Live translation, GPS, cameras: glasses are quickly adopting new functionalities.

"There are so many of these smart wearables, and more of them are going on your face," said Techsponential analyst Avi Greengart at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, where numerous smart glasses manufacturers showcased their latest innovations.

The industry has come a long way from its early days. Gone are the conspicuous protrusions of Google Glass and the bulky frames and cables of Epson's Moverio from the early 2010s.

Today's smart glasses, all paired with smartphone apps, increasingly resemble traditional eyewear. The Ray-Ban Meta, developed by Mark Zuckerberg's social media giant, currently leads the market with this new approach.

According to a recent MarketsandMarkets study, the sector's growth is "driven by advancements in augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and miniaturization technologies, which are pushing the boundaries of what these wearable devices can achieve."

However, integrating technology into fashionable frames requires careful compromise.

The Ray-Ban Meta, for instance, can capture photos and videos, play music, and provide information about objects in view, but doesn't offer augmented reality with superimposed images.

Meta representative Robin Dyer explained that while AR capabilities may come later, they would likely double the current price.

- 200 dollars -

Price is a major battleground in this market, particularly with the entry of Chinese manufacturers.

While Google Glass initially retailed for around $1,500 in 2013, today's smart glasses are approaching the price of premium conventional frames.

Meta's James Nickerson noted that their Ray-Ban collaboration starts at $300, just $50 more than standard Ray-Bans, offering "a cool camera" as a bonus.

California startup Vue has pushed prices even lower, offering basic models with voice assistant and music capabilities for $200.

Some manufacturers, like XReal, focus on augmented reality, projecting smartphone, computer, or gaming console displays -- though this is a market for which Apple's Vision Pro failed to create excitement last year.

For AR, recent advances help move away from the bulk of a virtual reality headset towards that of classic sunglasses, even if they require a cable to be connected to the device.

Meta's ambition is to launch its own pared down version, the Orion, currently in the test phase but not expected to be marketed until 2027 at the earliest.

- Chasing cool -

Companies like Even Realities and Halliday are pioneering ultra-thin frames that look identical to standard glasses while offering basic AR capabilities.

"If we want to make a good pair of smart glasses, we must first make a pair of cool glasses," emphasized Carter Hou, Halliday's second-in-command.

Halliday's $489 model, launching in March, displays text in the upper corner of the wearer's vision. Using AI, it can suggest responses during conversations, provide real-time translation, and function as a discrete teleprompter.

Even Realities has also taken a minimalist approach.

"We got rid of the speaker, we got rid of the camera," explained the company's Tom Ouyang. "Glasses are for the eyes, not the ears."

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Speaking following the launch of a government "action plan", Starmer pledged to ease red tape to attract billions of pounds of AI investment to Britain.

The "AI Opportunities Action Plan" includes 50 recommendations that the government will implement to boost AI-driven efficiency in the public sector, from education and healthcare to detecting potholes.

"Mark my words, Britain will be one of the great AI superpowers," Starmer said at an event at the UCL campus in east London, hailing the technology which is raising complex questions for governments around the world.

The UK -- which has the third-largest AI industry after the United States and China -- will be "pro-growth and pro-innovation on regulation", Starmer said.

"I think it is important to recognise that we've got freedom now in relation to regulation, to do it in the way that we think is best for the UK," said Starmer, calling for AI to be "tested" before it is "regulated".

"We don't need to walk down a US or an EU path on AI regulation", the prime minister wrote in the Financial Times ahead of the speech, calling for a "distinctively British approach".

Starmer's position marks a shift from the EU's heavy-handed regulation of the sector, especially regarding data protection laws, which has faced criticism from tech giants.

In the US, incoming President Donald Trump's desire to deregulate the economy and his team of Silicon Valley-linked advisors could influence policies on AI regulation.

- Data library -

The UK's latest plans include the creation of a national data library which would make public data sets, including anonymised National Health Service records, "available to AI researchers and innovators".

