Blogpost 6: Conan's Gadgets

There is a great advancement in application of science. And this application is called technology. Technology is moving fast. The product of technology is gadgets. Everyday, a lot of gadgets are manufactured and produced to make people's life easier, faster and better.

According to RawMichelle who wrote an article about Gadgets at the website blogcritics, gadgets are small electronic devices with a particular purpose. The term gadget was defined by the Oxford Dictionary in 19^th century as a placeholder name for a technical item. The word gadget originated from the french word “gagee” which means small and useful accessory.

Conan Edogawa, the main character of the Japanese Anime Series Detective Conan, uses a lot of gadgets to help him solve criminal cases, fight against villains and investigate about the Black Organization. Gadgets use by Conan are the following: a) voice-changing bowtie – by moving the dial on the back, Conan is able to imitate all sounds that his ears have perceived; b) power-enhancing shoes – these shoes use magnetism and electric fields giving an eminent power to Conan's feet enabling him to strike object with a great impact; c) glasses modification(microphone) – Professor Agasa modified Conan's eyeglasses allowing him to conceal microphone somewhere and listen to conversations by matching the frequency on his glasses; d) stun-gun wristwatch - Conan uses a tranquilizer dart contained in the watch to put people to sleep usually the moronic detective Kogoro Mori; e) detective boys badge – these badges are created for Conan and the Detective Boys group including Ayumi Yoshida, Genta Kojima and Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya enabling them to communicate with each other from a distance, working like a set of walkie talkies, it also give out a signal so that it can be located using criminal tracking glasses; f) turbo engine skateboard – the engine works using a solar power but later modified to include a battery for nighttime use, it is created to help Conan chase down criminals; g) criminal tracking glasses – this is used by Conan to track down criminals, to locate his transmitters and to know the place of the Detective Boys' badge using radar; h) elasticity suspenders - this enable Conan to lift heavy objects through a pulley-type system by pressing a button; i) button speaker – Conan place this speaker on Kogoro to transmit his changed voice from the bowtie; j) earring cellphone - this is also serves as a wireless speaker for the voice-changing bowtie, it is easily transported because it can be worn on the ear; k) wristwatch flashlight – aside from being a stun-gun, his watch also functions as a flashlight to light up dark places and this is also given to the Detective Boys; l) voice-changing face mask – Conan used this to disguise himself when Vermouth attempted to entice Haibara and; m) anywhere ball dispensing belt- Conan's belt can be transformed to a soccer ball so that can be use against criminals just by kicking it with the power-enhancing shoes.

It is amazing that Conan has these incredible gadgets which really help him a lot such as fighting and protecting himself against villains, capturing information about the Black Organization and most of all, solving crimes to help other people.

There was a time I asked myself if Conan's gadgets are fictional or real. I have read this article entitled “Real Life Spy Gadgets- For the Secret Agent in all of Us” by Simon Rose at the website darkroastedblend. According to this article, with the great advancement of technology, some gadgets are invented and available readily in the public. Some gadgets that are used in espionage in real life are the following: hidden cameras that are virtually undetectable, could use to observe nearby activity, monitor a crime scene, gathers data such as screw camera, cigarette pack camera, key fob camera, flexible fiber camera, body-worn hidden camera and watch spy camera; spy printer and scanner with a size of a pen that can easily assess any threats allowing you to look into a building or a house and wireless earphone to furtive and discreet communication; telephone voice changers; bug detector; white noise generator; dissolving paper; envelope x-ray paper and; spy weaponry such as stun pen, pepper spray rings, concealed pen and lipstick knives and sonic nausea.

"... with the ever-increasing  pace of technology, things that once seemed very much in the realm of  science fiction are now most assuredly science fact and some gadgets are readily available to the general public." - Simon Rose

After reading the article, I can say that Conan's gadgets are possible to have in real life because of people with great minds that can invent them. And gadgets like those can really help in gathering information to solve crimes and chase criminals.

Nowadays, there is nothing impossible. We can get all that we want as long as it does not harm anybody. But we should remember that all things have their own limit and we should not exceed this limit.