Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"Poised between intransigent scepticism and uncritical credulity, it [science fiction] is par excellence the literature of the open mind."
- John Brunner
 |
| Audio Relay | ||
| A communication device implanted behind the ear; also used as an alarm for wake-up calls. |
Here's a handy invention that would have been impossible in the 1940's (when the story was written) but is eminently manufacturable in the 21st century. Not satisfied with technologies that were merely forty years ahead of his time, Heinlein skipped right over the entire cell phone era.
| The sort of phone my Section uses is not standard; the audio relay is buried surgically under the skin back of my left ear - bone conduction. |
| From The Puppet Masters,
by Robert Heinlein. Published by Doubleday in 1951 Additional resources -
|
Hopefully, it uses a very low level of radiation in transmitting back to the caller.
As far as I know, the first person to suggest this idea was sf's own Hugo Gernsback, who filed for a patent on an "osophone" in 1923; the patent was granted in 1924.
In 2000, Digital Angel created a subdermal device that "can be used to monitor a person's key body functions -- such as temperature and pulse -- and transmit that data wirelessly, on a real time basis, along with the accurate location of the person, to a web-enabled ground station or monitoring facility," according to their press release.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 7 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Puppet Masters
More Ideas
and Technology by Robert Heinlein
Tech news articles related to The Puppet Masters
Tech news articles related to works by Robert Heinlein
Audio Relay-related
news articles:
- Bone Conduction Cell Phone
- Cellphone Inventor Cooper Trails Heinlein Again
- Surreal iPhone Ad Video Parody Channels Dick, Heinlein
| BrainNet Social Network Of Brains |
| Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence (METI) Workshop |
| Burner Generates Temporary Phone Numbers |
| HushMe Bluetooth Device Reinvents The Hush-A-Phone |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
'Of course not a vehicle moved by means of internal explosions of a derivative of rock oil...'
'When he had first built them, they had been crude indeed, flying mechanisms with little more than a reflex-response unit.'
'If you couldn't see the ads, how would you know what was fashionable?'
'Its lines wavered, flowed, and then painfully reformed.'
'Had these machines in some incredible fashion been provided with brains?'
'I used my implant to tell MILLIE what we wanted and she took care of it'
'Under the lower roof there was no water, but a clear and luminous atmosphere...'
