The Bright Future of Mobile Computing :: February 2005

The Bright Future of Mobile Computing :: February 2005

February 2005
February 2005

The Bright Future of Mobile Computing

By Bibhu Choudhary and Suvarna Singh
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The year is 2009 and Robert is the head of California Design Studio, a multi-million dollar architectural firm in San Diego. His firm is competing with three others for the prestigious commercial complex proposed near O'Hare International Airport in Chicago. Robert takes the morning flight to Chicago. He reviews the materials he is carrying on his Pocket PC, which consists of a PowerPoint presentation on the credentials of his firm, the concept design of the proposed plan in AutoCAD, a walk through simulation of the proposed complex in 3-D, and video clips from his firm's previous projects in Phoenix and Seattle.

His is a renowned West Coast firm, and this is his first attempt to expand his business to the middle of the country. He realizes that his presentation could shape the future of his firm. He notices a few mistakes in the presentation. He activates a laser projector built into his Pocket PC and the image of a keyboard is projected on the seat-back tray table. As his fingers touch the key images, the finger motion is recognized and translated into keystrokes. He makes some final changes to the presentation and changes the lighting effects on the 3-D model of the proposed complex. Then he pulls out his flexible display screen to get a panoramic view of the entire presentation.

Robert meets his clients the next morning. He pulls out his Pocket PC and hooks it to an external monitor in the boardroom and makes his presentation. As he opens a media player to display the video of his earlier projects, his Pocket PC automatically detects the wireless speakers in the board room. Robert chooses to use the speakers to make the commentary audible to the whole room.

The potential clients are impressed with the presentation but not sure that the proposed design will work well with the school building that they just completed in the neighboring plot. Robert asks for the AutoCAD drawing of the school building, downloads it to his Pocket PC, drops it into his onboard CAD program, and adjusts its position to fit the overall layout. It turns out that the proposed granite faade of the commercial complex is too bright for the surroundings. Robert taps on the paint-brush tool and quickly gives the faade the look and feel of exposed concrete. The final request is for the inclusion of an information kiosk in the design. Robert notes it down and heads back to his hotel room.

From his hotel room, Robert uses his Pocket PC to audio conference with his office and explains the clients' requests to his support staff. His California team works on the requested changes and sends him the updated designs. Robert presents these to the clients the next day. During the meeting he uses his Pocket PC to video conference with his team in California. When it's time to explain the innovative pile foundation used to support the complex, Steve, the structural engineer, takes over control of Robert's Pocket PC using terminal services and makes free hand sketches to explain the vertical section of the columns.

There are questions about the project schedule and completion dates. Robert pulls up his copy of Microsoft Project on his Pocket PC to refer to his Gantt charts. His VBA macro-enabled Microsoft Excel workbooks do the complex calculations for him and make accurate estimations of building materials and pricing. The clients are happy with Robert's presentation and he wins the contract.

In this futuristic story, we see a Pocket PC totally replacing the bulky notebook PC among mobile information workers. The truth is that many of the innovations described in this story are already available today as third-party add-ons, and others are in development. By 2009, most of these capabilities will be built into the Pocket PC.

Increased storage capacity lets you bring everything you need with you

The advent of high-capacity storage cards will make it possible for Robert to bring all the information he needs with him. This includes his e-mail, reference material, documents, presentations, high-resolution graphics, video files, additional applications, and more. Toshiba recently entered the Guinness Book of World Records by introducing the world's smallest hard disk drive-a 0.85 inch device with a 4 GB capacity! (Fig. 1) In five years, storage capacity will be even higher and the prices even lower. All this is set to change the storage paradigm on Pocket PCs and SmartPhones. We can expect hard disk drives to be built into future mobile devices.

Fig.1: Toshiba's 0.85 inch hard disk drive can store 4 GB of data.

Input innovations make data entry easier

We already have a variety of external keyboards and alternate input software available for Windows Mobile devices. In the near future we'll see more innovative solutions like the projection keyboards being developed by Canesta (Fig. 2). This solution combines a laser "pattern projector" to display a keyboard on a flat surface and "electronic perception technology" to recognize and translate finger movements into keystrokes.

