Carnegie Mellon University researcher Chris Harrison has given PC mouse control to mobile phones. A University of California professor has modifed a mobile into a microscope. You'll soon be able to turn on your AC and unlock your car with your cell. Kasmin Fernandes examines how the cell phone is cannibalising all other gadgets
Carnegie Mellon University researcher Chris Harrison has given PC mouse control to mobile phones. A University of California professor has modifed a mobile into a microscope. You'll soon be able to turn on your AC and unlock your car with your cell. Kasmin Fernandes examines how the cell phone is cannibalising all other gadgets
For 22 year-old Pranav Ashar, Google Nexus One has made the organiser, calendar, watch and PC redundant. "I rarely use the PC to check mail, browse, Skype friends abroad, egosurf or look up something anymore," says the founder-director of Taj Enlighten Film Society, who is eagerly waiting for the 3G iPad he ordered the day it was launched. 
Self-confessed nomophobe Parikshat Wadhwani uses his BlackBerry for
"everything possible". "It doesn't leave my side," says the final year BMM student. PIC/ Vikas Munipalle
"The phone does for me what five gadgets put together would," says the gadget lover who likes "showing off" his Google Nexus One, especially Goggles. It's an app -- currently available for Android devices running Android 1.6 and above -- that lets you use pictures taken with your mobile phone to search the web. It's ideal for things that aren't easy to describe in words. There's no need to type or speak your query -- all you have to do is open the app, snap a picture, and wait for your search results.
Self-confessed nomophobe Parikshat Wadhwani uses his Blackberry for "everything possible". "It doesn't leave my side," says the final year BMM student.
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Replaces PC mouse
Even the PC mouse market may become extinct, what with a Carnegie Mellon University researcher's new innovation that gives mouse control to small mobile phones. Chris Harrison, a 25 year-old researcher at the university's Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII), developed the Minput method (see video) with his faculty advisor, Scott Hudson. 
Click here to watch the video
By installing a pair of optical sensors on the back of a mobile phone, they found that the entire device could emulate a computer mouse when it was placed against a surface, a piece of clothing or the palm of a hand.
Says Chris, "Twisting a Minput-equipped phone might allow you to zoom in or out of a photo or document, while flicking the device against a surface, for instance, enables you to switch between photos or between photo galleries."
Minput also permits high-precision positioning -- such as selecting a sentence of text from a paragraph -- that would be difficult to perform on a small touchscreen. At about $1 a piece, the optical sensors wouldn't add much to the cost of a mobile phone.
Acts like a microscope
If it's up to Aydogan Ozcan, who works at the University of California as assistant professor of electrical engineering, he would make sure that medical research tools such as microscopes would be entirely replaced by mobile phones. Dr Ozcan has modified an existing cell phone into a microscope, with the help of software that he has designed and developed, and also has hardware required for the modifications.
The entire cost of his experimental projects set him back by just $10. One prototype is configured such that a blood specimen is placed over the phone's camera sensor, which in turn analyses the contents of the specimen and then sends the information to the nearest healthcare facility wirelessly. Says Dr Ozcan, "These devices could become indefensible diagnosis tools, especially in places that are a great distance away from the nearest hospitals or laboratories."
Boob tube tattle
People recently watched IPL game highlights with their cell phones on the train ride home. All a cricket lover needed to do was make a simple phone call.
The Indian Premier League and Global Cricket Ventures have joined hands with July systems to stream the matches. Users have access to watch ball-by-ball live video updates, replays, video score cards on their mobile phones. Users get access to this service by calling the toll free number 08123123123 or by visiting the website m.iplt20.com to watch realtime videos on their phones.
Audio version of Sholay on cell
Meanwhile, UTV New Media has witnessed an unprecedented growth with their movie-on-your-phone service. In eight months of launch, Audio Cinema is already clocking over 1.3 million subscribers. Audio Cinema is a service which offers movie enthusiasts, an abridged audio version of their favourite movies -- Sholay, Hum -- with dialogues, peppered with narration, along with the gist of the story. At affordable per-minute prices depending on the operator, the service can be availed by mobile phone and landline users by dialing 505999555. The UTV Group plans to soon stream its TV shows -- across an umbrella of its channels -- on mobile.
