Chapter 2: The Anatomy of a Wearable Node
While the race to command the helm of generative AI is in full swing, the journey to conquer the next phase of Internet communications - body internet - is still in its infancy. Universities are creating prototypes and testing. Private start-ups are producing medical chips and pills that allow individuals to communicate by thinking, by sending thoughts to devices without using any physical movement. The incentive for such technologies is apparent when one considers an individual who is paralyzed and therefore cannot use their hands, can through body internet technology send thoughts to a connected device that translates the information into words, sentences, phrases. Clearly, medical technology is at the apex of emerging body internet research and development. The implications are astounding not only for medically challenged individuals, but rather for all humans. The future of medical monitoring and diagnoses lies in body internet technologies that will produce information in real time. It’s clear humanity will look back at medical technology the way many of us glance back at pay phones and shake our heads. Lives will be saved utilizing body internet technologies providing real time anomalies and true medical conditions saving precious time often missed in today's medical world. But medical milestones are not the only ones to be reached. Hands-free technologies will blend with everyday life in a way that will delegate the current phone-stare, digital trance into its rightful place in history. Mobile phones will go the way of manual typewriters and 500 megabyte harddrives, clearing the way for technologies even science fiction writers did not imagine. There are still many obstacles to overcome, including the reticence of some people to embrace a technology that comes so close to connecting the human body directly with wireless communication. Up in the air, which new technology might emerge as the one, the winner. Some may recall the “battle” between Palm Pilot and Apple, and how Palm stuck with a physical keyboard on its latest models while Apple iPhone went with a virtual keyboard on screen. Currently we are seeing three primary technologies in testing signals: surface of the skin, deep body tissue, and circulation around body limbs. We see an array of beta products including AR glasses, smart rings, pendants. We see pacemaker and ingestible pills being tested, and the current technology elevated to wristbands, watches, smart clothing. We are at the beginning of the race for a winner or winners. Start-ups are popping up like corn in Iowa and not all will make it to the finish line, but the innovation should still prove valuable. Smaller companies will be bought-up and larger ones will form and join into one. It’s clearly evident we are close to payment systems using human touch, motion, perhaps even iris contact. Humans in the near future will be walking internets, and with this technologically new world comes the need for caution. Data must be protected, hackers must be thwarted. All of this is happening in the company of an artificial intelligence race like no previous industrial revolution came close to experiencing. Many of us take all of this with stride, even unimpressively casual - but imagine if someone who lived 200 years ago could come back for a day and see what we see and live. It would be hard to fathom. Fast forward 200 more years. Even we cannot imagine what lies in that future. But, we hope that technology will always keep pace with humanity and true and good purpose for all humankind and life on this earth. In the next chapter I will touch upon three of the current modalities: Capacitive, Galvanic and Magnetic, with side-by-side comparisons. Meanwhile, if you are shopping for smart glasses, check out some of the offers on Amazon.
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