Researchers hope that MARS technology will develop to be less cumbersome and more help to travelers   RESOURCES CNN TRAVEL: · Y2K travel news · Tips and Web links TRAVEL MESSAGE BOARDS: · Y2K weekend travel · Future of travel · New Year destinations     ALSO For more ITN millennium coverage, visit ITN on line.

Some hotels, like the New York-New York Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, are already offering specials views of rooms and amenities with internet technology

December 31, 1999
Web posted at: 12:37 p.m. EST (1737 GMT)

From Carolyn O'Neil
CNN Travel Now Correspondent

Steven Feiner, a computer science professor at Columbia University, has created what's called MARS, the Mobile Augmented Reality System. The device uses about 40 pounds of GPS satellite technology, a computer and eyewear fitted with directional sensors.

"Unlike virtual reality, which tends to replace what you normally experience with virtual stuff, we add to what you normally experience," Feiner says.

Researcher Tobias Hollerer demonstrated the device for onlookers at Columbia. "Basically, now it's telling me a little multimedia story about when students first took over some buildings on campus" in 1968, he tells them.

The device may have even more practical use for the hungry traveler, Feiner says.

"I'd like to be able to select a restaurant according to a set of criteria and then be able to see directions overlaid on what I can normally see, that show me how to get there," he says.

In its current form, MARS isn't going to help a tourist blend in with the locals. Feiner predicts a less cumbersome model is about five to 10 years away.

"We see this as simply a prototype for something that would ultimately be very small -- maybe the size of a Walkman hooked up to eyewear that would look more or less like a regular pair of sunglasses," he says.

The future of easy travel also lies in the Internet. Online travel sites have burst onto the scene; usage is up 146 percent from 1998, according to the Travel Industry Association of America (TIA). It reports that 6.7 million adults made travel reservations online last year, while 16.5 million adults did so this year.

"A lot of things that were previously secret or simply unavailable to the average traveler are now at their fingertips," says Syndicated Travel Columnist Everett Potter.

Some Web sites display what a hotel room looks like and other amenities.

Another trend emerging in the way people choose to travel is how long they allow themselves to plan for a trip, and that time period in many cases is getting shorter.

"You can do it own your own timetable," Potter says. "You can come home from work, have dinner, put the kids to bed and at 10 o'clock go online. You can plan your next vacation in the next 20 minutes if you so choose.

Out of today's fast-paced I-want-it-now society, emerges a new breed of traveler: the spontaneous traveler.

"These are people who are going through the express lines in the supermarkets, who go into the Jiffy Lubes," says David Miranda, founder and CEO of LastMinuteTravel.com. His site posts airfares, hotel rooms and other travel packages that are available when you decide you want to go.

"You have someone coming, saying, 'Listen, I just need to get away. Where can I go?' So what we do is provide a service to the public to say 'Here's what's available,'" Miranda says.

So while Hawaiian beaches, Parisian sites and African safaris still top today's destination wish lists, how you get there may someday be as simple as staying home.