What's in store?
Everything has gone mobile, not just communications. Online shopping makes stores mobile, going to the consumer rather than having the consumer come to them. E-books and mp3 players have made our libraries and record collections equally mobile. Our businesses are carried around on our PDAs and laptops. Says 27 year-old techie and web ninja Atul Kapoor, "All major websites -- Google, Indiatimes, Rediff -- have customised themselves for mobile access."
But what he is really excited about is the mobile technology that is to come. Like the handset with a 12-megapixel camera, 1 gigahertz processor and 256 MB ram that was previewed at a recent mobile expo in Europe. Sony Ericsson Idou and Nokia N8 smartphone come close to Atul's lust list. "I'm kicked about next-gen phones with high computational power and opening up of developer tools to a greater extent so we can have more applications for more phones. I can develop more complex apps on it. If I am given an open source platform, like Android, I can develop and sell more apps, customise my phone and server, get status updates directly from Facebook or Twitter, write code ufffd things I can't do with current mobile phone technology," says the developer.
The Handbook
How to boost cell phone reception and increase range
Often, your battery can be strong enough to attempt a call, but not to find a signal. If you are facing signal problems, try to keep your battery charged to 2 bars or higher.
Tall buildings are unfriendly to cell phone signals. Rather than making calls from deep inside buildings, try moving outside or to a window to place your call. If you are facing reception problems on the street, try walking to the nearest junction as they typically have better coverage.u00a0
If you are facing cell problems in one location -- like your home or office -- try installing a cellular repeater. Cell phone repeaters pick up low cell signal with an antenna, boost the signal and broadcast it over the coverage area. They typically need at least 2 bars of signal where the antenna is placed (usually outside) but can substantially improve cell reception, as well as battery life and data download speeds. Using certain repeaters might require you to possess technical knowledge. For a less technical approach that improves reception on all carriers, use a dual-band cell phone repeater.
Hold your phone upright. Mobile phone antennas are designed to project a signal outward, perpendicular to the long axis of the antenna. Mobile phones seek signals in a donut-esque shape around the antenna. Normally, when a mobile is held upright, this is not a problem. However, if you are holding your phone in a strange way, such as on its side or upside down, you will hinder the operation of the antenna. Hold your phone upright to guarantee that your phone can "see" your carrier signal.
Trend forecast from the giants
Mobiles will have AI, says John Chen, business head, mobile communication business, ASUS (India)
In the next 10 years, mobile phones will be totally integrated devices with artificial intelligence and might even be able to sync in with the users' thoughts. The most portable of ASUS's devices would be the Waveface Ultra -- a thin strip intended to be used as a hybrid phone, watch and computing device. A flexible OLED would let owners wrap the device around their wrist but still have a single surface when handheld. 
ASUS WaveFace Ultra
It knows where you're going, tells you where to park, Google predicts
Smart alerts: This is already happening -- eBay can text you when you've been outbid. In future, these applications will patiently monitor your personalised preferences (which will be stored in the network cloud) and deliver only the information you desire. One useful scenario -- your phone knows that you are heading downtown for dinner, and will tell you about the best place to park.
Augmented reality: Your phone uses its arsenal of sensors to understand your situation and provide you information. For example, do you really want to know how much is that doggy in the pet shop? Your phone, with its GPS and compass, knows what you are looking at, so it can tell you before you even ask. Plus, what breed it is and the best way to train him.
Sensors everywhere: Weather updates can be based on not hundreds of sensors, but hundreds of millions. Traffic reports can be based not on road sensors, but on the density, speed, and direction of the phones (and people) stuck in the traffic jams.
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The future-proof device: It will be easy for developers to create or improve applications and content. The ones that you care about get automatically installed on your phone, without you lifting a finger.
