10 Sci-Fi Gadgets That Inspired Real Inventions

8. Mobile Phones

Perhaps now overlooked for the technological marvel that they are, mobile telephones were predicted with a design remarkably similar to the real thing back in 1966 - when the most mobile of phones were those that came with the longest wires.

The man most often credited with the invention of the modern mobile telephone, Martin Cooper, led a team at Motorola to try to outdo rival AT&T's domination of the car phone industry. In just 90 days, his team had developed a working handheld phone in 1973. Cooper has often cited that the idea to move from car phone to a completely mobile device came from Star Trek.

As the technology developed, of course, so did the designs (Cooper's 1973 version had a 20 minute battery and weighed a kilogram) and we would in time see the flip phone appear, even more closely mirroring Star Trek.