Science fiction works have inspired many modern technologies by envisioning devices and capabilities before they existed in real life. The document discusses several examples: artificial skin was first described in a Frank Herbert novel; telemedicine was featured in an E.M. Forster story from 1909; pressure sensing contact lenses were used in stories by Larry Niven and Vernor Vinge; a device capable of displaying 3D images was a "stereo tank" in a Robert Heinlein story; and a knife containing a poison gas canister was introduced in an Eric Frank Russell novel. Science fiction authors have a history of imagining future technologies decades before they become scientific realities.
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