Google Throat Tattoo
Here I can't help but picture implants and stuff as fairly massive, because anything that portrays them is usually from the 1990s or very early 2000s, and what was shown was high tech for the time. I keep forgetting that tech has advanced significantly beyond what I actually use, because I'm not only cheap, I'm a poor college student (for about 3 days longer). If that's all the more complex it is, and temporary, I'd actually consider it. It'd certainly cut down on wind noise and annoying people because throat mics let you sub-vocalize great.
I have this theory, that we're right on the edge of TL9 right about now. Every time I stop to think about it, I realize just how close we are, and then I forget when I go back to focusing on school or whatever.
We're not quite there yet, but darn close. Amazon has a 3D printing section, it has gone mainstream enough and is available enough, even if it's not particularly useful for things as of yet. We have rockets that can take off and land again, and maneuver, all using a single nozzle (all previous rockets required a separate nozzle design for every application, built to neutralize the specific frequency produced by operation to avoid being shaken to death). We've got working prototype super capacitors, and are just working on refining the tech down to allow them to actually be useful for things. Smartphones of course are beyond what even most science fiction predicted in the not too distant past, and practically ubiquitous these days. Nanotech is at least laboratory testable, instead of just being theoretical, which is still quite an advancement. Walking robots and powered exoskeletons are actually things, even if they aren't widely available.
We aren't at the future quite yet, but we're getting darn close.
In an entirely unrelated matter, I'm apparently terrible at tab clearing, and have nearly enough tabs again/still to warrant another one.
I recently dissected my old Droid 2. Nearly the entire interior space of that three year old phone is taken up by the batter and display. An implant discards both, putting the display on the optic nerve or cortex and powering it biologically.
ReplyDeleteWhat's left is a few tiny boards and some wiring to move information between them.
A couple subdermal insertions of postage stamp sized packages and then running the "wiring" and you're in.
At present connecting to the senses directly and powering it off the body is impossible. Implants, of course, assume a breakthrough here.
The battery/power problem is almost figured out. We have wireless battery chargers, and the test supercapacitor batteries always have about 10x the capacity of a standard high end battery. The ones they've had available to play around with charge in something like 10-15 seconds. Slap the charger over where the long life miniature supercapacitor battery is implanted for a couple seconds, and you're all charged up and good to go. Heck, might even be able to put one of those inductive chargers into a pillowcase, recharge your devices while you sleep.
DeleteThe biggest hard part remains that it presently takes brain surgery to wire it in. I was going to say building an interface is the next biggest challenge, but apparently basic brain computer interface things like the Muse work somewhat, and then there's this thing Display contacts (again, proven to be feasible but not yet perfected) and a micro earbud or the google throat tattoo thing will probably wind up being the standard visual and audio interface until we can fix the need for brain surgery to wire it in directly.
The interface protocol has been tantalizingly close for a long time. They are so very near to making something you can plug into the optic nerve to cure being blind it's amazing. Almost but not quite. This is the line of tech that will yield the display for your smart-tat.
ReplyDeleteControlling the thing with your mind is making strides too. There are nueral electrode hats that can be used for simple commands now, and this will only get most sophisticated.
It's not a science question about if those things will work someday, they're engineering problems and progress is being made every day.
As for powered, I am talking drawing juice right from the body. You'll note that most cyberwear doesn't list a power requirement.
The problem with most of this is just like MD. Almost got it... Nearly there... Just a few more years and a couple more donations and we'll cure it... Yet the solution remains just out of reach.
Things powered directly off of the body is an eventual goal, but with the pace of things I sincerely doubt that people will wait that long. I'm thinking more in terms of from where we are now, to entry level future tech, rather than perfected future tech. Cyberwear is a sign of The Future, I'm thinking what/how far out is the earliest possible true incarnation of cyberwear.
DeleteAbout the time we have everything figured out (optic and cochlear interfaces, ability to control stuff by brain interface), there are a lot of maladies that are going to go away so long as you have access to the medical technology.