By Mark Ollig
What
will a mobile communication device be like in 10 to 15 years?
One
common answer is: “It will be a chip implanted in our head.”
Yours
truly believes using silicon (or germanium-based) communication chips imbedded
in our heads as a practical means for communicating with one another, will be
the stuff of science fiction for quite a while.
I
feel the problem with current, portable smartphone devices are the screens.
They are too small, which makes it difficult to see text, video, and pictures.
Personally,
I fault my middle-aged eyes.
If
we go with a larger display screen, our mobile phone no longer remains a device
one can easily carry, or wear in a shirt pocket.
The
size of an iPad and similar display devices would be too large to carry around
as our main mobile communication device.
The
mobile telephones of the future will need adjustable display screens capable of
being increased and reduced in size. They might be folded like a wallet, or
rolled up to the size of a pen.
For
years, yours truly has been a proponent for having mobile devices include a
built-in mini-projector. This projector could send the contents of the display
screen onto a wall, or table.
When
I enthusiastically told my oldest son of my idea, he shook his head.
Well,
I still feel it’s a good idea.
Researchers
at the Darmstadt University of Technology, located in Darmstadt, Germany have
released a study suggesting what they feel mobile telephones will be like in 10
to 15 years.
The
university’s website proposes the display screens of future mobile phones will
“merge virtual and physical reality.”
The
mobile phone’s camera will not only take a picture, or record a video; it will
also be able to cross-reference what it sees with other information.
One
example is of an architect’s mobile phone camera being focused on a particular
historical building. Information could be obtained on how it looked in the
1920s. A referenced picture from the 1920s would be overlayed in 3-D fashion
upon the existing building in the display screen for comparison.
One
future-concept mobile phone device developed features a passive, “rollable”
display screen.
This
display screen can be rolled out or back in on itself, in order to increase or
decrease its physical size.
Since
the display screen size is physically changeable, a picture or video being
viewed can become larger or smaller.
Also,
a person’s interface with the device’s digital content will become more
interactive.
For
example, certain physical motions when operating the rolling display screen can
be interpreted as zooming in or out, on the specific area being viewed.
Reading
lots of text without reducing its font size is accomplished by simply pulling
the ends of the device further apart to expand the screen size. The text is
read similar to how one reads text on a paper or parchment scroll.
“Users
will have their hands full simultaneously manipulating the display and the
telephone’s controls,” said Professor Max Muhlhauser, head of the
Telecooperation Lab at the university.
These
future mobile devices will also require better power utilization than we
currently use. New powerful, microscopic batteries now being developed could
someday be used.
Mobile
phone apps (applications), such as Scan & Go, or Square Wallet, allow our mobile
phones to quickly pay for products we buy in a store, or at the drive-thru when
purchasing our favorite coffee.
Today,
most road tolls are collected using cash; in the near future; they will be
collected wirelessly and electronically.
California’s
FasTrak pre-paid electronic toll road collection system provides iPhone or
Android mobile device users a free app. This app allows the user’s mobile
device to be quickly scanned for collecting toll road charges. Using this app,
no stopping of a user’s vehicle at the toll road booth is needed.
The
Darmstadt University of Technology researchers say future mobile telephone
networks will be required to handle higher transmission speeds than currently
being used.
Recently,
Samsung, based in South Korea, announced they have developed a means of
transmitting huge amounts of cellular data over frequencies much higher and
faster than those being used today.
The
best wireless mobile phone technology currently available for a smart device is
4G.
By
2020, Samsung says it will be marketing 5G.
Samsung
stated 5G will allow enormous amounts of data to be sent over our mobiles
devices “practically without limitation.”
In
a world with 5G networks, a super-high-definition video could be downloaded in
just seconds.
This
could be the wireless network environment fast enough to interact with the
future devices Darmstadt University of Technology is talking about.
We
all know about the Internet cloud, and how we are becoming more connected with
it.
Future
mobile communication devices will be connected to portions of the cloud at all
times. Professor Muhlhauser calls these mobile portions of the cloud,
“cloudlets.”
The
one concern Professor Muhlhauser expressed, was that of “the security
infrastructure currently housed in insecure mobile telephones.”
Whatever
the future communications gadget, we will certainly want our personal and
financial information being protected inside a mobile device we can trust.
