A prototype radio device designed
to fit inside a human tooth and provide covert mobile phone communications
has been created by two UK students.
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| The
"tooth-phone" would only be audible to its wearer. |
The device currently consists
of a digital radio receiver that converts radio signals into sound and
a tiny vibrating component, which conveys sound to the wearer's inner
ear through bone vibrations.
Inventors James Auger and Jimmy
Loizeau of the Royal College of Art in London say the tiny receiver could
be configured to receive sound from an external device, such as a mobile
phone, a radio or a computer.
They also say it would be relatively
simple to fit the gadget with a microphone, to allow it to return a radio
signal to another device.
Sound conveyed from the tooth-phone
would only be audible to the wearer, so Auger and Loizeau believe it could
have a wide range of applications.
"At the moment were looking
at commercial uses," Loizeau told New Scientist. "From people
who want to listen to stock information to traffic data and stock information."
The device is currently wired
to a battery. But power could be generated by an electro-magnetic micro-generator
embedded in the tooth, Loiseau suggests. "It would be powered as
people eat, speak or wiggle their heads," he says.
New
Scientist June 20, 2002
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