The Wireless World Research Forum (WWRF) met in Toronto recently and offered a glimpse of what researchers are thinking about the future of wireless communications.
Backed by manufacturers of wireless devices, wireless network operators, research and development operations and universities all
over the world, the forum is a pre-competitive research organization concerned with where wireless technology is going.
The group doesn’t have answers for all the questions it raises. But the questions are interesting enough.
One point researchers made in a pre-meeting media briefing was that wireless gadgets won’t be limited to a single network forever. Today we have the cellular network, which was designed for phones, and Wi-Fi networks, which are designed for computers, and we have some kinds of wireless technology, not to mention satellites, all of which allow anything from a mobile phone to a computer to communicate without wires.
Pocket devices that can communicate over either the cellular network or a Wi-Fi connection are just around the corner, WWRF Vice-Chair Miguel Pellon told reporters. But that’s only the beginning. In future, mobile computers and phones could support more networks, allowing them to switch among different connections according to what’s available and what’s most appropriate in the circumstances.
Devices could also become aware of their surroundings in other ways. Prof. Angela Sasse of London’s University College suggested that “”context-aware”” mobile gadgets could recognize when they’re in meetings and either send incoming calls to voice mail or switch to vibrate mode.
Just how they would recognize a meeting I’m not sure — perhaps the fact that the person carrying the device is falling asleep would be a helpful clue.
Nobody mentioned it at the briefing, but adjusting ring volume to the surroundings could be useful in other ways. Most people who carry cellphones have probably, like me, missed calls by not hearing the thing ringing on a noisy street. Yet even if your phone is capable you don’t really want it ringing loudly if you’re on, say, the train. Surely sensing the ambient noise level and adjusting the ring volume accordingly wouldn’t be too difficult a trick.
The WWRF is also looking at ease of use. All mobile devices are acquiring more features, but manufacturers have not figured out how to make it easy to find and use them. It can be a nightmare wading through menus looking for something simple among all the bells and whistles — many of which the average person never uses.
Prof Sasse believes the best solution is personalization — menus that rearrange themselves according to what you use. This happens in many PC applications today, and it’s somewhat helpful, though it doesn’t make it any easier to locate the functions that you use once in a long time.
But the fact that we’re talking about these issues shows how much the line between computers and phones has been blurred. Today, these mobile devices are really little computers. That fact was brought home to me when my digital cellphone froze up one day recently. I took it back to the store, where an employee rebooted it by popping the battery out. He said it happens all the time.
