associated with sound.”

    Huang said they have used as few as four small sensors in the walls and floor of a room.

    As for privacy concerns, the system would not be able to identify individuals, although it could recognize people's different ways of walking.

    David Rees runs a truly distinctive business. He charges customers $15 to sharpen their pencils to perfections, using a variety of tools.

    I know what you're thinking﹣is this a joke? The 39﹣year﹣old gets asked that question a lot. To clarify everything, he even created a special section on his website telling everyone he's actually providing a real service.

    You can supply your own pencil or you can have Rees sharpen one of his own favorite 2B pencils. After that, he mails it to you in a display tube with the shavings in a separate bag, and an authentic certificate which just happens to mention the pencil is so sharp as to be a dangerous object.

    To achieve the desired result, the master sharpener uses all kinds of tools, including general sandpapers, pocket knives and even a special $450 sharpening machine. "It depends on what the customer wants to use his/her pencil for," he says. "That determines the most appropriate pencil﹣sharpening technique. Some customers buy pencils as inspirational symbols while others buy them because of their special memories of classic 2B pencils."

    $15 to have a pencil sharpened is a bit expensive though, right？ You're not the only one who feels that way, and David's unique business has really angered lots of people, who talk of inequality in America, saying it is so insane for the wealthy to pay $15 to sharpen a pencil. But others will say, "This is just our urge to put an end to the welfare state because new ideas arise along with the business."

    David admits his trade is sort of unusual. But there are those who actually value his service, as proven by the over 500 orders he has gotten.

    If you cannot afford to travel in any class above economy, flying generally sucks, either a little or a lot, depending on your tolerance level. But it especially sucks if you are too wide for the airline's design.

    Just getting to your seat can be a challenge, as your hips (臀部，髋) bounce from seat to seat on each side of the aisle (过道). If someone is standing up to put things in the overhead locker, there is a decision to be made about whether it's worth trying to squeeze past. Everything is just slightly too small: the seats, the overhead lockers, even the bathrooms—and those, it seems, are getting even smaller.

    The Washington Post recently reported that, on some newer planes flown by American, Delta and United airlines, the bathrooms in economy class are just 61cm wide: about 25cm narrower than the average portable toilet, and roughly the width of the average dishwasher. Your face might be the only thing you can poke in there comfortably—which makes it a poor design, considering what a passenger is likely to need the bathroom for.

    According to the manufacturer, these "Advanced Spacewell" bathrooms make space for six additional passengers, which is great for the airlines' financial bottom line. But what about the other bottom line? Concerning, well, bottoms that can't fit into their planes' bathrooms?

    As bodies get bigger and aeroplane spaces get smaller, the wide among us have come up with solutions. Armrests that turn us into sausages (香肠) can be pulled up, or slowly encased (围住，包起) into the soft flesh of our sides until we go numb (麻木). We can ask the flight attendant to get us a seat-belt extender, if security has confiscated the one we brought with us, as can sometimes happen. But squeezing into a tiny toilet and closing the door behind us? Not workable.

    Unlike the impossible task of squeezing down the aisle to your seat, or the side-to-side dance necessary to get big hips past the armrests, fitting into a space just 61cm wide is not just a challenge—it is almost impossible. It is not like missing out on an option for the in-flight meal—a bathroom is as essential as a safety-compliant seat belt, or the air that is pumped in to the cabin (飞机舱). If airlines are not willing to make space for us, bigger passengers may have no option but to reconsider booking a flight at all.