And Here I Thought I Was Making This Stuff Up
Remember this strip, where Kevyn’s blood-nannies communicate with him by discoloring his skin with handy, easy-to-read text messages? (Warning… the strip depicts a compound fracture. Eeew.)
Well, here’s a “digital tattoo interface” for a cellphone. Long story short, your cyberpunk implants are waiting for funding, and the marketing fluff includes such gems as “this product is waterproof, and it is powered by pizza.” Hat-tip to Alexander Proff for the link. Thanks!
Of course, the biggest problem I see with implantable hi-tech gadgetry is the life-cycle. There will be adoption hurdles if we need surgery in order to change carriers.
Also, I’m not sure where the audio interface is. I assume that she’s not talking into her forearm — that would be awkward. In a perfect world, they’ve bored a couple of holes in her skull, and installed Bose.
Explore posts in the same categories: Science
March 24th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
Obviously the mic would be in her pinkie, and the speaker in her thumb.
I’ll leave it to you to figure out the way it would be used… :)
March 24th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
Also…
“It also continually monitors for many blood disorders, alerting the person of a health problem: ”
That alone would make it worth it for folks with a history of heart/health issues. If it could link to an extenal device, and automatically call for help if you have a heart attack, that would make it literally a lifesaver…
March 24th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
It’s still just a design concept as far as I know. I’m not sure all of the technologies to make it are even available.
March 24th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
I’m pretty sure everything’s available. None of it is currently mass-produced, but nothing in there is outside the realm of prototyping.
The blood-powered battery is the only iffy part I see.
March 24th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
presumably, it being bluetooth, you can use a headset?
March 24th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
I’d just be worried about letting anyone who wrote that description put anything inside my body. Apparently, “It is flat, flexible, silicon and silicone.” I wasn’t aware that silicon and silicone were two different substances.
March 24th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
The blood-powered batteries exist, though they are not ready for mass-production.
I would like a watch of this nature.
March 24th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Yeah I’m pretty sure the battery is the holdup, and demand is non-existant at the moment.
BTW, SWJ719 why would it need to connect to an external device to call for help? The primary function is A CELL PHONE! The communication feature is already included. Programming would be pretty simple, almost like an on-star for your body. If pulse less than X, activate phone feature, dial 911, upload data, open voice channel. If [chemicals signalling shock/trauma] greater than Y, activate phone feature, dial 911, upload data, open voice channel. Etc…
Man; Urrggg! [grabs chest]
phone senses pulse rate of zero, cardiac arrest, initiate emergency program.
Operator; 911 what is your emergency?
Man; Arrrgh! Can’t… breathe…. chest… tight…
Operator [looks at screen]; It appears you might be having a heart attack, we’re sending an ambulance now. What we need you to do is just try to relax. Lay down on the ground if you are not already….
On that note, I would kind of like one myself. I’m not worried about health concerns but I’m sure there will be other peripherals out eventually. MP3 player than transmits sound through bone conduction? Now that’s some bass that’ll really shake you to your core!
March 24th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
Also, I wonder how much I can implant before I have to worry about cyber-psychosis?
March 24th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
Yes, silicon and silicone are different substances.
March 24th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
And if the FBI gets a warrant to tap your phone, they can hear EVERYTHING you do.
Not just in your car, as they have done with Onstar.
No, thanks.
March 24th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Oh, yeah, the potential for invasion of privacy here is HUGE. It rates right up there with the RFID implants… it’s not just da gummint you need to worry about. With RFID, anybody with a scanner and a decent script can grab your data. With this, anybody with your phone number can write their spam ON YOUR BODY.
March 24th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
If you look at the second place winner and do some back-o-the envelope calculations you quickly realize that it’s a photoshop competition, rather than an invention competition.
The “honorable mention” is literally a bike light generator with the leads attached to an mp3 player instead of a light bulb.
Further, at least 10% (and probably closer to half if you bother to do the math) of the items would be far too energy wasteful to be called, “green.” The only thing green about them is their rounded curves reminiscent of “organic” styled future-world rides.
For example, how could the “Bambus” be considered a materials saver when these exist?
March 24th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
I’m sorry for my negative post, but the real world is far more exciting than their vision.