The data library would be bolstered by a "clear and trusted copyright regime", Starmer added. "It is important that we keep control of that data."

"But I don't think that we should have a defensive stance here that will inhibit the sort of breakthroughs that we need."

The latest plans come amid concerns surrounding AI's role in spreading online misinformation and deepfake pornography, as well as fears robots could one day outsmart humans if left unchecked.

The government outlined plans for the creation of "dedicated AI growth zones" designed to speed up planning proposals for data centres and other AI infrastructure.

It also hopes to increase server capacity twentyfold by 2030, including by building "a brand new supercomputer with enough AI power to play itself at chess half a million times a second".

The new supercomputer pledge comes months after Starmer axed a previous supercomputer project in Edinburgh planned by the previous government, citing a lack of funds.

- 'Economic mismanagement' -

Starmer's administration estimated that AI could be worth £47 billion ($57 billion) to the UK each year over a decade.

It announced that three tech companies -- Vantage Data Centres, Nscale and Kyndryl -- had committed to spending £14 billion on AI in the UK, leading to the creation of more than 13,000 jobs.

Starmer has put firing up Britain's economy at the heart of his agenda since taking office last July. In his speech, Starmer staked economic growth on advancements in AI, saying the technology "would turbocharge every single element of our plan for change".

But weaker-than-expected growth, rising borrowing costs and a falling pound is complicating his task, meaning he could be forced to make spending cuts or hike taxes this year.

Shadow Science Secretary Alan Mak accused Labour of insufficiently funding its AI ambitions.

"AI does have the potential to transform public services, but Labour's economic mismanagement and uninspiring plan will mean Britain is left behind," Mak said.

There are also concerns that the sector-wide implementation of AI could result in job losses.

"It's a disruptive technology, like many other previous technological waves," senior cabinet minister Pat McFadden told Times Radio.

"But I think it's too pessimistic to simply talk about job losses," he added.

The government is expected to wrap up next month a consultation to clarify the application of copyright law to AI, which it says aims to protect the creative industry.

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But the modest boxing club is one of a network of gyms teaching the noble art in just one small Accra district that has become known internationally as an epicentre for the sport.

Just a few metres away, another facility, Will Power Boxing Gym, welcomes those entering with the sign "Go Hard or Go Home".

More than a dozen small gyms are scattered throughout the winding sidestreets of the hardscrabble Jamestown district and its Bukom neighbourhood near the city's Atlantic Ocean fishing port.

Jamestown has already produced its share of champions, whose fading posters now adorn club walls, including Azumah "The Professor" Nelson, who many consider as the greatest African boxer.

A new generation of Jamestown champions is on the rise.

"Ghana boxing is all about Jamestown," said John Zile, 24, a professional with a record of 15-0, fighting out of the district's Bronx Boxing Gym and who moved to Jamestown from the north.

"If you want to be great you have to come here."

Boxing coaches attribute the growth of Jamestown and Bukom boxing to the tough life in the fishing community and a tradition of settling arguments the old-fashioned way: With a show of strength.

That eventually evolved into the boxing business.

"It became clear to this side of the country that boxing belonged to them," said Lawrence Carl Lokko, owner of Bronx Boxing and a well-known coach.

- Two rules -

The sport is also a way into a disciplined life, away from the Jamestown streets where opportunities are few, he said.

Among his stable of fighters is John "Expensive Boxer" Laryea, a WBO African champion and former national titleholder.

Nearby, the neighbourhood boxing stadium hosts regular tournaments among the Jamestown clubs.

At the sparse Attoh Quarshie gym, just metres from the beach, coaches put sweat-drenched fighters through their paces on the bags, before a whistle marks a pause between rounds.

Inside the ring, two more boxers move around and batter focus mitts held by partners.

Near the entrance, a wooden board spells out the gym rules: "Rule 1. The trainer is never wrong. Rule 2. If you think the trainer is wrong refer to Rule 1."

Photos of past tournaments and the gym's team cover parts of the peeling red and yellow walls.

