What will mobile phones be like in the future? Ana Lorente explains the future trends that will affect our most used gadget
The mobile is our inseparable companion, without which life would now be impossible. In little over 30 years it has become the most widely adopted technological device in human history. There are now more mobiles than people on the planet. We experience a feeling of panic (nomophobia) if it is not to hand, and it is with us for more time than we spend with our loved ones.
The mobile phones of today are powerful connected mini-computers. Thanks to them we can work or study from anywhere, they entertain us and help us to keep in touch with hundreds, even thousands of people through social networks. But, despite their sophisticated technology, the current generation of smartphones have a very similar appearance to the mobile phone from 10 or 20 years ago. Will they stay like this in the future? If we take into account various technological trends and all the research taking place to make computers more intelligent, then we might predict that mobiles as we know them today will disappear.
What are these trends that are going to contribute towards the disappearance of today’s mobile?
The end of small screens. The size of the screen on a mobile is one of its greatest current limits, as we have to adopt unergonomic postures to consult them, and they isolate us and oblige us to ignore our surroundings. For that reason solutions are now appearing such as augmented reality (Google Glass) and virtual reality (Oculus Rift or Hololens by Microsoft) glasses, or even thanks to the potential direct stimulation of the retina. It is estimated that the global market for head mounted displays will reach 12.3 billion in USD in 2020.
The wearables boom. A couple of years ago nobody knew what the term wearable meant, but today they are everywhere and they are talked about as one of the most significant technological trends. Not without reason it is expected that this market will multiply by 10, reaching 50 billion USD in the next three years.
These electronic devices which we are wearing more and more as an accessory; bracelets, pendants, watches, etc. monitor our physical activity, sleep phases, heartbeat, or blood sugar level.
Within the environment of wearables, “chip implants”, or labs on a chip, are appearing, which are implanted within the body and can measure biochemical levels in the blood, something which is very useful for those with a chronic condition, or athletes.
The wearables we are using now connect to our mobile phones via Bluetooth, which provides them with the processing, storage, and visualisation capability for data, without which their use would be very limited. The progressively more widespread use of these devices is also contributing to the transformation of mobiles.
We will use our voices again. Nowadays we hardly ever use the mobile for speaking; in fact we usually use text to communicate. Recent advances in voice recognition will allow the voice to take on a more important role in our interaction with the mobile via personal assistants such as Cortana or Siri, and interfaces based on speech. The forecasts predict that this market will reach 113.2 billion USD in 2017 following sustained annual growth of over 16%.
Multi-modal interaction. Why should we limit ourselves to using sight and sound in our communications, when we have five senses? Our interactions with the mobile will not be exclusively visual or aural, but, as outlined in the work of professor Adrian Cheok, it will be possible to incorporate the sense of touch, or transmit and recognise smells and flavours through the mobile.
But perhaps the most significant milestone in the history of remote communication will be the capability to communicate by thought. Although this seems like science fiction, we can already control robots, move bionic arms or legs, play video games, and send information using thought alone. What is known as brain-computer interaction these days involves locating a series of electrodes on the head. Through the progressive miniaturisation of technology and the advances in artificial intelligence techniques, the prototypes for brain-computer interaction will get smaller and smaller, so that in the future we will be able to communicate remotely through thought alone.
The smart mobile. Although we call them smartphones, today’s mobiles are not very intelligent, ans they have little or no knowledge of who we are, how we feel, or what we are doing.
In the future our mobiles will be provided with greater intelligence, as they will have greater knowledge of the context regarding our tastes and needs, and they will become true assistants.
The mobile humanity sensor. For the first time in history, the location of mobile phones is allowing us to analyse data regarding human behaviour at a collective, anonymous level; data regarding cities, countries, or even entire continents. The existence of this information represents a unique, unprecedented opportunity, which is particularly useful in assisting governments and humanitarian organisations to take better decisions when faced, for example, with a natural disaster or the threat of a pandemic. This is Big Data for Social Well-being.
A redefinition of who we are as a species. The combination of our neuroplasticity with this intimate, continuous relationship we have with the mobile is redefining who we are as the human species. All technology which is universally adopted involves a redefinition of ourselves, and the mobile, without doubt, does this. Skills which were common in the past, such as the memorisation of phone numbers, are now obsolete. The medium to long term consequences of these changes for our memories, concentration or distraction capacities, emotional states or interpersonal relationships are unknown, but we must take this into account.
Although mobiles as we know them today will disappear, they will have an even greater role to play in our lives. Their impact, through a redefinition of who we are as a species, involves the risk of us losing basic skills, but also gaining the potential to improve our quality of life at an individual and collective level. All this is going to allow us to face global challenges such as the ageing population, or the prevalence or chronic conditions. We have before us the challenge to make responsible use of mobiles and be conscious of the opportunities they are providing to make us better, and improve our world.
