BARCELONA, SPAIN — Cellphones will one day be devices built into our skin instead of the black rectangular slabs we’re used to, according to the inventor of the cellphone.
“The next generation will have a phone implanted under the skin in the ear,” said Marty Cooper. Known for inventing the first telephone in 1973told CNBC in an interview at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Monday.
“Your body is the perfect charger,” Cooper said. “When you eat food, your body makes energy, right?”
“When you eat food, your body creates energy. It takes just a little bit of energy to make these earbuds work,” he added.
His vision alludes to a future stage of humanity in which our bodies are augmented with powerful microchips and sensors.
Several startups are developing technologies that seek to combine computers and human brains. Elon Musk’s Neuralink.
Martin Cooper was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at MWC this week, marking 50 years since he made his first phone call on Sixth Avenue.
APs
Cooper said today’s smartphones are overly complex with a multitude of applications and screens that don’t conform to the curvature of the human face.
“Every time I make a phone call, whenever I don’t have earphones, I have to put this flat material against my curved head [and] Raise your arms in an awkward position,” he said.
the smartphone market stagnant for the last few yearsand there is a sense in the industry that manufacturers are having trouble coming up with new and innovative designs.
Today’s ubiquity of mobile phones has created many problems, from addiction to social media to invasion of privacy.
“Privacy is a very serious issue, and so is addiction,” Cooper said, acknowledging the detriment of his work.
However, he is optimistic about the future, suggesting that technology’s heyday may still be ahead in areas such as education and healthcare.
“I have a firm belief in human nature,” Cooper said. “I looked back at history and saw all the progress we made in technology and somehow people understood it.”
“People are living better now. And they are living longer. We are richer and healthier than they used to be. is making progress.”
Cooper received a Lifetime Achievement Award at MWC this week, marking 50 years since he made his first phone call on Sixth Avenue. Using his Motorola DynaTAC 8000X, which was referenced in the hit movie Wall Street, he called his major competitors. AT&TJoel S. Engel.
Cooper said he never imagined that mobile phones would become the portable computers they are today.
“Fifty years ago was a really primitive time,” he said. “There was no internet, no large-scale integrated circuits, no digital cameras.”
“The idea that one day mobile phones would become cameras and encyclopedias never crossed our minds.”
However, he added: .”
“So I thought that one day everyone would have a mobile phone, and it’s almost happening.”
According to Cooper, there are now more cell phone subscribers worldwide than there are people, and two-thirds of the planet’s population owns a personal cell phone. “The phone is becoming an extension of the person,” he said.
clock: 30 years after the invention of the web, Tim Berners-Lee has some ideas on how to fix it