"They train you well," fighter Akimos Ampiah, a professional bantamweight, said between rounds on the heavy bag.

"Boxing. It's a tradition here."

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That day sparked his lifelong love for Patua, a creole language from Macau's 442-year colonial history that mixes Portuguese, Cantonese and other influences, now rarely spoken and classified by UNESCO as "critically endangered".

"It's a Macau-born thing... For so many centuries, the old Maquista used this language as a means of communication aside from Portuguese," said Fernandes, 63, a lawyer who writes and directs Patua plays.

Twenty-five years after colonial ruler Portugal handed control back to Beijing, residents like Fernandes are making a case for Macau's cultural distinctiveness, even as the city is being subsumed into China's regional development blueprint, dubbed the Greater Bay Area (GBA).

Macau's breakneck reinvention over this period, which saw its skyline and economy shaped by glittering casinos, has also prompted a younger generation to ask who they are and what they stand for.

Before the Portuguese flag came down, colonial government minister Jorge Rangel successfully lobbied Beijing to include a clause in Macau's post-handover constitution to protect historical sites and relics.

Those with Portuguese or mixed ancestry make up roughly five percent of Macau's population, but their outsized influence can still be felt -- from cuisine to street names and architecture.

Rangel said the GBA's growth will be a "permanent challenge for us".

"(Macau) is a small entity within such a huge area, with a small population, with a different way of life," he said, adding that Macau must convince China of its usefulness.

Fernandes, whose plays are performed three nights a year to an audience of around 1,000, said he was well aware that Patua culture "will be fading".

"You have this Greater Bay Area that just sucks up everything," he said. "But if the next generation has a glimpse of the awareness that we can be unique, we might have a chance to survive."

- No longer 'invisible' -

Compared with Hong Kong and Taiwan, Macau's cultural output has been relatively "invisible" and lacks its own distinct flavour, according to cultural critic Lei Chin-pang.

"For people from Hong Kong or mainland China, there is not much interest in Macau except as a place nearby to have fun," Lei said.

Film director Tracy Choi is looking to change that.

Born and raised in Macau, she went abroad for university in the mid-2000s just as the city liberalised its gaming market.

She returned to find her home unrecognisable, not just in appearance but also in people's lifestyles and values.

"Those massive casinos were just being completed," said 36-year-old Choi. "The Macau from that point onward was totally detached from the Macau of my childhood."

That was the direct inspiration for "Sisterhood", Choi's 2016 debut feature, about two young women working in a Macau massage parlour in the final months of colonial rule.

"I chose (to depict) the profession of masseuse because they represented the Macau people of a bygone era," she said, recalling when some of these women -- friends of her mother -- would come over for mahjong.

Choi said her films were a counterweight to stereotypical depictions of Macau residents as rich and leisurely, adding the past decade saw more creative works on local identity.

"Sisterhood" was hailed as a breakthrough, but there was still a "long way to go" for Macau's film industry, as its population of 690,000 limited box office returns, Choi said.

"We are still searching for a direction forward, which lets us talk about Macau in the way we want, while making it accessible to other markets," she said.

Choi's next film, featuring a lesbian protagonist contending with pressures to "be ordinary" in a small community, is also a statement on what a future Macau identity can be.

"The Macau people of tomorrow should have more of a say, have more room for personal expression," she said.

- Integrate 'everywhere' -

As Macau turns 25 as a Chinese city, the history of the handover means little to Cecilia Cheang, who was born in Macau but studies at a Hong Kong university.

When she was young, her parents took her to the lavish hotels popping up but rarely discussed the city's past.

Cheang, 20, sometimes posts about Macau on Xiaohongshu, China's Instagram-like platform -- which performs well among her 20,000 followers.

"(Xiaohongshu favours) glamorous girls and extravagant lifestyle, and I feel like Macau is very much associated with this," she said.

Many Macau residents now consider cross-border trips part of their weekly routine as Beijing pushes for closer ties within the region.

