Inventor Of The Cellphone Predicts A Future Of Devices Baked Into Your Skin

Marty Cooper, the inventor of the very first cellphone, has predicted a future where we won’t need to carry handsets in our pockets anymore, but rather, in our skin—right behind our ears, to be exact.

Cooper made the first call on a portable phone on April 3, 1973, using a prototype from Motorola, which had been working on its design for five months prior. After that, Cooper famously rang up his competitors at the AT&T-owned Bell Laboratories with a Dyna-TAC, more recognized as a brick phone. But unlike the ultra-slim, pocketable devices we’re used to today, this one weighed 2.5 pounds and was 11 inches long. 

Now he predicts that devices will get even smaller. In an interview with CNBC at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Cooper stated that the future of phones might be an implant that people can get. He also noted that a large part of this is because our bodies are the perfect charging stations thanks to the energy we generate when we eat.

In some ways, this prospect might be nearer than we think. Elon Musk’s Neuralink is already developing implantable human computer chips as we speak.

Cooper also touched on the privacy concerns and social media addiction that phones have since brought about. He also mentioned that he believes this era of smart devices has become too complicated and that the displays don’t fit well with the curve of faces.

Despite this, Cooper is still optimistic about its future. He believes that humanity can move past its downsides and that much good can still come for it, particularly in the healthcare and education sectors.

[via CNBC and Interesting Engineering, cover image via Rico Shen/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)]