Gadgets

Amongst the technology sections in various newspapers I have noticed that many gadgets these days are designed specifically to be attached to your person. Amongst the gadgets that have caught my eye are 'the digital eye' and the 'smart goggle.'

The digital eye apparently can "Future cameras become embedded in the eye utilising the internal dead space out of the light's focal path for supporting electronics, while the camera replaces the cornea and lens."
So this is a camera that is actually part of the body, a camera that you wear on a daily basis perhaps? What this is an example of is technology you cannot actually see, something that you and others are hardly aware of. This could perhaps be used in a medical sense, but this surely appeals to a far greater market. As cameras, phones and MP3 players are quickly being combined into one easy to use device, now it seems as though the ultimate storage space becomes the body itself. Perhaps someone could wear the latest gadgets rather them carry around on your person.

The Smart Goggle is the latest invention to come out of Japan. The idea is to wear the glasses as part of your everyday wear and if you were to lose your keys, your phone or anything else for that matter, the glasses play back film footage of the last place your saw the item you have misplaced. Built into the glasses is a tiny camera, which is programmed to film constantly. The glasses recognize objects by dimensions of common household objects that have been programmed into the hardware of the glasses and camera. The glasses look rather bulky, but the team behind this genius invention are working on making them much smaller and wearable for an everyday basis...because gadgets this days have to be as small as possible.

What these gadgets are examples of is technology becoming part of our bodies...voluntarily of course. This poses all sort of questions regarding identity. How much technology would someone use and wear and have become part of them before that person no longer considers themselves completely human for example? Or will people soon no longer be able to function without the use of these gadgets? On a lesser note, many people nowadays may not be able to consider the prospect of functioning without the Internet or their mobile phones. So as technology becomes a more intrinsic part of our lives, will it become an intrinsic part of our bodies?