A frequent traveller in southern China, Cheang thinks of herself as being from Macau but also as a GBA person.

That means being able to "go all around, leave whenever you want to leave, go anyplace", which she said suited her career as an aspiring singer-songwriter.

"I feel like, in terms of cultural exchange and cooperation... It's easier to integrate into everywhere and to get the gist of everywhere."

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The group of offerings include autonomous tractors, construction dump trucks and boats that dock themselves, as well as a robotic golf cart that doubles as an AI-enhanced super caddy.

That these products are already poised for commercialization betrays the sophistication needed for autonomous road travel even if companies like Google-backed Waymo are making some headway.

On roads, "the complexity of the problem multiplies significantly," said Barry Lunn, CEO of sensor company Provizio.

The machine learning challenge for cars amounts to "the hardest AI challenge in human history," Lunn said.

The difficulty reflects the array of unpredictable factors that can interfere with road transport, such as unexpected manuevers by fellow drivers, pedestrians or falling branches.

These conditions, known in tech circles as "edge cases," are present in every kind of autonomous transport, even if they seem uniquely difficult for cars.

In marine transport, edge cases can involve poor light or rainy conditions, said David Foulkes, chief executive of Brunswick, a boat building company.

These dynamics, as well as the presence of salt and other deposits in a marine environment can interfere with key hardware.

At CES, Brunswick is showcasing the autonomous docking system on the Boston Whaler, a 40-foot luxury boat that uses six stereo cameras that are derived from military drone technology.

Brunswick saw little upside in broad use of autonomy because recreational boaters relish the experience of driving but docking is the one area where boaters "appreciate additional help," said Foulkes.

"Just like every other autonomy system, you kind of spend 20 percent of your time on the main use cases and then all the rest on the edge cases," said Foulkes, who worked at Ford for 18 years.

- Learning system -

In agriculture, technologists also face distinct complications.

Willy Pell, chief executive of Blue River Technology, which is owned by John Deere, said the company discovered that lights on tractors attracted insects at night, which can interfere with key sensor equipment.

"A moth weighing less than a single ounce would bring our 40,000 pound machine to a halt," Pell said at a news conference Monday. "It was a software bug in all senses of the word."

Three years ago at CES, Deere unveiled a driverless tractor that could be operated from a smart phone.

Whereas the original machine could only perform very narrow tasks such as preparing soil for planting, this year's "second generation" model uses many additional cameras to drive faster and perform more tasks.

The system incorporates thousands of real-world experiences, reflecting "years and years of farming across these different edge cases," Pell said.

The 188-year old agricultural equipment maker is also presenting an autonomous battery-run lawn mower for landscaping, an autonomous dump truck for construction sites and an autonomous diesel orchard tractor.

The orchard tractor can be used to spray insecticide six to eight times per year, the type of work where skilled labor is notoriously scarce.

- Looming questions -

When it comes to car autonomy on public roadways, companies are making progress but still not close to mainstream adoption.

Waymo, which now operates commercial robotaxi service in three US cities, recently faced a novel security challenge after female riders in San Francisco were harassed by another vehicle that followed the robotaxi, according to a December Washington Post report.

Waymo, which served four million autonomous rides in 2024, plans to add its service to other US cities and Tokyo in its first international foray. The company's co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana will headline a keynote later this week at CES.

Other big autonomous players at CES include the Amazon-owned Zoox and car companies such as Mercedes-Benz and BMW, which have received approval from the German government for autonomous driving in very limited situations.

While major player Tesla is not at CES, some exhibitors are preparing for the day when today's driver is able to tune out the road.

"Consumers are looking at cars as... another environment where you want to be relaxed or enjoy yourself," said Jeff Jury, senior vice president at Xperi, which sells multimedia technology in cars.

"You're going to see a continual march towards autonomy but this idea of full autonomy (in cars) is still 10 or 15 years away," Jury said. "There's just too much that needs to be worked out."