Fig 2. Laser projection keyboard by Canesta

In addition to laser keyboards, improved voice-to-text capability and advanced transcriber technology will make it possible for Robert to create or edit data easily while on the move. Robert's phone-enabled Pocket PC will be able to translate conversations with his engineers into text format and save them as document files for later reference, or to cut and paste portions of them into a presentation. In addition to the soft input panel, the applications will come equipped with voice recognition capabilities which will let Robert drive his applications with his voice.

Enhanced display technology

Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition already supports resolutions of 480x640, but few devices have VGA screens. In the future, VGA screens will be common and Pocket PCs will be able to support even larger monitors and duplicate monitors (i.e., displaying on two screens at the same time). You can also expect to see flexible screen technology similar to Universal Display Corporation's innovative "Flexible Organic Light Emitting Device" (Fig. 3). This lightweight, ultra-thin display can be rolled up, or laminated onto just about any surface. Flexible screen technology can potentially put larger, more durable screens in handheld devices without increasing the size or weight of the device.

Fig. 3: Flexible screen technology developed by Universal Display.

In the future, the Pocket PC will have resolution and orientation-aware applications that will support multiple external monitors. Pocket PC applications will detect the presence of attached external monitors and automatically change the image resolution, shape and contents to optimize and suit the available display. One new tool, IA Screen Mirror 2.0, lets you project multiple Pocket PC screens on to an external monitor. With all these enhancements, Robert will be able to display his presentation on a variety of screens without compromising the quality of the picture.

Faster processors support feature-rich applications

The Intel PXA27x is the most recent processor series for Windows Mobile devices. It not only provides speeds up to 624 MHz, it is also more energy efficient. In addition, it includes Intel's Wireless MMX technology, which brings desktop-like multimedia performance to Pocket PC-based clients while minimizing the power needed to run rich applications. This better supports full motion video conferencing on mobile phones, as well as DVD-quality video playback on PDAs.

In five years Pocket PCs will have even more power, making it even easier for Robert to use the terminal services capability of his Pocket PC to access and control feature-rich programs running on his office server, like AutoCAD, 3D Studio, Microsoft Project and macro-enabled Microsoft Excel. Full versions of these programs may also be available for mobile devices. As Pocket PCs become more capable, the developers of these PC programs will add features to support these new mobility scenarios.

Stay connected with faster, more ubiquitous wireless

You can expect cellular data networks to expand and become faster in the next five years. AT&T's EDGE ("Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution") is expected to achieve speeds of about 130-200Kbps. 3G networks are expected to reach speeds of more than 2Mbps. Nokia's High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) is said to be capable of boosting 3G speeds to 10Mbps or even more. All this will make it faster, easier, and less expensive for Robert to access the Internet and check his e-mail while he's on the road.

However, when Robert is in his hotel room or at the client's office, he will be using Wi-Fi access points to connect to the Internet and conference with his team. All peripheral devices like mouse, speakers, microphone, keyboards, and monitors will connect to his Pocket PC via Bluetooth. If a particular device is not equipped with the required driver, it will automatically look for the driver on the Web, download, and install it.

Enhanced battery capacities and more power-efficient devices

Faster processors, increased dependence on wireless connectivity, and increased use of feature-rich applications all require more power and drain the Pocket PC's battery more quickly. Fortunately, we've seen a corresponding increase in battery capacities. Most developers of ruggedized/industrial Pocket PCs offer high-capacity battery options, and many consumer-oriented Pocket PCs have "extended battery" options that can double the battery capacity (and the time between recharges).

To further conserve power, the Intel PXA27x processor family incorporates Wireless Intel SpeedStep technology, which allows the CPU to dynamically adjust its performance and the power it draws based on the needs of the application that is running.

Over the next five years we can expect the Pocket PCs processors to become more efficient, and battery capacity to increase. Robert will be able to work uninterrupted throughout the day on his Pocket PC, checking his e-mail, taking notes, and giving rich presentations and demos to his clients without having to search for an available place to plug in his charger.

Portable processing power

Today, the mobile information professional expects a conference room to be equipped with an overhead projector and little else. If he needs speakers or a microphone, he makes arrangements for them in advance or brings them with him, along with his notebook PC, a power adapter, a variety of cables, etc.

In five years, fully-equipped conference rooms will be the norm, and mobile professional will carry a Pocket PC and nothing more. The Pocket PC will "sniff out" the available wireless peripherals, the user will tap on the screen to select them, and the presentation will begin. Of course, he'll still have to make a good presentation and close the deal. But he'll have all the portable processing power he needs-sitting in his pocket.