March 24th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Nothing wrong with using your brain and critical thinking ability zippthorne.
March 24th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
@zippthorne: If you have to apologize for your post, then you shouldn’t have posted it. See how easy that was?
Whether or not the competition results in “green” technology, the ideas were cool. And it’s not a photoshop competition — there is real design work in that stuff, and a lot of it was constructed and functioning. Making the less prototypeable entries look cool required some photo manipulation (I’m SURE that lady doesn’t have a phone actually in her arm, for instance) but there’s no point in you poo-pooing the whole shebang just because it doesn’t excite your imagination.
March 24th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
Personally, I’d go for the mastiod-implanted microphone and sound system. No holding anything up to your head, and you get to pretend you live in The Diamond Age.
March 24th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
It reads to me as if the device is just a BlueTooth device, which happens to work with your cell phone, as well as other BT-enabled devices.
The medical aspect of that is probably my favorite part of the presentation. To diabetecs, those who are at risk for heart disease, liver failure, kidney failure, and a whole host of other patients, this would be a life-saving device. The only thing I see that would stand in the way of this being used as a diagnostic device is FDA testing.
The BT interface is cool, and all, and can be used for some awesome things, but it seems to be secondary to other more important uses for something of this nature. Not to say an animated tattoo wouldn’t be cool, it just seems like they were emphasizing the wrong aspects of this device.
March 24th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
You will be assimilated.
The idea is cool and still a desterbing as your strip wit the compound fracture.
Ona
March 24th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
I guess I’m not that sorry, then.
I actually thought the arm-phone thing was neat, but the amount of actual design must have a wide range. Since it evident that ZERO effort went into designing the number two winner: the gravity-powered lamp.
Evident, by actually doing the calculations. A theoretical “ideal green lamp” would require a 650 lb mass. The best white lamp I can find would require a 4,500 lb mass, and the best white lamp I can actually find a price for would require an 11,000 lb drop weight. All assuming perfect efficiency in the generator, no small feet for a device traveling less than 100 micrometers/s.
The grand prize winner is at least possible. But that’s small consolation, since it is also a mass-marketed consumer device.
The arm-phone is an interesting example, since if I recall correctly, that very idea was pretty enthusiastically mentioned in all the press releases for the blood-battery a number of months ago.
Ironically, the device which best fits the “green” theme was “No Gadget”, which barely got a mention.
I’m not entirely sure what they were going for there. The whole thing is reminiscent of the chapter in “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman” where he talks about the conference between artists and scientists.
It’s not that it doesn’t excite my imagination. It’s just that there are real-life things that are already possible and practical that are more exciting, partially by virtue of their existing practicality. “Wavefront” guided eyeglass lenses, for instance.
I don’t want to unfairly disparage what appears to me to be the output of a low-to-mid level design course for art students. But at the same time, this thing has gotten a significant amount of blog-press as if it were an actual technology event. I wouldn’t care if it were *completely* CG and theoretical if there was some evidence that someone did some math, rather than just skimming the tech headlines. It bugs me when people comment on it like it was real, and I hope I’m being helpful and not just petty by pointing out some significant problems.
March 24th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
My favorite “green” lamp is a little something I like to call “The Sun”…
Call me old-fashioned. :)
March 24th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
The worst downside I see is that the early adopters are going to be in for far more than the usual amount of grief when their version of the tech fades into obsolescence.
It’s painful enough watching my third $500 Garmin become a paperweight, to say nothing of the museum of Pilots I’ve collected over the years but the thought of lifting the old tatt and getting a new one every time there’s a major upgrade is downright detumifying.
Then who wants another place to shave? (and do you dial ‘911′ every time you try?)
D.
March 25th, 2008 at 12:52 am
This makes me think again of one of the most often heard comments in my roleplaying group:
Shadowrun ist coming.
And it still gives me a rather strange feeling… even though it’s “only” a design competition.
Thanks for the info!
March 25th, 2008 at 2:31 am
Nice to see that some people haven’t lost their minds.
However, as I read it, it is a bluetooth interface device, not an actual phone; like a headset in your arm. Also, it is not an actual tattoo, just colors projected through the skin from the device.
I would rather not have one myself but that has to do with other things.
