25 October 2007

Cell phone futures

By Jim Pinto

Apple stands out with its innovative designs. While people fawn over features, like the smart, multi-touch screen and the advanced web browser, there is important technology under the hood. The iPhone has tiny, powerful sensors—accelerometer, ambient light sensor, and infrared sensor—which adjust the functions, converting the screen view from portrait to landscape, adjusting the screen brightness, disabling the touch screen when the phone is up against the ear.

A cell phone already has a powerful computer, lots of memory, screen, keyboard, and Internet connection. What can you not do with your cell phone? Why carry a cell phone and a camera, when one gadget can do both? In some places, people can already use cell phones instead of credit cards. So, why carry credit cards? Soon this multi-function gadget will include more sensors, leading to lots of new features and functions.

Built-in sensors and GPS will provide of feedback with contextual clues about users’ locations, activities, and behaviors. For example, sensor-enabled phones could help monitor exercise habits, keep track of various activities, and let people know whether you are available for a call, or not, to stop annoying interruptions. It can let you know if you need to take a break, or if you are meeting your exercise goals.

To explore possibilities, Intel researchers used a pager-size gadget that gathers data from seven sensors: accelerometer, barometer, humidity sensor, thermometer, light sensor, digital compass, and microphone. Most of these determine location and activity, but the microphone can provide interesting clues on social networks, for example, whether a person is having a social chat or a business conversation. To avoid privacy concerns, only information about tone, pitch, and volume undergo analysis. So now, your cell phone will become a completely new social-networking and life-enhancing tool.

Because cell phones are used in high volume, the race is on for tiny, low-cost sensors, typically silicon micro-sensors. Cell phones already have lots of technology, more than most people ever use. This does not stop product developers from thinking up and including features and functions that are often cheap and easy extensions. As soon as a new feature becomes even marginally acceptable, then everybody jumps on the bandwagon … and the user wins.

Related links:

• Apple could do a lot more with all the sensors in the iPhone:
  http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/18990/?a=f
• iPhone 2.0 will likely be worth the wait:
  http://blogs.zdnet.com/Berlind/?p=592
• Cracking open the Apple iPhone:
  http://content.zdnet.com/2346-9595_22-93276.html

Behind the byline

Jim Pinto is an industry analyst and founder of Action Instruments. You can e-mail him at jim@jimpinto.com or view his writings at www.JimPinto.com. Read the Table of Contents of his book, Pinto’s Points, at www.jimpinto.com/writings/points.html.