One Device To Rule The Future

This is just something that is waiting to happen. I mean take a look around you — everything is about convergence these days. It’s about fitting in as much as possible into something as small as possible. True that that approach hasn’t worked too well for companies and manufacturers in the past but now technology has finally started catching up to the ideas that designers have had for a long time. This is why it can be said with a fair amount of certainty that the future of this world’s tech is going to be about that one gadget that does it all for you. Forget about carrying all those little things and one-trick wonders. You are about to step into the future and there will be just one piece of über gizmo that you are going to need.

Let’s start from all the things that we need and demand. The first things that we want from our gadgets is basically a computer. Rather – the functionalities of a computer that we have come to depend on. So that means getting day to day work done and depending on what you do — you might need to crunch spreadsheets, make presentations, process photos, make music, draw, consume lots of text or blog all day long, like me! For that, we would need a fast processor, a sizeable screen, decent memory and usable storage. Here, we can eliminate storage because we are stepping into a world of cloud computing where Google and others store and back up our data for a small fee.

Then, we need data connection on the go, so a fast data connection is necessary. So a (touch)screen, speedy components and a wireless data connection.

For entertainment, we already have convergent mobile phones acting as all round media players. So we can check that one off because it is already here.

Shopping and carrying money or cards in your wallet is going to be passé. We need more freedom. So how about biometric data acting as unique credit cards? Sign up your thumb with MasterCard and start shopping! Just press your thumb on an onscreen image and immediately get to a checkout area to confirm your purchase. Well, although there’s no such direct linkage of biometric data with money yet, something similar already happens in Japan.

Being one of the most technologically advanced nations in the world, if not the most, they have taken their mobile phones and turned them into devices that do virtually everything.

When you get out of your house, you don’t take your wallet, you take your phone with you. Then, you pay for your superfast train ticket with your phone. So no queuing up, just touching your phone through checkpoints. Then as you travel, you see an ad for something you want. You scan the barcode with your phone, the product appears on your screen and you can buy it through your phone. The bill will be unified when it comes to you. Whilst it is much easier for the rest of the world to think about right now, now that phones like the iPhone are out, Japan has been doing this for quite some time now.

So the future is already here in parts. But what would the ultimate uber gizmo of the future be like? There are many possibilities and just like organic evolution — it is not very easy to predict. It is actually nigh impossible to be full accurate about either of these evolutions. But we can look at the technology available now and make educated guesses.

To make such a device, you need to choose your display very wisely. Because that and the processor are the two limiting factors on handheld devices, being the two things that consume all the power. Whilst we already have amazingly power efficient options from the likes of ARM in terms of processors, similar developments in displays are only just emerging. One very important development is Pixel Qi’s LCD-eInk hyrbid. This screen has the power saving advantages of the eInk display technology and the color and frame rate advantages of LCD. Of course, this display stands a sort of middle ground with regards to those features.

Then there is the Mirasol display technology that is being funded by Qualcomm. This display sounds almost too good to be true — it will be as low-power consuming as eInk displays or even less, it will have high enough frame rate to render video and it’s cells will have RGB states. That means it will be able to display full colored images and videos too. Other than these things, it will also be directly readable underneath the sun. Even though they are touting it as the ultimate eReader screen — it might end up having a lot of applications in tablets.

But these screens will still limit the device to the size of the screen itself. So it will be tough to go beyond the tablet form factor. Whilst that might be appealing right now, the real challenge is to go beyond that form factor and the make the screen’s size irrelevant to the size of the actual device.

If that is to be done, then screens can no longer be rigid. And to that end, we have the flexible OLED screens (and its variants) that are being developed by several groups and companies. these are ultimately looking to mimic the ultimate medium invented by man — paper. Only, these will be able to show you the video instead of a printed still. With flexible screens, the device can continue to get smaller and have detachable screens that can be safely rolled into tubes.

Another option is to have the screen projected onto something. But a projectable surface isn’t always available and watching things on our palms/glovesisn’t the kind of multimedia experience that I expect from the future. The display inside your eyeglasses was a cool idea but it is inconvenient, impractical and potentially dangerous. So a physical screen is the way to go IMO.

By that time, single NAND chips (mass market ones) should be able to hold 128GB. So if we still need onboard storage, these chips can be used on these tiny devices to give us a fair amount of local storage to bend to the squirrels in us,

Battery life, the thing that started all the problems with bulk and display technology, will no longer depend on batteries like Lithium Ion, NiMh, etc. Instead, they will be powered by fuel cells, solar power and probably the energy generated by our movements through futuristic energy harvesting suits. I promise to be one of the early adopters of this suit as long as it doesn’t harvest me!

Coming back to the device — it is pretty obvious that once we have a super long lasting, color screen bearing computing device hooked on to a wireless data connection, everything is a go go. So where do we go next? Well, this device should be able to replace everything that involves some kind of data. So kids will be handed one of these and sent of to school. They will grow up with it, upgrade it constantly but still own only one device at a time. They will graduate with it, go to work with, unwind with it and communicate with it.

Highly specialized devices for high level professionals will still probably exist through the next 5 or 6 years, But by the end of the decade, miniaturization and alternative forms of computing should begin to eliminate them too. And by that point, data and platform will reign supreme.

That is where the true game lies. Who will have control over all this data? It might so happen that today’s voice carriers be forced to turn into data carriers and they might continue to diversify into retail and entertainment like they already are. In that case there will interoperability between them but to have a truly seamless experience you need to have tight integration that is controlled as tightly. But then, whom would we trust with that much power? The government or some private company like Google or may be Apple? Would you sell out on your freedom to have a convenient shopping experience?

In the end, the one who has the best platform will be the winner. In today’s world, your hardware is only as good as your software. So whilst a lot of companies made great hardware, Apple and now Google are getting all the attention mainly because of their software. Of course, Apple did start off a revolution with their hardware and hence they are still considered the market leaders in innovation and everyone pretty much looks up to them.

Thus, once the hardware has caught up to the ideas already in motion, we will be witnessing another sea change in the way we use technology in our daily lives. Information is already instant and digital/digitized services are growing in number everyday. The next thing to come is true globalization in terms of connectivity. Beyond that is either a chaotic world or a world in complete harmony or somewhere in between. Like I said earlier, it is hard to predict.

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This article was posted as One Device To Rule The Future at Otaku Gadgets.