Phrases such as “the Internet of things” have been thrown around in many discussions in recent times – even among those who don’t consider themselves tech savvy. This is indeed true, as it seems like just about everything can be connected to the World Wide Web, but thinking holistically, technological developers have been pushing the envelope where their innovations are concerned.
It would be safe to assume that those who ever held the opinion that humans are brimming their intellectual capacity have shunned those thoughts many years ago. If there were still a few who were holding firm, the following bit of insight is sure to loosen that grip considerably.
The Latest Wonder
Randomly browsing a tech website, the eyes caught on to a couple words in an article title that prompted a double take – in the title were the words “smart tattoos”. Out of sheer humor, some may think “smart tattoos” to mean some inspirational quote from Dr Martin Luther King Jr. for instance, however, though it is far from the actual functions of the technology, the effect may be just as powerful.
In truth, these “tattoos” are not applied to the skin via ink and a hot pen, but rather like a sticker that can be pasted unto it. As it is now, there are efforts being made to have these tattoos administer drugs at configured intervals, and even store data. Such an invention would be particularly ideal for the health care industry as there are certain ailments that require medication to be delivered within a timely manner and the help may not always be available at that time.
One of the major objectives of developers is surely to think of ways to make life easier for the general population and improve capabilities overall, and the latest exploits of smart tattoos is a definite indicator that their will be no easing up any time soon. Notably, in addition to the functions already mentioned, it is said that efforts are being made to allow these innovations to partner with our more popular devices in a rather create way… with the use of sweat. More specifically, the lactic acid that is secreted with it.
Whether as a result of heat or by some exertion of energy, the body naturally produces sweat, and the intention is to have it generate power upon contact with the tattoo. By extension, the power generated can then be used to aid other devices (wearable tech for example) with their functions or even provide some amount of charge to others such as smart phones. The technology isn’t available just yet, but at the current rate of innovation it would be of little surprise to many if it were indeed just around the corner.
Where it started… kind of
Depending on how you look at it, there is certain to be multiple eras associated with when inventions really became “smart”, but for the purpose of this article the “beginning” can be attributed to devices that actually have the key word in its name – smart phones.
It may seem like nothing now, just a thing of the norm, but it was a big deal a decade or so ago when cell phones were made capable of doing more than make and receive calls and text messages. As time progressed, their functionalities expanded to include applications of a personal digital assistant (PDA) as a daily planner. With the emergence of “there’s an app for everything” the tasks that can be executed via these devices have grown even more.
To take it a step further, there are some smart phones coming off the production line that are directly threatening the existence of other popular devices. With impressive storage capacities for instance, an individual can choose to store all their music on their phone versus buying an MP3 player. It is a similar scenario for digital cameras, as some smart phones boast even more features than cameras used by professionals on a daily basis.
It can easily be argued that the growing capabilities of the smart phone is what pushed the innovations being thought up every day.
The Wearable Boom
Right on queue is one category of products that have arguably become the most popular of all things tech in the last few years – wearable devices. From fitness trackers to smart watches (and the list goes on), there has been a huge surge of wearable gadgets being created that pack great potential.
Many of these devices are created to compliment others such as smart phones, but there are even some that can be fully functional without being paired with another. There is one particular smart watch that can actually fit the micro chip that would be put in the phones, allowing the wearer to have access to all their contacts and make calls, send messages and even access the Internet – all from their wrists.
Inventions such as the smart phone and wearable tech are great, and there can be no denying that the conception and creation of smart tattoos should be right up there among them as some of the “smartest”. Who knows what direction developers will venture towards next for their newest innovative idea?
Developers Greatly Expanding the "Smart" Phenomenon
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