The possibilities are endless

By: Keith Hearne
These days the word “Technology” is synonymous with change, growth and advancement in the modern world. I’m sure that some people might argue the opposite, and say that technology is a corrupting force used for selfish means and is an oppressor of people also, but for the sake of this article I am going to take the first option. There is no disputing that the current global technology market has had its zenith and its nadir, and in a lot of cases is still in a state of flux and inconsistency. However, not even this has stemmed the flow of innovation that seems to be ever increasingly bursting forth in the shape of new and improved services and devices that are becoming common place in our daily lives.
I’m still relatively young but at the same time old enough to remember when a Video Recorder was a big novelty when introduced in the house. Then there were microwave ovens; personal computers and more recently we’ve all seen the effect and impact of the Internet, both in business and general dissemination of information. Or can you remember what the original mobile phones were like? Clunky, cumbersome and large. In the past few years’ things have been getting more compact, faster and offer more for their money. Everything from VCR, DVD, to mobile phones. We even have disposable, recyclable, and wearable mobile phones (check out Hop-on.com http://www.hop-on.com). We have integrated mobile phones with color displays, email, internet and familiar Microsoft applications that can be used while using the same device as a phone(xda details).
We’ve moved into an era of convenience. If something is too much effort, people don’t want to know about it. So in this age of complacency and pragmatism what can we expect to see emerge next? What other gems have the technology makers in store for us? Here are a few possible theoretical scenarios for you to muse over. Bear in mind that while I say theoretical, it is envisaged that most of these will be reached and are being achieved, but maybe not presently.
1. Home away from Home
One possibility in the future is that people may be able to watch their house with the cameras they have set up in-house, either with their PDA while on holidays or with a computer connected to the Internet while working in their offices. People will be able to control devices in the home from mobile phones or devices, such as turning the heating on at home while driving home in your car. Turn your cooker on; set your VCR to record. Indeed this scenario will fit nicely into our ever increasing need for expediency and simplicity in our daily lives. This option may not be too far away at all.
2. Location Based Service
Imagine your voice activated, hands free mobile device being smart enough to contain a profile on you. Your likes, dislikes, eating habits and more. Your travelling abroad and your device picks out the places that you like to eat and informs you when you are close to one and directs you to it with a street map on its colour display. You’ve never been to this city before, you probably don’t speak the language but through
your mobile device you have found a Chinese food restaurant and had a look inside through a web cam set up in the restaurant, paid for you meal and given a tip within an hour of your arrival. And all of this was done through your mobile device, including payment. You pass a cinema and a listing of films pop up on your screen, however your device knows that you are between the age of 20 and 30 and like science fiction movies so it shows you a listing of those films first. It’s also your friend’s birthday at home so you stop and record a message through the inbuilt digital video recorder on your mobile device and sent it to that friend’s mobile device. Just to let them know that they may be out of site but not out of mind.
The possibilities here of services that could be offered to you are almost endless. And in this case your mobile device would not be today’s mobile phones or a hand held device but rather a watch(phone watches are already available check out news.com.com/2100-1033-834266.html), or maybe as small and simple as a necklace and glasses which act as the display and control unit. There are a number of company’s already investing time and research into wearable mobile devices. And with phone and IP(Internet Protocol) devices merging quickly it is quiet feasible for these kind of devices and services to co-exist together in the not to distant future. The whole idea of having a profile on your device that you can take with you wherever you go is a hot area at the moment in the 3G market. The ability to roam through different mobile networks and take your profile with you. Indeed the TSSG have a number of projects that incorporate work on the Virtual Home Environment (VHE) and the applicability of VHE/Mobile Service Portals for the delivery of customizable user services(check out www.ist-opium.org and www.ist-albatross.org).
Some people may be reading this and thinking that it is far fetched and is too much like one of Steven Spielberg’s latest movies, such as A.I. or Minority Report. However, it wasn’t so long ago that people would have watched something like StarTrek and thought just the same about something like teleportation and yet we have lived to see such things come to fruition. Just recently scientists in Australia successfully teleported a laser beam(www.anu.edu.au/pad/).
Technology has been scoffed at for years but that has never stopped it yet. I’ll leave you ponder on this thought. Steve Jobs, one of the founders of Apple, gave a presentation in the early 80′s and told people that within the next decade or two most houses would have a personal computer, to which there was rapturous laughter at the ludicrousness of the idea. These things have now come to pass and those sounds of laughter have been long stifled, so think on.
For more on possible future scenarios check out : www.wireless.kth.se/foresight/