1. New Horizon
wm wbDR †g 2011 21
followed by the simultaneous launch of
the Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT)
system in Denmark, Finland, Norway
and Sweden. The first commercial
cellular network launch in the USA was
Chicago-based Ameritech in 1983 using
Motorola DynaTAC mobile phone. In
brief, this is the evolution story of the
device, staring at you.
May be as a new reader of this
magazine, you are a bit irritated to read
the stone age history of cell phones,
after all who cares for the past, when we
live in the present? Well, future is
enrooted at the womb of the past. So,
how is your cell phone going to change
and how it’s going to bring change in
you – has answers from the history. Just
close your eyes; relax and give it a
thought for ten seconds, how would the
future cell phones look like and change
the way you live today? Ten seconds
only. Come on, let’s begin,
one…two…three…four…five… Kring
Krring… oh! The obvious intervention,
your cell phone rings. You get a urgent
call that tells you to move out and go to
the airport to pick some unscheduled
guests. Let’s better
wrap up the
ma ga zine
for now
a n d
b e tte r
get quick
into the car.
As soon as you
got into the car, your
hectic schedule began.
You started making phone
calls and arranging logistics
for the guests and circulating
the message of to different
persons. After so many calls, when
you get a break, you find yourself
trapped into a traffic jam among
hundreds of latest model cars. The
traffic jam makes you depressed. Right
now, guess its 2025 instead of 2010.
“Hello, Rafiq, it looks you are a bit
upset. Do I read a magazine article for
you from today’s Daily magazine? It’s
quite interesting. It’s about…” your cell
phone suddenly starts a conversation!
A N M Farukh
If 20th century was for ‘Computer’, the
21st is evidently for the rise of ‘Cell
Phone’. This feature is the story of
rising of cell phone and making your
life a hell. Before you proceed reading
the next sentence, please hold your
breath for a second and have a look into
your cell phone. No, not for checking
any missed call or any text message
(text), just have a glance and feel it. Did
you notice that, when you are reading
this and when not, always the cell phone
is staring at you?
Cell phones use Radio technology for
its data transfer. Radiophones have a
long and varied history going back to
Reginald Fessenden’s invention and
shore-to-ship demonstration of radio
telephony, through the Second World
War with military use of radio
telephony links and civil services in the
1950s, while handheld mobile radio
devices have been available since 1973.
Martin Cooper, a Motorola researcher
and executive is considered to be the
inventor of the first practical mobile
phone for handheld use after a long race
against Bell Labs for the first portable
mobile phone. Using a modern portable
handset, Cooper made the first call on a
handheld mobile phone on April 3,
1973
to his
rival, Dr. Joel
S. Engel of Bell
Labs. The first commercially
automated cellular network was
launched in Japan by NTT (now NTT
DoCoMo) in 1979. In 1981, this was
Your cell phone has grown up by now
and now it talks to you instead of
merely staring at. You were really very
upset, and feeling a hurry about timely
arrival to the airport. So you tried to
avoid saying, “Come on Cello, we shall
talk later”. “Rafiq, according to DMP
data, you are going to stay locked into
this traffic jam for at least another
twenty five minutes and fifteen seconds.
Your pulse rate is quite high and you are
a bit nervous. If you keep on thinking
about the guests and cannot help it out,
it will worsen your mood. Let’s talk
different. Today is the wedding
anniversary of your sister in law. Do
you like to wish her or do I send a text?
Well, do not forget to stop at Agora
before airport to buy flowers for your
guests. Today Agora offers a discount.”
After a pause it again starts talking, “By
the way, you forgot to switch off the
household electric appliance network,
and last month your electricity bill was
quite higher, I have sent a text to switch
it off”.
Well, let’s come back to 2010 and to this
story. So how was the cell phone Rafiq
was talking to? What can it perform?
See, it can automatically connect to
public networks like DMP network or
Agora’s. It can read your mood. It starts
talking at a traffic jam, when you have
nothing to do, thus it knows how to find
your spare time. It keeps track of
anniversary and reminds you in time.
Moreover, it has some artificial
intelligence to analyze the given facts.
Finally, it can connect with other
devices, which will be called
Machine2Machine (M2M) talk. How
are the things going to change so sharp?
