Pocket PC – Literally so in 2020?

[Jonathon Watkins]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4059011.stm' target='_blank'>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4059011.stm</a><br /><br /></div><i>"In 2020, whipping out your mobile phone to make a call will be quaintly passé. By then phones will be printed directly on to wrists, or other parts of the body....., Inanimate objects will start to interact with us: we will be surrounded - on streets, in homes, in appliances, on our bodies and possibly in our heads - by things that "think". Forget local area networks - these will be body area networks…… smart fabrics and textiles will be exploited to enhance functionality, form, or aesthetics. Such materials are already starting to change how gadgets and electronics are used and designed. So MP3 players - the mass gadget of the moment - will disappear and instead become integrated into one's clothing, says Mr Pearson. "So the gadgets that fill up your handbag, when we integrate those into fabric, we can actually get rid of all that stuff. You won't necessarily see the electronics. Wearable technology could exploit body heat to charge it up, while "video tattoos", or intelligent electronic contact lenses, might function as TV screens for those on the move. "" </i><br /><br />This BBC news article is worth a look to see how tech gadgets in future may simultaneously be ubiquitous and unnoticed. Wearable computing sounds good, though I don't like the sound of tattoos or implants. PC may stand for Personal Computer, but that's a bit too personal for my liking. :wink: Think of the upgrade problems, to say nothing of soft and hard rests! :lol: So, at what point do you think a Pocket PC will actually BE a pocket? How far would you be willing to go to integrate electronics into your body or wardrobe?

[PatrickD]

What happens if it rains? I don't want to short circuit :wink:

[ghostppc]

What happens if it rains? I don't want to short circuit :wink:


:rotfl: :rofl:

[Jonathon Watkins]

What happens if it rains? I don't want to short circuit :wink:

I think that an unstated assumption is that the electronics will be machine washable. Well - they will have to be if they are on clothes. But of course, these will initially be geek clothes, so maybe not. :lol: :wink:

The 'integrated' cloths I have seen recently usually have waterproof wiringing and a detachable electronics component 'pack'. The electronics in future can't be too bulky or heavy if the predictions are to come true.

[mscdex]

body area networks? BAN! :lol:

[marcm]

I'd like a Pocket PC/Cell Phone that straps onto your wrist like a watch, with a larger screen... Now, that may not be far away!

[PatrickD]

What happens if it rains? I don't want to short circuit :wink:

I think that an unstated assumption is that the electronics will be machine washable. Well - they will have to be if they are on clothes. But of course, these will initially be geek clothes, so maybe not. :lol: :wink:

The 'integrated' cloths I have seen recently usually have waterproof wiringing and a detachable electronics component 'pack'. The electronics in future can't be too bulky or heavy if the predictions are to come true.

Or maybe I will have weather radar embedded in a tattoo, so I can avoid the occasional shower. In the event a downpour is unavoidable, a S.P.O.T. umbrella will deploy from my shirt protecting my valuable electronics. Once the storm has passed, I’ll click my heels together three times, and a helicopter propeller will pop out of my hat allowing me to fly to my destination, guided by a GPS display built into my contact lens. Cool I can’t wait for the future. :wink:

Seriously though, this stuff does seem rather cool. What I would like to see them develop is a fabric with a built in cooling/heating system to keep the wearer comfortable. It would have to be self contained and powered. I don't want to wear any huge backpacks or battery packs.

[mesposito2]

What fun are electronics that you can't see and touch?

That'll be a sad day when all of our toys are like toasters - boring. And worse yet - invisible.

I don't think it will fly, unless of course human beings all go blind.

Mark :)

[omnytex]

Just wanted to point out that there is already a real term for this, PAN: Personal Area Network.

Believe it or not, Microsoft is doing some of the coolest research in this area... They are actively developing a system that uses the conductivity of the human body to transmit data. Gives new meaning to the term "getting a buzz" I suppose :)

I actually wrote a paper some years ago about the evolution and eventual merging of man and technology. I basically outlined a scenario where this is an inevitable path of human evolution because biological evolution is more or less a dead end once you control your environment as we largely do. When I wrote the paper, parts of it sounded rather fanciful, but developments over the past three years are rapidly making it sound all too realistic... brains grown in petri dishes controlling flight simulators, monkeys moving robotic arms over the Internet, professors in Britain with neural implants, etc. All of this stuff is real, has been done, IS being done, and is moving the man-machine that much closer to reality.

For me, I'm OK with it, for the most part. Any technology can be detected, but I would never "embed" into myself technology specifically DESIGNED to be detected anr/or tracked, no matter what the justification, which might sound rather reasonable.

So, those chips that radiate my medical information, no way, even if it could save my life in an emergency. But a cortical implant to enhance my vision? Sure. A GPS transmitter in my kids so I can find them if they are kidnapped (the so-called LoJack for people)? Never. But something that let me control my home appliances with my thoughts? You bet.

It's funny... I'm a huge Babylon 5 fan, and especially of the Technomages. If you think about it, for the first time in human history, we stand on the verge of being able to take a first stab at making those characters a reality, in some small way.

[Darius Wey]

By then phones will be printed directly on to wrists, or other parts of the body....., Inanimate objects will start to interact with us: we will be surrounded - on streets, in homes, in appliances, on our bodies and possibly in our heads - by things that "think".

This world just sounds like one big "tattoo". Imagine having company logos printed on you.... (Hey, check out my HP tattoo!) :mrgreen:

[omnytex]

Interesting that this should be posted on Slashdot in such a timerly manner for this discussion...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4074869.stm

Just need an adapter in CF format and we're all set! :)

[Ryan Joseph]

Implants are definately the way of the future. I've even read about tests where simply thinking something triggers a response in a computer. I read one test where they had a monkey wired up to a robot and the monkey was making the arms move just by thinking.