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Here's a look at the candidates:

- Zoran Milanovic -

Smart and driven but also often seen as quick-tempered and arrogant, Milanovic is hoping to stay in office after serving his five-year term.

Since entering office, the 58-year-old incumbent has adopted more populist and often offensive rhetoric targeting political opponents and European Union officials.

The Zagreb-born law graduate, who was among the best students of his generation, has been one of Croatia's main political figures for nearly two decades.

A career diplomat during the country's 1990s independence war, Milanovic later served with Croatia's EU and NATO mission in Brussels.

He entered politics in 1999 by joining the left-wing Social Democrats (SDP), formerly the communist party, and took over its helm in 2007.

He served as prime minister from 2011 to 2016, but after a SDP defeat at the ballot box, Milanovic quit as the party leader and withdrew from politics to work as a consultant.

He made a political comeback in 2019 as an SDP candidate for the presidency.

Earlier this year, Milanovic unexpectedly campaigned in a failed bid to become prime minister during April's parliamentary elections.

During his campaign he repeatedly slammed HDZ over alleged corruption and labelled their leader and his arch-rival Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic as a "serious threat to Croatia's democracy".

- Dragan Primorac -

The physician and scientist entered politics in the early 2000s, when he was named science and education minister in the HDZ-led government and joined the party in 2007.

A trained paediatrician and expert in genetics and forensics, Primorac made his name as one of the pioneers of DNA analysis in Croatia and helped identify wartime victims whose remains were found in mass graves in the 1990s.

Primorac unsuccessfully ran for the presidency in 2009, which prompted his eviction from the HDZ.

After spending years out of politics, Primorac launched his presidential campaign this year with the hopes of staging a comeback.

Although he is not a member of HDZ, the party has thrown its support behind the candidate.

Primorac's campaign has largely centred on attacking Milanovic, while trying to play up his commitment to family values and patriotism.

Critics have panned the 59-year-old for lacking political charisma, saying he has served as the HDZ's attack dog to target Milanovic.

- Marija Selak Raspudic -

The philosophy professor and centre-right lawmaker is known for her bold and eloquent speeches.

The 42-year-old was born in Zagreb where she graduated with degrees in philosophy and Croatian in 2007.

After briefly working in public relations and as a TV journalist, she joined Zagreb University's philosophy department.

Selak Raspudic entered the parliament in 2020 as an MP of the ultra-conservative Most -- "Bridge" -- party. She was re-elected this year but ditched the party and is running as an independent.

She has advocated for stronger presidential powers, including the introduction of a veto.

"We need a proactive president who will make the most of her powers," she said.

- Ivana Kekin -

The psychiatrist and former activist has served as an MP since 2021 as a member of the green-left Mozemo -- "We Can" -- party.

The left-leaning candidate has vowed to "bring a better life to people", including pledges to improve the ailing public healthcare sector.

A long-time opponent of the ruling conservatives, Kekin made her name as a prominent activist and participated in demonstrations advocating for the rights for women and the LGBTQ community and campaigned for the protection for public areas.

In June, Kekin was elected a member of the European Parliament but later stepped back from taking the position, allowing a fellow party member to take the job.

The 40-year-old psychiatrist is also married to Mile Kekin, the frontman of the Croatian punk-rock band Hladno Pivo.

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Now that centre-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz has lost a confidence vote following the dramatic collapse of his three-party coalition, Merz may soon get his chance after decades of waiting in the wings.

Although he has never held government office, polls say Merz is the favourite to win the February 23 election.

Merz, a 69-year-old Roman Catholic, hails from the rural Sauerland region of North Rhine-Westphalia and is the top candidate of the Christian Democratic Union and its Bavarian allies the CSU.

A long-time rival of the CDU's centrist ex-chancellor Angela Merkel, Merz has criticised her legacy, from her open-door policy to migrants to her insistence on maintaining dialogue with Russia.

