As I mentioned in a previous blog, I really enjoy reading about futuristic technology and exciting new product designs. A couple of recent articles discussing phones that can bend and even phones that may be able to read my moods really caught my eye.
Both Nokia Research Lab and Samsung are believed to be working on new phone designs which are flexible and, in the case of Nokia's HumanForm phone, can provide "emotionally enhanced communication" via mood recognition programming that will inform the call recipient of the mood of the caller. I wonder what will happen when some teenage is getting a call from their parents wondering where they are since they are past their curfew at midnight when they should have been home by 11 PM.
The implications for flexible mobile devices may bode well for the future development of wearable technologies and smart fabrics and interactive textiles which could be used in medical applications for true "point of care" treatment, in sports and fitness applications in which bio-physical monitoring is paramount and military applications in which special forces may need to have extreme needs for flexibility of their mobile devices in battlefield conditions.
There are several trends converging that will likely yield exciting new technological developments in which suppliers will be able to provide true 'situational awareness' capabilities to the user. Among the developments enabling this greater interface between human beings, electronics and the world around us include continued improvements in wireless communications bandwidth and reliability, flexible display technology, continued miniaturization of electronics and computing capabilities, deployment of millions of sensors forming vast sensor network arrays which will track out position, vital signs, moods, thoughts, and perhaps even some day enable artificial intelligence on a par with the human brain.
We should all be careful what we wish for since some day we may actually get it.
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