AS VEGAS, Nov. 17 — Microsoft is planning a new category of products that the company's chairman, Bill Gates, calls "smart personal objects," including travel alarm clocks and wristwatches that receive text messages of weather reports, traffic information, sports scores and family messages.

Mr. Gates was to make the announcement tonight in his annual speech opening the Comdex trade show here, company officials said.

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Microsoft has been working on the project for nearly three years with National Semiconductor, which has already started to produce the computer chip sets for such devices, a Microsoft executive said. Microsoft is beginning to work with consumer electronics companies, appliance makers and others as partners to produce the technology-enhanced devices. Microsoft executives expect that some of these wireless devices will be in stores by the end of 2003.

The "smart objects" announcement is one of several elements Mr. Gates has planned for his speech, including other new initiatives from Microsoft, to make what amounts to a pep talk to a technology industry humbled by the slump that began two years ago. Key3Media, the trade show promoter behind Comdex, said last week that it might have to file for bankruptcy protection as the company's "best alternative in these difficult times."

Two years ago, an estimated 200,000 people attended the Comdex gathering. Last year, in the aftermath of Sept. 11, attendance was roughly 125,000, and about that number is expected this year as well, according to Key3Media.

Yet while the numbers are down, the first-night speech by Mr. Gates still amounts to the state of the union address in the personal computer industry. This year, the company planned to include product demonstrations and the now-yearly ritual of an amusing video known for its cameo appearances by famous people. The cast this year includes Warren E. Buffett, Marc Andreessen and Bill Clinton.

The industry, according to Mr. Gates's talk, is in a transition from centering around the "personal computer" — based on desktop and notebook machines — to "personal computing" — capabilities delivered on many different devices often connected wirelessly to the Internet.

Microsoft is also announcing a "smart display" product, a home personal computer whose light, flat-panel display can be removed from its docking station and still receive send and receive information wirelessly. The consumer product will be available on Jan. 8. A model with the 10-inch display will be $999, and a 15-inch display $1,299, both produced by ViewSonic.

Microsoft is announcing a simple yet concrete use of its Web services technology, a deal with Kinko's scheduled to be available next year. It would permit a traveling business person, who has signed up for the service, to print any kind of document from a notebook computer in a hotel room to a machine at a nearby Kinko's. The software will provide location, billing and other information automatically.