Under the skin implants are the future?

We read about how a man actually implanted magnets under his skin so that he can mount the iPod nano without the need for those arm-band types – which is a grotesque idea for some. However, he might have a point in how the future of consumer electronics work – including the idea of implanting buttons right there and then in your arm, located just below your skin. Researchers at Autodesk, a software company in Toronto, Canada, did a quick check around to see whether the kind of methods we employ at the moment to interface with our gadgets will function nicely when the device is implanted in human tissue, and received a resounding “yes” in the process. It seemed that a button, an LED and a touch sensor did not malfunction at all, when it was embedded under the skin of a cadaver’s arm. Not only that, the team managed to communicate transcutaneously thanks to a Bluetooth connection as well as being able to juice up the electronics wirelessly.

I do hope that more research will be done into this area, as it opens up a whole new can of potential worms. Are there long term effects that can be measured across decades on any detrimental illness or condition that might arise from having electronics being implanted right under our skins? Does it increase the risk of cancer? One thing is for sure – if it catches on, body modification magazines will definitely have a whole new range of material to write about.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Medical