Imagine just thinking a person's name to dial them and then having a conversation without needing a phone?

I will be first in line for chip implants. The idea is just too cool for words.

Oh, and I think this is one of the areas where Star Trek got things seriously wrong. Come on, 400 years in the future we'll be able to control everything with our thoughts and implants will be a way of life. With the exception of Picard's artificial heart, Star Trek made no mention whatsoever of this type of personal computing.

EDIT: Aw, omnytex, you beat me to it. Good link, that's exactly what I was talking about.

[adamz]

Not by 2020!

Plus, most people have more than one article of clothing. Do you really think we'll want to depend on clothing for personal information, entertainment, and communications management? If I change shirts, will I have to re-download my media library, schedule, and emails?

I'd prefer to have a single electronic device that I can take with me no matter what I decide to wear.

Granted, clothing based user interfaces and displays would certainly have a use as long as the central personal/mobile computer can be removed and connected to other systems.

[mobilemail]

Would we now be correct in referring to this as a "shorts" circuit??

Resistance is futile; you will be assimilated! 0X [/i]

[Typhoon]

LOL oh man, these gadgets sound lame

[Jonathon Watkins]

LOL oh man, these gadgets sound lame

Nah - that's what happens when the rain gets into your wired trousers! 8O

:lol:

On a serious note, how is this lame? The possibilities are only the limits of our imaginations (and the continuing progress of technology :wink:).

[dbman]

Great, I wore the wrong shirt today and now I do not have a phone! Can I borrow your blouse? :lol:

Someone better do a whole lot of explaining before I am convinced there is any practicality to any of this. I mean what happens when there is an upgrade? Do I have to go under the knife?

[Typhoon]

lol ...someone passes out on the floor, and you got to call 911. The closest phone is embedded in the victim's briefs/panties. You can't take it off to use it so you will end up having to get down on your knees and talking to the person's crotch. Can you hear me now? Can you hear me know? Gooood.

[Ravenswing]

Technological prediction like this is always a load of BS. Researchers tend to forget how much inertia people have. They come up with these brilliant concepts without thinking "but what if Marks &amp; Spencers don't actually want to put a mobile phone on all their shirts."

Take another example: Orange (UK mobile network provider) built a house featuring all sorts of innovative gadgets. Not too radical, because this was a real house for people to live in, not a demo suite. Some people lived in it. Then they built V2 of the techno-house.

Now, V1 had loads of voice controlled technology in it, including the house lights. That got mostly removed because people like turning on the lights by pressing a switch. The stuff that remained largey unchanged was the home server/network, and that was because it provided the entertainment system, which the people liked a lot.

The only real thing that came out of the voice control research was Wildfire, a voice controlled answering machine which is the only thing I'll miss when I dump Orange. Means I don't have to remember what key to press to delete messages. Even then, you get some really funny looks when you're talking to your answering machine in gibberish.

I'm sure prinatable electronics will be a useful thing in the future, but not for the purpose of making our lives easier. It'll make it cheaper and easier to tag products for tracking in the shops, thus "reducing product shrinkage" (and decreasing your personal liberty). It might make for cheaper, disposable handheld products... eventualy.

Implants sound like a stunning idea, until you realise that they must be networkable, and so mean that anyone who has one is automatically detectable and identifiable to anyone with the right equipment. At least with a mobile phone you can turn it off or leave it at home. There are also problems to be overcome with rejection of inserted electronics. And no way am I having a tatoo done just so I can make mobile phone calls!

Just give me something like the Earth: Final Conflict "Global" device with its pull-out screen and I'll be happy.

[Typhoon]

lol yea, its true. A lot of these news about concepts, innovations, and inventions are just a joke. If inventors have a hard time getting their inventions TO the market place, then most of these concepts will also never make it to the market place. There are so many factors involved.

[Darius Wey]

On a serious note, how is this lame? The possibilities are only the limits of our imaginations (and the continuing progress of technology :wink:).

The "cool" factor will really arise when everything is nano-augmented in our minds. I'm drawing on Deus Ex (http://www.deusex.com/), BTW.

[Typhoon]

Hey is Deus Ex any good, in your opinion?

[Darius Wey]

Hey is Deus Ex any good, in your opinion?

Are you kidding? It's one of the best I've played ever. You'll want to play Deus Ex 1 and Deus Ex 2 (Invisible War), if possible, to keep up with the storyline. Also, Deus Ex 1 is a few years old so the graphics won't look as brilliant as it is today. ;)

[Paula]

I already have enough people in my head, I don't need any more thanks. :D
All I want is a Dick Tracy-like device(wristwatch) that actually works and displays a 3D hologram of the caller.

[Typhoon]

Hey is Deus Ex any good, in your opinion?

Are you kidding? It's one of the best I've played ever. You'll want to play Deus Ex 1 and Deus Ex 2 (Invisible War), if possible, to keep up with the storyline. Also, Deus Ex 1 is a few years old so the graphics won't look as brilliant as it is today. ;)

Thanks for the advice. Now I got a game to chose to play if I ever need a PC title to pick. To me it seems like Console games have a better variety of titles to choose from compared to PC games. I used to think it was vice versa. I think that is why the Console gaming market has picked up greatly (along w/the better technology). There is still a PC game market out there...but it seems very slim to me. This is the first time in many many years I have thought about getting a console system.