Merz is a pro-business economic liberal, who published a book in 2008 titled "Dare More Capitalism", a passionate advocate of transatlantic ties and the European Union, and a defender of traditional social values.

First elected to the Bundestag three decades ago, Merz took over the CDU leadership on his third attempt after its 2021 election defeat and was confirmed as its chancellor candidate in September.

Firmly on the right of the CDU, Merz has backed a tougher immigration policy and law and order stance and pledged to reverse marijuana legalisation and Germany's phase-out of nuclear power, as he seeks to win back voters who have drifted to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).

- Seeing red -

Merz has sparked anger by labelling the sons of Muslim immigrants "little pashas" and accusing some Ukrainian war refugees of "social welfare tourism", before later apologising.

In recent months he has led the charge in raining down withering criticism on Scholz's government, blaming its "wrongheaded" policies and "green-tinted interventionism" for the woes of Germany's stuttering economy.

He is rhetorically skilled and visibly enjoys a good political scrap.

The news magazine Der Spiegel said he also tends to take conflicts personally and is given to fits of anger, writing that "if Merz were a bullfighter, he would probably hold the red cloth in front of his stomach".

Scholz too has tried to portray his rival as a "hothead" who would play "Russian roulette" with Moscow, by sending long-range missiles to Ukraine.

Nonetheless, according to news weekly Die Zeit, the old-school conservative is "currently the CDU's answer" to the recent electoral successes of the AfD, which is polling at close to 20 percent.

- Hobby pilot -

Merz was born on November 11, 1955 and has been married for more than 40 years to Charlotte Merz, a judge. They have three adult children.

Merz, who at 198 cm (6ft 6 in) stands out in a crowd, is a licensed pilot who sometimes flies his own private jet.

Trained as a lawyer, he was elected to the European Parliament in 1989 and then to the Bundestag, where his mentor was the CDU's powerful late finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble.

But Merz lost out in a power struggle against Merkel, who took over the CDU leadership in 2002 as the party struggled to rebuild after Helmut Kohl's chancellorship ended in a slush fund scandal.

Merkel went on to become Germany's second-longest serving post-war chancellor while Merz -- humiliated, and his influence greatly diminished -- opted for a hiatus from politics.

He left parliament in 2009 and for over a decade pursued a successful career in the private sector.

He worked as a corporate lawyer, built up a personal fortune and held senior positions on the boards of US investment firm BlackRock and multiple other companies.

His business world success and wealth have left him open to charges of being out of touch with most German voters -- a claim he has rejected by insisting he belongs to the "upper middle class".

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An astronaut, a self-portrait, a bespectacled panda and seven other pictures burst into life from her brush, painted on 10 canvasses laid out on a table, upside-down on the floor, and two easels.

It started as a party trick for the curly-haired Rajacenna -- her artist name -- who wanted a challenge to relieve her boredom.

But it has since become a profession that has shot her to viral fame, with every paint stroke worked out in advance in her head before setting to work with hands -- and feet.

"I work a bit on one canvas, then move to another one, so I'm always dividing my attention between them," said Rajacenna, who is technically left-handed.

"Five years ago, I started painting with both hands, as a bit of a challenge and to go quicker. I discovered I was ambidextrous," the 31-year-old artist told AFP.

Then a journalist asked her as a joke whether she could also use her feet as well. Challenge accepted.

Starting out "for fun" and after a few mishaps with sticky tape between her toes, she tried using plasticine to keep the brush between her toes.

It was a success and she posted a video of her exploits online, quickly becoming a viral hit. Orders flooded in.

She is so skilled that only she can tell the difference between paintings crafted with her hands and those with her feet.

"I can really see a big difference. It's a bit less precise," she said, performing her skills at a museum in Vlaardingen, her home town in the south of the Netherlands.

- 'Very special' -

Rajacenna has loved drawing since she was a small child. After a short adolescent dip in interest, her passion was rekindled by an Italian street artist.

Today her videos on social media attract millions of views, especially when she paints 10 canvasses at a time with her hands and feet.

