Marty Cooper, credited with inventing the mobile phone, predicts that these devices will be integrated into our ear as a small earpiece in the very near future and will be charged with the energy of our body.
The evolution of mobile telephony over these decades continues to amaze us, from 1973, with the invention of the first mobile phone created by Cooper, and his feat demonstrated by making the first phone call using a Motorola DynaTAC 8000X, to communicate with his main competitor at AT&T, to today, where our mobile devices are small computers that move with us.
As an interesting note, the first mobile phones were introduced by the American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T) in 1946, but these had some limitations because there were only 12 channels in specific areas, which made communication difficult and people had to wait for one of those channels to become available to use the service. Similarly, these early phones could only be charged with car batteries, because they needed a lot of charge to work, so this service was enjoyed by people who had cars.
Cooper was recognized for his career at the Mobile World Congress 2023, held in Barcelona, where he indicated that one of the easiest ways to charge these devices of the future is with our bodies; since when we eat, we produce energy and this could be a natural source for this small device to recharge.
Mobile technology has advanced dramatically since Cooper’s first call in 1973 with the Motorola DynaTAC; today, phones are portable computers that move with us every step.
The non-ergonomic shape of mobile phones (which do not adapt to the shape of the head) makes it uncomfortable to make or answer a call when you don’t have headphones, and adding to this the uncomfortable position in which you have to put your arm to perform this action, Cooper commented in the interview conducted by CNBC that this type of implantation is the next leap in mobile telephony that he foresees.
And the idea of having devices integrated into our skin has been around since 2017 when Elon Musk announced that his company Neuralink would seek ways to connect computers with the human brain. Today, not only Elon but also other startups such as CTRL – Labs Labs acquired by Facebook in 2019, are focused on connecting brain-computer systems for navigating screens. On the other hand, Brainet, another startup, is focused on working with “non-invasive and multi-personal connections for collaborative problem-solving” between brains. In April 2019, they announced that their system would allow two messengers to send signals to a receiver to indicate the orientations of a Tetris-like game.
The inventor of the mobile phone also expressed concern about the lack of privacy we have today, emphasizing that our data is registered somewhere, as well as the disclosure of harmful content that young people have access to and the addiction to always being connected to the network.
In summary, we are on the verge of great inventions, where the mobile phone will continue to offer us more utilities, and we do not rule out the possibility that this kind of invention is already being tested out there.
And you, do you think this is just around the corner or do you believe that it will still take many years to see this become a reality?
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