"Master, all I feel is heat on my tooth." "No, my son. This is more than just heat. This is the presence of our clan. The heat you feel is 37 temperature points, one point for each of us." "But master, I only feel warmth - like tea on a hot spoon." "Resolution will come with time. Your mind has ignored the nerve endings in your teeth for your entire life. If you focus, you can feel the hottest point on the north side of your tooth. That represents me, as I am closest and standing to the north of you." "I think I feel it, master." "Remember, my son, tooth is beauty. Trust in the tooth above all other things."-- Worldgineer, Jun 25 2003 Cochlear implants http://www.medoto.u...u/info/implant1.htm [UnaBubba, Oct 14 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004] Tongue brainport http://www.sciencen.../20010901/bob14.aspClose... [omegatron, Aug 15 2005] //idea or parody// Idea. Though there's general parody of kung-fu movies in there, I'm not mocking anything in particular. Just dreaming up a futuristic clan of warriors that use bluetooth technology to constantly sense eachother's location for use in war strategy.-- Worldgineer, Jun 25 2003 Oh. Like 8th of 7's lot, you mean? And doesn't the US Army already have something like this? (Not necessarily Bluetooth, of course.)-- DrCurry, Jun 25 2003 No, they would still be independent sentient beings - just with the added ability to instantly know each other's locations.
If the army does have this I bet it's screen based - a bit inconvienent when in close-range battle.-- Worldgineer, Jun 25 2003 Inconvenient compared with a hot tooth?!-- DrCurry, Jun 25 2003 How is a hot tooth inconvenient?-- Worldgineer, Jun 25 2003 I think your own dialogue answers that question. (Outside the dentist's, the only time I can feel anything with my teeth is when a filling falls out and I eat ice cream; I doubt that sensation would help me in locating fellow combatants.)-- DrCurry, Jun 25 2003 Ah, so you're arguing effectiveness - not convenience. I think you can feel more in your teeth than you realize - you just rarely/never have the need, so it's ignored. Try this experiment: suck a lung's worth of air past some molars. Feel the temperature change? I do. If you don't then perhaps bluetooth warriors would have to be selected by their tooth sensitivity.-- Worldgineer, Jun 25 2003 By the way, if you haven't read it yet, Vernor Vinge's "A Fire Upon the Deep" [thanks for the correction, Vernon] had some first-person group-intelligent aliens that you might enjoy.-- jutta, Jun 25 2003 Perhaps one warrior for each tooth...-- RayfordSteele, Jun 25 2003 But definately not just one tooth per warrior. They still have to eat.-- Worldgineer, Jun 25 2003 And the tooth shall set you free.
Hmmm... assuming you get to keep your 8s (wisdom teeth) then you could logically maintain contact with 32 other similarly equipped persons, which is pretty much platoon strength.
A bluetooth cochlear implant would make more sense, and the hardware would be very difficult to lose. This would be particularly good for special forces troops, as it would pick up the transmitter's voice via the eustachian tube.-- UnaBubba, Jun 25 2003 And in time a blue plaque will be placed here.-- sufc, Jun 25 2003 [UB] // cochlear implant would make more sense// I would imagine it would be nearly as inconvenient as a screen method - hearing is important for close combat as well.
Oh, and thanks for linking to cochlear implants. My biological terminology is terrible and you don't want to know where I thought you were suggesting I stuff my bluetooth device.-- Worldgineer, Jun 25 2003 You want the tooth? You can't handle the tooth!-- sambwiches, Jun 25 2003 you know... bluetooth actually doesn't have anything to do with teeth. interesting idea- there was a note in wired a few months back about experimental military technology that allows pilots to sense information (i'm guessing radar?) on the rooves of their mouths (rooves? ha)-- utexaspunk, Jun 25 2003 True, my point with cochlear implants was that the communication devices may be implanted, in the same manner as cochlear implants and data/voice transmissions may be sent directly to the implanted unit.
Could be a little inconvenient a few years down the track, after you've left the services and start hearing voices in your head. (Maybe they did this already, to Vietnam vets?)-- UnaBubba, Jun 25 2003 Why does it have to be heat? would probably use too much power anyway. Why not have the toot output using small mechanical configuration changes. The tongue would sense these very well. When I have a tiny thing stuck between my teeth, it feels HUGE to my tongue. Or maybe my mouth is wierd. I though it was just my brain.
The heat thing is one-dimensional. We could have say 4-bits (N-S-E-W) to give direction as well as proximity.
Or, have 8 bits, have soldier memorise ASCII, and sent complete instructions...decoded in the tooth.-- RusNash, Jun 25 2003 [Rus] Doesn't have to be heat, though I disagree with heat being 1-D. You'd have a 2-D map on your tooth, together with the extra dimension of intensity. I'm not in love with digital-to-human interfaces. Sure, Morse coders get good at it but it takes too much concentration.-- Worldgineer, Jun 26 2003 Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter's "The Light of Other Days" has a similar clan form, not around Blueteeth, but around tiny data-carrying wormholes that they wear as brain implants. They are still individuals, but they can have massive group, nearly-hive-mind discussions.-- friendlyfire, Jun 26 2003 "Me, it was flat feet. So, what kept you out of the army?"
"Braces."-- RayfordSteele, Jun 26 2003 Oh to have a wormhole brain implant to the halfbakery. Pure hive-mind bliss (hi bliss).-- Worldgineer, Jun 26 2003 You mean you haven't upgraded yet?-- RayfordSteele, Jun 26 2003 You can have much higher resoulution by sending electrical currents through electrodes on the toung - Do you taste the enemy? Current resolution is 12x12.-- my-nep, Jan 02 2004 [jutta] (and for those who might actually be looking for it), the author of "A Fire Upon the Deep" is Vernor Vinge.-- Vernon, Feb 02 2004 Great link, [omega]. Blind bluetongue warriors?-- Worldgineer, Aug 15 2005 halfbakery