Cellphones embedded in your brain

When Martin Cooper invented the cellphone 35 years ago, he envisioned a world with people so wedded to wireless connections that they would walk around with devices embedded in their bodies.

But while phones have come a long way since the former Motorola researcher made the first-ever wireless call from a busy New York street corner in April 1973, Cooper says the industry has fallen short of his expectations.

"Our dream was that someday nobody would talk on a wired telephone. Everybody would talk on a wireless phone," the 79-year-old electronic engineer told Reuters.

Cooper said he was so enthused after his first mobile call that he liked to joke that phone numbers would become so important that "when you were born you would get a phone number and if you didn't answer it you would die."

In about 15 to 20 years, he expects people to have embedded wireless devices in their bodies to help diagnose and cure illness. "Just think of what a world it would be if we could measure the characteristics of your body when you get sick and transmit those directly to a doctor or a computer," he said. "You could get diagnosed and cured instantly and wirelessly."