Beyond the Handset
Mark Rolston
Chief Creative O cer
© 2007 frog design. Confidential & Proprietary.

“Technology is dominated by
those who manage what they
do not understand”
Murphy

© 2007 frog design. Confidential & Proprietary. 3

“I’m your main connection to the
switchboard of the soul...the
Santa Claus of the subconscious”
Strange Days
© 2007 frog design. Confidential & Proprietary. 4

The first phenomenon:
.
Something has happened to the handset

IxDA 2009

This has become a window
© 2007 frog design. Confidential & Proprietary. 7

The physical object is
losing it’s functional
identity
MEX: Personalization © 2007 frog design. Confidential & Proprietary.

it can be anything
Open Systems
you want it to be
Invite Innovation
MEX: Personalization © 2007 frog design. Confidential & Proprietary.

The second phenomenon:
people are frequently managing two lives
© 2007 frog design. Confidential & Proprietary. 10

First Life
© 2007 frog design. Confidential & Proprietary. 11

Second Life
© 2007 frog design. Confidential & Proprietary. 12

inevitably our first and second lives
are becoming en-tangled
© 2007 frog design. Confidential & Proprietary. 13

© 2007 frog design. Confidential & Proprietary. 14

The third phenomenon:
computing, in particular the human interface,
is undergoing a radical change
© 2007 frog design. Confidential & Proprietary. 15

Touch was the important first step
It bridges the physical and virtual
© 2007 frog design. Confidential & Proprietary. 16

the Wii introduced 3d control
© 2007 frog design. Confidential & Proprietary. 17

technologies still in the lab are
teaching the computer to better
interact with and in our world
© 2007 frog design. Confidential & Proprietary. 18

© 2007 frog design. Confidential & Proprietary. 19

Microsoft’s Project Natal
© 2007 frog design. Confidential & Proprietary. 20

Microsoft’s Project Natal
© 2007 frog design. Confidential & Proprietary. 21

There are also trivial examples
© 2007 frog design. Confidential & Proprietary. 22

IxDA 2009

© 2007 frog design. Confidential & Proprietary. 24

http://www.gravitytrap.com/sniff
© 2007 frog design. Confidential & Proprietary. 25

some even create questions about what is real
http://www.marcotempest.com
© 2007 frog design. Confidential & Proprietary. 26

Pranav Mistry, 6th Sense, MIT, 2009

© 2007 frog design. Confidential & Proprietary. 28

It’s a self reinforcing loop:
real becomes virtual becomes real...
University of Washington Laboratory virtual reconstruction of The Old City of Dubrovnik
© 2007 frog design. Confidential & Proprietary. 29

all of this points to a dramatic shift in
the way computing fits into our lives

the problem with computing
is that it requires computers
© 2007 frog design. Confidential & Proprietary. 31

computing was relegated to special places
© 2007 frog design. Confidential & Proprietary. 32

computing still requires we go into it’s world
© 2007 frog design. Confidential & Proprietary. 33

but it is starting to become part of our world
34

would it be a stretch to say this
shift is as big as the internet itself?
© 2007 frog design. Confidential & Proprietary. 35

Ubiquitous Computing?
Augmented Reality?
Computing in Context
© 2007 frog design. Confidential & Proprietary. 36

this is the growing world of computing that is
about our world - people, places, things.
and accessible within our world.

Contemplate your own discomfort
38

Ralph Bremenkamp | www.frogdesign.com

“Borgs” outside the MIT, circa 1995

a weird question:

would you give away an eye
to have it replaced with a camera?

Rob Spence | www.eyborgblog.com

Rob Spence | www.eyborgblog.com

the body becomes a node

Airstrip OB Remote Monitoring Application
mass-market examples are here already

Google Latitude | www.google.com/latitude

Nintendo Wii | www.wii.com

frog design, e-monitors, 2009

Dexcom | www.dexcom.com www.sixuntilme.com beclever.wordpress.com

“ So what happens when
the device that records
your medical status
is also the device
you use to update
your social connections?”
Lee Maguire, 2009

your heartbeat becomes
a conversation

one last consideration,
one last reference,
and one last (weird) question

frogdesign Dattoo. 2005
That thing absorbing and beaming bits
won’t be a device you’ll be wearing.
It will be you.

“I can see through satellites now”
Warren Ellis & Adi Granov, Iron Man, 2008

we know how that feels, right?

how quickly is augmented reality
leading us to feel the need
for an augmented body
to fully take advantage of it?

in other words...

Would you give an eye
to see through satellites?

mark.rolston@frogdesign.com
www.frogdesign.com