All types of blogs,
peer-2-peer audio and video communication via the Internet, e-commerce .... all
of these no longer amaze anybody. The controversy around Web 2.0 or even Web
3.0 only confirms that the IT community is on the verge of changing from one
Internet model to another, but nobody knows what kind of model is coming.
Existing technologies, no matter how effective they are, are based on 10-20
years old ideas. Blogs for example were nothing more than personal diaries with
a simplistic design, read only by people close to the writer. The latest
features, including all kind of data aggregators like folksonomy, mashup, and
widgets, ability to find pictures and, as Google promised, video - based on
real content, not on descriptive textual tags - and an Internet browser being
the only required application to work with an online virtual operating system [1]
and on-line applications, perhaps that is all what we can expect in the nearest
future.
At the same time, the recognizable trend of the Internet in recent years is a
growing prevalence of video content, which is closely associated with technical
progress, such as increasing bandwidth and continuously reducing cost of data
storage. Real-time video broadcasting via the Internet, as did audio
broadcasting some times ago, becomes less and less surprising, while the number
of people who are using this opportunity is growing. Further development
combines home-theatre and Internet systems, allowing users to order any movie
on-line and in the future quite possibly develop a story by themselves.
Such evolutions of communication systems have had a direct impact on mobile
systems. Mobile phones, smart phones, notebooks and game gadgets stepping on
the heels of each other, and trying to wrest a piece of their rivals' or
related systems' functionality. Continuing this trend it is quite possible to
say that in the future all these devices will merge into one gadget, if not for
one "but". Mobile devices show a particularly evident contradiction
between usefulness and device dimensions. In order to be easier to use, the
mobile device should as small as possible. As a result we are looking at a
screen in the best case the size of a playing card and typing by means of 12
keys. A mobile phone is small. In turn, the notebook has a much bigger screen
and a keyboard with 101 keys which is helpful to type blindly, but does not fit
to the pocket. Engineers are trying to find a compromise solution creating
pull-down, movable, twistable and other types of screens and keyboards, but
they are not so convenient to use. Such contradictions may be formulated in the
tradition of TRIZ [2] – "the system should be large enough to be easy to
use, and should be sufficiently small to be easy to carry". At the first
glance, this conflict cannot be resolved. Immediately, it comes to mind a
screen folded as a newspaper that is being unfolded is either hard to read or
hard to use, for example, a keyboard unfolded to roll over the knees or even
sewed to trousers (there is even such patent [3]!) Hopefully, it is still
possible to resolve such a conflict taking into account that the user needs an
image itself, not just a means. That might lead to a small device that is
projecting such an image to glasses' lens, or even directly to pupil. In this
case the "screen" will became as large as a field of vision. Unlike a
virtual reality helmet, such device is incredibly small in size. Furthermore,
such compact devices already exist and are even available for the commercial
use [4].
The same is happening with the keyboard. Readers can formulate the
contradiction for the keyboard themselves. Instead of seeking the compromise
between size and usability, it is possible to offer a crucial solution to the
problem, namely a virtual keyboard. The device, worn on the wrist, tracks the
movement of the fingers and the on-screen display shows where the fingers are
now and what key is pressed or released. There are several solutions for that,
the simplest one in the form of gloves [5], the other defined by the movement
of muscles [6], or using the reflection of laser or sound beams [7]. It is
important that hands in the case of the virtual keyboard remain free. For that
reason, the mobile computer with a large screen and the keyboard with any
number of keys, localizations and layouts may have the same size as mobile
phones now. (If necessary, the central processing unit may be on a belt, in a
bag, or even in a home wirelessly connected.)
For what other reason, except existing diversity of applications, could this
individual mobile computer be used? Perhaps for 3-D broadcasting. Indeed, if
our glasses' "monitor" can project separate images for each eye, it
skyrockets the Internet to a new, hitherto unattainable level. 3-D movies,
news, sport events and concerts – the user will be able to see them as if he
directly participated in the event. Changes in software and hardware to provide
this will be significant – new video codecs, further increase of bandwidth to
provide the quality, editing and playback software.
As is often the case, many ideas seem to be science fiction and no one expect
them to appear in the next hundred years. In the case of mobile devices,
systems have not only come as ideas but have been already translated into
actual devices, though they are not a single system yet.
Possibly, the negotiation between separate device vendors and steps towards
collaboration would benefit users, and be a new impetus in the development of
mobile devices and the Internet.
