© 1999 Robert A. Freitas Jr. All Rights Reserved.

Robert A. Freitas Jr., Nanomedicine, Volume I: Basic Capabilities, Landes Bioscience, Georgetown, TX, 1999

7.4.2.7 Macroscale Inmessaging Transducers

Inmessaging signals from patient to nanorobot may also be mediated using macroscale communications interfaces. These interfaces may be fixed or mobile, and may be either stable or reconfigurable. A crude example of a fixed, stable inmessaging transducer would be a ~1 cm dermally or cranially-mounted coaxial cable connector which allows data to flow into an implanted dedicated communication organ for subsequent distribution to in vivo nanodevices via an internal communications network. Data passes into the patient through a simple rf or microwave coax cable which is plugged directly into the patient's socket, readily achieving ~10¹⁰ bit/sec transfer rates (Section 7.2.5.1) directed from a computer operated by the patient or physician. Up to ~10¹³ bit/sec transfers are available using fiberoptic (Section 7.2.5.2) or chemocable (Section 7.2.5.5) ports. Other fixed transducers may incorporate photoelectric or olfactory sensors, microphones, neural taps, or manipulable tactile elements such as buttons or switches.

At the other extreme of maximum inmessaging versatility, a dermal transducer may be configured upon request and presented to the patient on any part of his body. For example, a tattoo-like ~30 cm² dermal control panel comprised of ~3 billion communication-linked kinesthetically-sensitive chromomorphic nanorobots spaced ~5 microns apart could be assembled under a clear flat patch of epidermis such as the back of the hand. This panel could take the shape of a touch-sensitive alphanumeric keypad resembling a laptop computer keyboard or a touchtone telephone or home-security keypad, complete with a touch-sensitive grid of visually-readable inscribed characters. (See details in Section 7.4.6.7.) Similarly, a wristwatch-shaped device could accept accept and interpret verbal commands, then translate them into modulated electromagnetic signals displayed on a 2-D array of photodiodes or microlasers on the back of the watch; the signals could then be received by a nanorobot dermal transducer panel (Section 7.4.6.7) and passed along to the rest of the in vivo network.

Last updated on 19 February 2003