If a cooler concept than this has made headlines this year, I haven’t seen it. Designer Jim Mielke has recently envisioned this little beauty as the next step in the long evolution of near-reality science fiction communication devices. It’s a a subcutaneous touch-screen that currently serves as a cellphone display.
The interface is an extremely thin, nearly skin-flexible silicon Bluetooth device powered by a fuel cell which converts glucose and oxygen into electricity. It’s surgically inserted as a rolled-up tube, which is then unfurled beneath the skin. (Yeech!) Once it’s installed, the display’s surface uses microscopic spheres to display data through the skin. When the unit receives a call, it actually plays video right on the user’s skin. Once the device is deactivated at the end of a call, it’s completely unnoticeable.
The kickers is that, while this gadget may take cellphone compulsions to an all-time high, it may actually be beneficial in respect to a user’s physical health, because, as the power unit processes blood, it would ideally screen for a range of blood disorders.
Too bad it’s only a concept, but, thirty years ago, people were saying the same thing about Kirk’s communicator, so here’s hoping!
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