It is interesting to see a post generate this much chatter. Just please, don’t eat your fellow posters.
March 25th, 2008 at 4:00 am
wekm: well, one of us is reading this wrong… I was under the impression it was a phone with bluetooth capability, and that it is actually a tattoo of sorts “Rather than ink, tiny clusters of microscopic spheres are injected, like tattoo ink, into the skin. Each sphere is filled with a field sensitive material that changes from clear to black when a field in the matrix is turned on.” Not ink but some material is injected, much like a tattoo, and the device activates said material.
March 25th, 2008 at 4:20 am
” In a perfect world, they’ve bored a couple of holes in her skull” *shudder* You’ve been reading too many sf cartoons, Tayler! Oh, wait… ;)
March 25th, 2008 at 5:11 am
I file this one under “Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.”
Privacy is the big issue for me, these kinds of devices are never really “off” and you can’t remove the battery. That “special tine” with your significant other suddenly becomes accesable to anyone that can hack the network. Add the inevitable “Arm-Phone Camera” and screen and you suddenly become a porn star without knowing it.
I can understand the medical uses, but I’d be uncomfortable with the potential for legislation to mandate the device. It’s arguable that mandatory implantation of a blood monitor would qualify as a “Public Health” issue, and then become a back-door for other government mandates.
Given how well the government manages say… the IRS or the DMV, I have no desire for them to manage my body.
My $0.02
March 25th, 2008 at 7:37 am
Eww… an implant just to change the colour of a tattoo? I think I’ll wait ’til they can build the circuitry into the tattoo, like in Peter F. Hamilton’s Commonwealth Saga.
Actually, the surgical aspect’s only a problem in the short term. I expect by 2100 surgery’ll be so little fuss that there’ll be people getting sex-change operations to go to a party, and changing back afterwards. (Yes, everything gets used for sex sooner or later. I predict that within five years of blood-batteries going into mass-production, there will be people with vibrating implants.)
Still, until trustworthy neural implants (or blood-nannies) are available, I think I’ll stick to being a hermit-crab cyborg. Wearable’s more convenient than implantable, most of the time.
WickedWolfie: Silicon and silicone are as different as carbon and plastic.
I think the “ideal green lamp” zippthorne is referring to is a theoretical device converting energy with 100% efficiency into 555nm green light (the wavelength the human eye is most sensitive to). Such a device would emit 683 lumens per watt.
So the Gravia could, if it was built with perfect technology we don’t have, and if you cheat a bit by making the light green, have a power consumption slightly under a watt. But for a device powered by a weight descending at a foot per hour, which is about a twelfth of a millimetre per second, a watt is a lot. By my calculations it would require over a ton. (Um, zippthorne, can you think of a reason for our calculations to differ by a factor of four?)
I think Clay Moulton looked at one of those torches (flashlights to Yanks) that you shake to recharge, and then scaled it up on the same principle as Attack of the Forty Foot Whatever. That principle being “Don’t bother doing the maths.”
Oh, and the EnerJar is completely different from the Kill A Watt, in that you have to assemble it yourself, instead of just buying it (for under $20, if you shop around). This makes it much more interesting, because it allows people who suck at building things to completely screw it up.
Ooh, wavefront glasses! As high-resolution monitors become commonplace, every infoglutton’s gonna want the kind of freakishly-sharp vision that only comes from individually designed corrective lenses.
March 25th, 2008 at 10:59 am
No highs, no lows, must be Bose.™
Seriously, more honest than their actual marketing.
March 25th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
WickedWolfie:
You should take a chemistry course. Silicon is an element. Silicone is a molecule containing silicon and oxygen, and maybe other elements.
March 25th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
That stuff is cool, but this is real:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/22/sunday/main3960219.shtml
Hmm, sounds like blood nannies to me, in a way….
March 25th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Howard? “Making the less prototypeable entries look cool required some photo manipulation (I’m SURE that lady doesn’t have a phone actually in her arm, for instance)”
I suspect it was simpler than that. Washable magic marker, maybe a stencil, and voila - one tattooed arm. Or at least the appearance of one. No photo manipulation required.
March 25th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
Marker? STENCIL?
You just don’t “get” the computer age, do you?