"I get bored quite quickly, so I like to challenge myself. Doing all this at the same time gives me a sort of feeling of meditation, which calms me a lot," she told AFP.

To her knowledge, she is the only person capable of such a feat.

"But I hope that people will be inspired to do more things, to challenge themselves a bit more, to do things like paint with their feet," she said.

Her paintings sell for between 6,000 and 12,000 euros ($6,450 to $12,900), according to her father Jaco van Dam.

"It's also very special for us as parents. She surprises us too and I don't know either how she manages to do it," he told AFP.

But a study on her brain by a Turkish-German neurologist Onur Gunturkun provides a clue, he added.

"A brain scan showed that the left and right sides of her brain are three times more connected than average," he said.

Neurologist Gunturkun has said Rajacenna was "capable of things that neuroscience deems impossible".

In a nod to Albert Einstein, whose brain was famously removed after his death, a painting of the scientist by Rajacenna hangs on the wall of the museum.

Rajacenna has attracted some famous admirers, notably pop star Justin Bieber, who described her work as "amazing" when she presented him with a portrait of himself.

It certainly impressed a couple of pensioners watching her at the museum.

"It's extraordinary that someone can do that," said Anton van Weelden, 75.

"What's more, the paintings are very beautiful and realistic," said Van Weelden, who said he would never dare try something like that.

"I couldn't even paint like that with my right hand," he joked.

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The 27-year-old -- real name Paul Mwangi -- has been building up a fanbase online and on the streets of Kenya with the one-of-a-kind deck that he put together himself.

It has even earned him slots at Uganda's Nyege Nyege festival, the largest in east Africa, and on the world-renowned club website Boiler Room.

But his favourite venue is Nairobi's bustling business district, where he set up on a recent Saturday among the stands of miraa (khat) vendors, the smell of grilled corn and the horns of matatus, the colourful minibuses of the Kenyan capital.

In a few minutes, dozens of curious onlookers had gathered, taking out their phones to film the amazing machine that spits out reggae hits.

The mixing desk consists of a spray-painted wooden board on which are screwed towel racks, switches and printed circuits connected in a tangle of cables -- all connected to an amp, speaker, and car battery.

He scratches using a slider made from a magnetised spoon between two towel hooks, and his fader is cobbled together from a plastic bottle cap.

Fixes are done without breaking the flow -- at one point, DJ Boboss whips out a screwdriver, strips a wire with his teeth and repairs a fault while the music keeps playing.

- 'Make my own' -

"I've never seen anything like that in the world," smiled David Meshack, who works in a nearby electronics store that sells professional turntables.

"One day, a customer came in with a photo of it. He wanted the same one but I didn't know what it was," he said. "Today, I see it!"

Boboss is an acronym for "Be your own boss" and Mwangi got his start repairing radios.

"My dad bought me a radio. After some time it stopped 'talking' and he said he wouldn't buy another one. I was stressed because I was addicted to music and listening to radio, so I just opened it using a knife," he said.

Soon he was repairing electronic devices in his village near Meru in central Kenya.

Then one day he saw a DJ in a bar and was inspired.

"I loved how he played music and the way the crowd reacted. I didn't have the money to buy real equipment but I said I could make my own with the available resources."

Mwangi moved to the capital and now makes a living from his DJing and occasionally selling specially-commissioned turntables.

His favourite venue is the street, especially in the business district or at Gikomba, the largest second-hand clothing market in the country.

"Street shows is a special feeling, you have a contact with the people. Many people have never seen a DJ mixing live," he said.

Among the onlookers, 48-year-old ex-soldier Zachary Mibei said he loved how Mwangi illustrates the situation for young people in Kenya.

"He has no training, it's all homemade, he is showing that he has something in him. He is telling us: 'I can do it by myself'," said Mibei.

Boboss admits it is probably time for a more advanced turntable with a few extra functions, but does not plan to part with the one which has made him famous.

"We could combine both and see what we can do with them," he smiled.

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