Title	Reality's products not that far behind sci-fi imaginings
Date:	10/30/2000
Author:	Roger Harris
Source:	InsideVC.com

In today's tech world, reality isn't far behind science fiction. What seems like a fanciful idea today becomes the next great thing tomorrow.

So what are some of the great ideas lurking just over the horizon? At the recent 2000 Business Outlook Conference, Dennis Cagan, chairman and chief executive officer of Santa Barbara Technology Incubator, mentioned a couple of things that caught my attention.

Idea One: A company in Japan is working on a small cell phone that would be worn on the user's wrist, Cagan said. That in itself isn't so hard to believe. Cell phone makers are totally fixated on making phones smaller, thinner, lighter.

But Cagan then poked a thumb in his ear and stuck out his pinkie.

"You'll talk into your finger," he said.

He was serious. At least I think so. Assuming Cagan wasn't pulling the collective legs of everyone there, at some point in the techie future we can look forward to perfectly sane people talking into their fingers and listening to their thumbs.

I wonder where the antenna for this miniature cell phone would go?

If you think finger phones are too bizarre, don't. At the 2000 Consumer Electronics Show way back in January, Motorola and Samsung showed off prototypes of a wrist phone. No one is talking into their fingers yet, but both companies are reportedly very serious about developing a tiny cell phone for your wrist.

There are even companies talking about wrist TVs. I suppose the technology is possible to shrink the electronics that small and it would probably be fun to play with for awhile. It doesn't sound very practical, though. Imean, what exactly would you be able to see on a wrist-sized TVscreen?

The second thing Cagan talked about also was from the world of incredibly small technology. Sooner rather than later, according to the ever optimistic Cagan, doctors will be asking us to ingest tiny medically savvy robots. These 'bots would travel through our bodies checking on the plumbing, maybe making a few repairs while they're in there.

That sounds pretty good to me. Just imagine, a team of 'bots swirling through arteries clearing away decades of accumulated cholesterol. Maybe stopping off in the knees to repair that torn cartilage.

Sounds sort of like the 1966 sci-fi classic "Fantastic Voyage" doesn't it? I'm sure you remember how Raquel Welch and some other characters were stuffed in a shrunken submarine so they could sail through the bloodstream of a sick dude and destroy a life-threatening blood clot.

I don't ever expect to get that close to Raquel but various researchers are working on ingestible medical devices, including a tiny camera that would take pictures of the digestive tract.

As wild as these developments sound, given enough time and money a company somewhere will bring wrist phones and medical 'bots to market. It all starts with an idea and to paraphrase Cagan, there are more good ideas today than ever before.