Mobiles will aggregate data
Henry Tirri, senior vice president and head of the Nokia Research Center, heads Nokia's long-term research globally in labs worldwide
"The things people don't usually think about with location-based systems are aggregates like traffic information, and collective information about air pollution and other environmental data. In growth economies, there's a need for health-related and epidemic information collection. Mobile devices are key to monitoring things like these. They will enable us to aggregate data and get information that would otherwise be difficult to collect."
Asia predictions for 2010
The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), a global organisation that promotes the development and sustainability of mobile marketing, has announced its top 5 predictions for the mobile telecommunications industry in Asia for 2010
Mobile data use increases
The APAC (Asia-Pacific) region accounts for nearly 30% of the overall market for smartphones. Attracted by innovative smart devices and better applications, there will be an increase of mobile subscribers in Asia joining the data use bandwagon.
Cash on the go
With a potential $200 billion plus of global remittance moving through the Asian population, analysts believe it will be a key adopter of mobile payments. With a focus on services/product innovation, mobile operators and VAS (value-added services), providers are aggressively working on payment options through mobile platforms.
Mobile healthcare
Mobile healthcare is another fast-growing segment in Asia with its aging but tech-friendly population. In a recent study, Solidiance estimated that the Asia Pacific mobile healthcare business will soon be worth just under $1 billion with 70% of users in more advanced economies. Applications cover a wide range of possibilities and may include but are not limited to remote patient monitoring, mobile nursing, mobile medical records access, access to free mobile healthcare information.
Mobile music
The phone in your pocket may also double as a music store, as a new music distribution model with mobile operators becoming choice of music supplier becomes commonplace across Asia. It is expected that mobile music sales will hit $390 million by end 2009 and at the current growth rate the industry should hit $500 million by 2015.
Mobile gaming
Already, Nokia's Ovi Store and Apple's iTunes App Store include over-the-air distribution for mobile games, and this creates a new revenue stream for publishers, distributors and service providers. The revenue from in-game advertising may be also used to partially or completely subsidise the price of mobile games/services that the application provides. The current market size for this industry in India is estimated to be $15 million.
On verge of cannibalising digicams
Cell phone cameras are on the verge of taking away significant sales of dedicated cameras, technology value chain research firm iSuppli said in a new estimate. While the average camera on a phone had just 2.1 megapixels last year, that number is expected to more than double to 5.7 megapixels by 2013 and come close enough to full-size cameras that it cannibalises entry-level still cameras. 
Sony Ericsson Idou
Image quality is poised to be an important factor this year even with relatively conservative companies like Apple, whose next iPhone may carry a 5-megapixel camera with flash; Sony Ericsson Idou multimedia phone with Java gaming and a 12-megapixel camera, and Nokia N8 smartphone, which shoots high-definition and also has a 12-megapixel camera.
Record television via cell phone
Remember Kareena ready to throw a fit at Saif in a parked car, if she misses her "TV show"? The commercial currently on air, is hawking the Airtel digital TV recorder, a first of its kind example of convergence between the mobile and TV screen. The enhanced Set Top Box gives users the convenience to record their favourite TV shows using their mobile phones from anywhere in the world. Says Ajai Puri, director and CEO - DTH, Bharti Airtel, "The product is strategic as it brings together the TV screen and the mobile screen. We've used technology to deliver a simple and elegant benefit through the most ubiquitous element of life today -- the mobile phone."u00a0
The Airtel digital TV recorder has a HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) port for video output -- great news for LCD TV owners.
Available at Rs 6990 to new customers and at Rs 5990 to existing Airtel digital TV customers. To avail of the service, buy the digital TV recorder from a retailer and call customer care at 18001028080 for activation
Figure trigger
* $15 million the current market size for mobile gaming industry in India
* 30%u00a0is what the APAC (Asia-Pacific) region accounts for in the overall market for smartphones
* The Asia Pacific mobile healthcare business will be worth just under $1 billion this year
* By 2015 mobile music sales will hitu00a0$50 million
* 1.3 millionu00a0is the current number of subscribers for Audio Cinema, the movie-on-your-phone service by UTV New Media
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