March 25th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
What is this “washable magic marker” you speak of? Is that a new Photoshop add-on? ;D
March 25th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
Been there, done that - and found out that sometimes it’s just easier to do it the old ways. Especially for a one-off like this appears to be. And probably cheaper than having a graphic artist fiddle with the picture.
Washable magic marker? You know the little markers in most graphics programs? Now, just imagine that you could take one right out of the screen and into three-d - that’s the markers. The washable part - consider that the eraser setting could be ripped out and turns into a wet sponge. Call it the reality kit. Available for a low, low price at better computer shops near you.
There’s something wrong when we have to start explaining reality in terms of the computer icons.
March 25th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
Driving and cell phones are dangerous enough, can you imagine trying to dial on the arm you are using to drive with.
March 25th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
SAM:
Our factor-four difference is due to an embarrassing mistake on my part: I multiplied by 3600s, but neglected to multiply by the four hours.
I’m gonna claim it’s because I used the spreadsheet I made the last time that thing came up, and at some point I was fiddling with things to see if there was some combination that was at least plausible, and forgot I left it at a one-hour intervals.
The human body generates something like 50-100W (on average. You can sprint at higher power, but averaged over an hour it’s not going to be far outside that range.) So it’s not completely implausible that one could build a “lifting weights” powered device that uses 7W, but four hours between lifts is a bit much.
March 26th, 2008 at 12:19 am
Actually, the easier way to do it is a minature turbine/dynamo, with the blades propelled by blood flow…
March 26th, 2008 at 2:52 am
zippthorne: Yeah, I thought maybe you’d used one hour instead of four, but I didn’t want to make any accusations, just in case I was the one who’d forgotten something.
Okay, let’s put the usefulness of bright, human-powered lights into context with something that’d actually work. You think the best we could do with current technology is 7W? Okay, using the Gravia’s ~1.2m drop height, that’s about 35kg for something that’ll stay lit for a minute. (Assuming 100% efficient generators.) Usable for some purposes, but not exactly convenient.
swj719: Eww! Oh, and wouldn’t the cells clog up the turbine?
March 26th, 2008 at 8:39 am
The device is described as a Bluetooth device, not as a cell phone. You can get Bluetooth keyboards, headsets, etc. which all use Bluetooth to communicate with the phone. The same interface could be used as an interface to a portable computer (but most cell phones today have computers which blow away my first computer).
Just to remind everybody, Douglas Adams predicted this in one of his “Hitchhiker’s Guide” books. Arthur’s daughter had a complete computer, with a flat or holographic display, implanted under the skin of her arm. It could automatically calculate her position in the galaxy (using the FTL equivalent of GPS) and the planet she was on, and, using various cues, calibrate itself to give the correct local time, as well as allowing her to surf the equivalent of the Internet and access any kind of entertainment.
March 27th, 2008 at 2:25 am
The AB-180 circulatory support system…
not to be confused with the Aero Boreo AB-180 Argentine civil utility aircraft or the Autobag AB 180 automatic bagging machine or the 2007 Wisconsin Assembly Bill AB-180 or the AB 180 airbrush or the Burr Brown Ultra High Speed ICs Application Bulletin 180 or the seemingly endless stream of other things tagged with the letters AB and the number 180.
http://ats.ctsnetjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/68/2/768
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/206667.stm
It’s a wee little turbine that swishes blood around the circulatory system in a steady flow. Flatlined and alive. (Black Court vampire eh?) It uses “heparinized water” AKA water with just enough heparin mixed in to prevent clotting- as a fluid bearing for the turbine. A nifty device that the FDA and various other national government medical outfits are dragging their feet on in spite of such dramatic cases as that one in the UK in 1998. The FDA’s procedure is to initially restrict testing things like this on people who’re >thisclose
March 27th, 2008 at 5:12 am
Do you have any more up to date info, bizzybody 25% success rate isn’t exactly comforting. Then, using it as swj719’s generator instead of as an auxiliary pump would not just be a thrombus factory, it’d be one heck of a cardio workout too.
Maybe when the success rate hits 45% and I get my heart in better shape. . . Say sometime in 2112?
D.
April 26th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Ted
I think God approves of you.