Telecommunication
The conventional telephone was invented independently by Alexander Bell and Elisha Gray in 1876. Antonio Meucci invented the first device that allowed the electrical transmission of voice over a line in 1849. However Meucci's device was of little practical value because it relied upon the electrophonic effect and thus required users to place the receiver in their mouth to "hear" what was being said. The first commercial telephone services were set-up in 1878 and 1879 on both sides of the Atlantic in the cities of New Haven and London.
George Sweigert
Sweigert predicted that half of the people in the world would own a wireless phone in the time of his children. With the current world population of wireless phones at 3.2 Billion in 2008, he was probably not far wrong with this prediction. He predicted integrated cameras, GPS, accelerometers, and other advanced sensors in the 1969 moon lander would be integrated into the wireless phone. Sweigert received notice of his patent approval the same day of the first moon landing on June 20, 1969.