Futurist: The Wearable Cellphone

The evolution of the cell phone

+I remember watching NASA launching rockets when I was very young. I remember being a huge fan of space. Later I found what President John Kennedy said to be inspiring. I will paraphrase what he said; I don't have a Massachusetts accent. Loosely, he said that we would land a person on the moon and return them safely to earth within the next eight years. That mission was achieved on July 22, 1960, now. It is the mission of NASA to explore beyond the confines of the earth. It is a mission that has expanded to commercial companies now with the rise of SpaceX and Blue Origin, and others. NASA today focuses on Mars.

I remember listening to the astronauts of Apollo 11, Apollo 10, and so on. I listened to the broadcasts. There was an audible delay. One side would speak, there would be a pause, and the other side would speak. Back then, I was riveted, listening to both sides of the conversation. I think my love of communication comes from listening to those conversations between Houston and the astronauts. When you have to convey information that could ultimately be the difference between life and death, you need to sustain what you say. The Nuance that the world is full of now doesn't help when communicating life or death information.

Those communications conveyed a lot of information in a short time. It was also very precise. Nuance doesn't work when you're trying to save someone's life. Today we have more nuanced communication. For the most part, that is because the ability to communicate is so much faster. Next time you pick up your cell phone, say a big thank you to the European space agency, NASA, and the many other organizations that worked very hard to make communication with space possible. Without the space race, there would not have been the communication that we all rely on today. As a futurist, I talked about the fact that cell phones were replacing laptops and desktops. A lot of people don't see that replacement yet, but the time is near. Much nearer, I suspect that I talked previously. If you had asked me two or three years ago, I would've said it would happen in the next ten years. If you asked me today, I'd tell you that the cellphone is replacing the laptop and desktop.

What interests me now is what lies beyond the current cell phone. In many places around the world today, we have the 5th generation cellular network. 6G is on the horizon. However, any organization claiming to have a 6G phone today is being dishonest. There is no 6G standard today. Like 4G, I suspect you'll see 5G, and then 5G advanced, possibly taking the LTE designation for 5G. 4G LTE is simply the second generation of 4G. It takes many years to roll out a new cellular network. You have to replace many components of the existing network. What is interesting to me, what I think is coming, however, is a more ubiquitous network that won't require as much broadcast. Let's think about the concept of the cell phone for a second.

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The first digital phones began appearing in the mid-1990s. From 1995 through around 2010, cell phone functionality increased every year. Cell phones didn't use to have cameras. Car companies, which once integrated GPS infrastructure into their cars, now leverage your cell phone's GPS. In many cases, it is still a one-to-one connection between your phone and the car. The evolution of GPS in the cell phone must continue to apply. Today someone is coming to your home for the first time. They ask you to text them your address. You can send them an SMS message with your address and it. They click on the address in that message, and their phone's GPS will guide them into your house.

The rise of the wearable cell phone.

This article is a futurist column; we get a look ahead and think about what the future will bring. The first thing that I believe will be an antenna incorporated into every car. Carmakers have already done for satellite reception anyway. Many carmakers include a single bump antenna on the car, unlike the old antennas we used for AM/FM radio. You can still receive AM and FM, but now you can also receive satellite radio. That much smaller antenna also can be a GPS receiver if your car still has GPS in it. The next thing I believe carmakers are can do will be cellular boosters. People will be able to have meetings and discussions in the car without worrying about driving.

That still taking a look at things that happen. Or things that may become real in the near term. The longer-term, I believe, is the wearable cell phone. Cell phones are small enough that you can easily wear the device. A cell phone can use the human body's electrical field as a much larger cellular antenna than on a cell phone today. I also believe it will be greater integration of the concepts around find me. Today you can find your iPhone I mollifying your Samsung phone or android phone wherever it is. In the future, I believe will be more of a near-field integration to a much more critical object as we embark on our daily lives. That wearable cell phone will be if we don't grab our glasses. That cell phone will be if we don't grab our keys or our wallet. Imagine the shock of a pickpocket when they remove a wallet from a purse or a pocket only to have the wearer immediately turn and grab it because it's going to beep. The concept isn't new because we have a personal area network today utilizing Bluetooth. Your speakers, headphones, car is all connected via Bluetooth to your device.

Evolution will be the personal area—everything you need to function, connected to you. So if you forget something, your phone beeps. A pickpocket grabs your wallet, your phone keeps. Suppose you leave your keys in your car, your phone beeps. You see, the future of the cell phone is not just that it'll be wearable. I believe in the future; the cell phone will be ubiquitous. Digital cameras are slowly but surely dying. Do we need a digital camera when we have a cell phone with a camera in it? This wearable concept, I believe, is the future of the cell phone. Windows, or may not be as far from what it is today.

This content is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge and is not meant to substitute for formal and individualized advice from a qualified professional.

© 2021 DocAndersen