From Google to Microsoft and Nokia to
Apple, every tech giant is inside the
industry thriving for next level of
technology. Hardware is already
separated from software. Cell phone is
no more a calculator type button
machine. It has its own operating
system (OS). Eric Schmidt, Google’s
Chairman and Chief Executive, at
Mobile World Congress in February
(2010) said, indeed the phone, is
no longer just a device – “It’s your alter
2. New Horizon
your identity on the very moment you
open the door of ATM. Even, your
device may ask you to change your
route from Tajmahal Road to Asad Gate
because the Tajmahal Road ATM booth
has already run out of cash.
Does it sound like any science fiction
movie by James Cameron? Well, let me
share you that, Japanese mobile
operator NTT DoCoMo gave the press a
glimpse in to the future of mobile phone
user interfaces with its eye-controlled
earphones. The earphones, which have
electrodes attached, are able to pick up
the different electrical currents
generated by the eyeball when it moves,
and translate that in to phone
commands, such as making or receiving
calls, playing and pausing music, or
even skipping tracks. DoCoMo
envisages an age in which phones are
mere accessories, and so it’s working on
technology that will make our
interaction with these devices seem like
second nature.
2025 will be the era of free media
contents. No one charges you for any
download, whether contents or
applications. Business model of
application and content developers will
change. A newer group of large
associations of developers will emerge
and they are not going to charge the end
user but the ad providers or the
operators.
So many changes and modifications are
about to come. All is good news except
ego – it’s fundamental to everything you
do.” In the mean time Windows Phone 7
series has arrived with new looks like
Apple’s iPhone. Google Android now
has real momentum behind it, with
dozens of handset makers showing off
devices that run the open platform,
including Samsung, Sony Ericsson,
Motorola and Acer. The OS battle is
becoming a three-horse race among
Google, Apple and Microsoft. Despite
the best attempts of other companies,
such as Nokia or RIM, to create new
platforms for mobile devices, industry
analysts agree that the market will
start clustering around these three
main operating systems.
If you hear that, your cell phone has
cancelled your flight to Cox’s Bazar
by itself as there is a Danger Signal
Level 6 at the Bay, you cannot hold
temptation to thank it, though the
device may not care about it. It will
save you from your expenses by
efficient power consumption by the
electric devices through monitoring
and controlling them. All home
appliances will come under the
network. The device is the center of
your financing needs. It tracks your
bank accounts and salary statements.
It’s the payment device. It’s the new
world space you start living in. With
bio-metric identity, the device will be
your master key to all your locks at car,
home or office. It’s your health keeper
too. When you see your doctor, your
device will automatically connect with
the doctor’s and transfer the daily
information on blood pressure, sugar
level, calorie burning and alike since
you last met the doctor. If you change
your doctor, all the previous data will be
sent to the new doc. This device will be
the Universal Remote Control (URC)
for all connect-able devices. Banks will
dump all the plastic debit and credit
cards and application developer’s newer
applications will bring up, Credit Card
or Debit Card app for your device.
When you approach an ATM booth for
cash (if at all you need), you enter the
password and amount of money to
withdraw, at the device’s debit card app
on the way to ATM booth and you get
your money ready as soon as your
device Bluetooth the ATM and confirms
for the operators. Network operators
will no longer remain the controller of
the industry. They become merely a
hosepipe to circulate the flow of data.
The next age is for the content and
application developers. Household
appliance manufacturers will link up
with the developers for interface
software to link their appliances with
the mobile device through whatever
way possible. Another truth that
depresses us for now that, end users and
general people will lose their humane
capability to be “surprised” from a new
invention regarding the device.
“It’s 2025. Your mobile is now much
more than just a communication
device – more like a remote control for
your life. You still call it a “mobile”
from habit”, said William Webb, Head
of R&D at Ofcom (UK’s regulator for
the communications industry). From
this remark, we comprehend that, the
cell phone or handheld or the smart
phone is no more merely a
communication device with voice call
and internet. You still call it mobile out
of habit, may not be true. The time
may come up with a new name for the
device based on its contemporary
capability and features. At its best, it
will supersede the role of your
organizer or personal assistant. It will
be your best company to be with. It
will be the only device which you will
fully depend upon, for your own
performance in the context of
economic, social and personal
psychology. The device automatically
searches for your favorite movie or
music and plays for you at a spare time.
It will discover your preference pattern
and based on that it will collect
newspaper information whatever may
seem to be important to you. You start
cleaning up your own brain and start
using the memory of the device and at a
point of time, it has your brain. The
gradual inclusion of artificial
intelligence into the device, will give it
analytical ability to observe and
understand your behavior and attitude
and to adapt accordingly. This adaptive
behavior of the device will make itmore
personal than ever before. Thus the new
name for the device may be something
like “You 2.0”.
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