Cell phone...TOOTH Phone?!?!

mr_oily · 06-20-2002, 02:14 PM

Put your mobile where your mouth is

That ringing in your ear could be your phone

Soon you could be swapping your mobile phone for a molar phone.
Royal College of Art students in London have developed a phone that fits inside a tooth.

The concept device picks up signals with a radio receiver and uses a tiny vibrating plate to convey them as sound along the jawbone to a person's ear.

The designers said the mini-molar phone could be implanted in a tooth during routine dental surgery.

The prototype phone is the work of graduates James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau and forms part of the Royal College of Art's annual summer exhibition.

Known as The Show, this exhibition shows off the best ideas of the current crop of RCA designers and students.

Currently, the tooth phone is only a mock-up and lacks the communications chip to actually turn it into a functioning device.

Mr Auger said the technology to turn it into a working device already existed and it would be a simple matter to build the relevant chips into the gadget.

The designers speculate that, if the tooth phone becomes a working device, it could be used by stock traders to receive up-to-the-moment information about share prices or to help football managers communicate quickly with players during key matches.

However, the existing design is only supposed to help stimulate debate about future wearable computing devices and to help explore the social and cultural ramifications of in-body technology.

The tooth phone is on show at the Science Museum in London from the 21 June to November.

Development of the device was funded by the National Endowment for Science, Technology & the Arts as part of a collaboration between the Science Museum and the Royal College of Art.

DiSeAsEd MoNkEy · 06-20-2002, 02:21 PM

well...

isnt that just...

weird.

i want some of those 2 way radios from wal-mart, now those are cool!!

PhiSlammaJamma · 06-20-2002, 02:24 PM

So how do you dial?

mr_oily · 06-20-2002, 02:28 PM

Voice activated I imagine. or you could download your address book into the computer chip in your brain stem and voila, you're there!

drapg · 06-20-2002, 02:57 PM

i can't imagine having the need to talk to people SO MUCH as to install a phone in my mouth! if you're that attached to your cell phone, than you just have issues!

UNMKT4 · 06-20-2002, 03:23 PM

How about all the laws preventing cell phone talk when your driving you car?

There basically making something to over ride the legal system.

Santa Fe, New Mexico just started a no cell phone while driving law. The driving in NM still sucks, but at least the way the government is working with the issue's now there actually containing many indivduals fromr driving and talking.

All we need now is tiny little, practically invisible phones, so kids can talk in class on the phone, disturbing students, or people at work talking on the phone.

Stupid Idea.

lpbman · 06-20-2002, 04:13 PM

where is the battery and how do you charge it?
plug your tooth in to the wall socket?

interesting stuff
man will my lifetime see some wild things

can't begin to fathom the next 50 years

Hydra · 06-20-2002, 04:28 PM

Seems like cheating on exams would become very commonplace if people could talk directly into your ear. I guess we would need to get every classroom one of those cell phone disruptors.

Dave2000 · 06-20-2002, 04:33 PM

Wouldnt this thing gurantee that you WILL get cancer? Hell its bout a few inches away from the designated source, the brain. Thats is just weird. I am just happy to show off that my phone can do music ringtones :D

Cold Hard · 06-20-2002, 04:44 PM

This is a rather dumb idea, IMO....