I thought that John Varley had a pretty neat idea in his 1992 novel Steel Beach - readout skin:
By pressing the dots in different combinations with my fingertips I was able to write the story in shorthand, and watch the loops and lines scrawl themselves on a strip of readout skin on my wrist...
(Learn more about readout skin)
Cicret doesn't quite have the same idea, but it's really pretty close. It turns your skin into a touchscreen. Take a look at the video.
(Cicret bracelet video)
I'm actually going to give Schachner and Zagat, two Golden Age greats, extra credit for thinking of the idea of aliens with skin displays in their awesome 1931 classic The Emperor of the Stars:
Two orange, dome-shaped creatures, somewhat like diving bells. The front of each bell was flattened, and in the center was a huge oval opening, covered by a translucent mica-like substance...
On the translucent mica-like coverings over the orifices, appeared reddish characters... They resembled somewhat the old cuneiform writing of the Babylonians or the Egyptian hieroglyphs.
Al was greatly excited, "I believe they're trying to communicate with us..."
(Read more about the thought screen)
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!)
is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for
the Invention Category that interests
you, the Glossary, the Invention
Timeline, or see what's New.
Illustrating Classic Heinlein With AI
'Stasis, cold sleep, hibernation, hypothermia, reduced metabolism, call it what you will - the logistics-medicine research teams had found a way to stack people like cordwood and use them when needed.'
Deflector Plasma Screen For Drones ala Star Wars
'If the enemy persists in attacking or even intensifies their power, the density of the plasma in space will suddenly increase, causing it to reflect most of the incoming energy like a mirror.'