The shape of smartphones

Smartphones’ shapes were supposed to be small at the beginning because it would fit the ubiquitous idea of having them close to us (in our pockets) everytime so that we don’t even realize they’re here, using them becomes like breathing, a natural process that only yogis put emphasis on as most of us forget about the fact we’re breathing (btw realizing you are can be helpful in stressful situations).

But as the years went by, micro-computers evolved increasingly fast and the trend shifted from laptops/desktop computers towards smartphones. Therefore, basic actions such as reading mails, news, and watching videos were delegated to smartphones. App development reached a peak in the past few years but the trend can’t go forever as the mobile evolution is more driven by the market than the computer evolution was. Therefore, we can assume that the emergence of IoT is something that smartphones are supposed to work with, therefore, smartphones won’t be any larger that they are now because of our pocket and hand’s physical restriction firstly but also because they’ll behave in synchronization with every other device (watch, car, TV, even fridge) so the size of the screen won’t be this important in the near future as we can consider that ubiquitous computing will transfer the big screen problem to another device (boards to keep Xerox PARC vocabulary. Smartphones’ screens will only improve in quality (perhaps low battery consumption) and the hardware will keep improving as the apps are increasingly resource-hungry. But it is relevant to add that this market is fond of novelty so bended screens or full digital devices are to be expected in the near future or other unpredictable things from an unpredictable market.

Computer of the 21st Century

Published in 1991, the purpose of this paper is to understand why the goal of tech is to vanish in the background like older technologies such as writing. Then it is considered as ubiquitous computing and the cornerstone of this idea is the fact that tech should take into account the human world. Therefore, it’s not about having computers as they were then everywhere, they must come in various shapes/sizes, not a single box focusing our attention (and only ours) and thus they would embrace our reality and fit to our world.

This point is related to the “Multimedia aspect”, as Ivan Sutherland had already pointed out, the power of computers resides in the fact that they can display a virtual world that couldn’t be achieved in the real world. Yet these don’t interact with the real world, they ignore it so the next step is having those computers coming to our world instead of us going to “theirs”, this is going the way Sutherland expected it to go in the ultimate device . The current answer to this could be Augmented Reality as its goal is to link these separate worlds. At Xerox PARC, they were mostly talking about “embodied virtuality” as they thought of devices as disposable objects surrounding us. You would “pull out a book and place it on one’s lap” which is totally achieved nowadays by tablets. The goal would eventually be to informally enhance every room and animate inert objects and this is already achieved too through room automation.

According to them, there were specific requirements for achieving ubiquitous computing: cheap/low-power computers and good networks. The growth of tablets, phones and IoT describes the first requirement and they had a perfect view on the future of hardware, the processor’s frequency (in GHz since 2000), the ram (about 16MB is a bit low though as we now consider 8GB as casual) Terabyte harddisks are now common which comforts their idea of different strategies in software development as size optimization isn’t important anymore for companies. Although they seem to perfectly depict the world we’re living in, their vision of tabs as countless devices surrounding us everywhere is not the way the industry considered it, as a unique smartphone or tablet is enough for achieving all they consider, which by definition, doesn’t make our computing world ubiquitous as we still rely on a specific device and its unicity makes it quite present in our mind, it didn’t vanish. That’s why having hundreds of machines in one room isn’t conceivable for now, IoT might push towards this but I don’t see the purpose of it, having polyvalent tablets/ smartphones seems like a better idea to me because of hardware price. Their point on shareable tech makes a lot of sense as people would be more aware of what’s going on in other’s devices as ubiquitous tabs and boards make them way less personal than a pc or even worse, a VR headset. They mention the fact that current computers could cope with different screens but not various apps, we can think of new streaming devices such as shadow to achieve this multi app boards and tabs. Xerox PARC researchers were foreseeing the tracking of locations to help with info but because of human rights, it’s not that much used today (officially), IA is the way we’re looking to achieve the amount of automated information sharing they’re looking for (who designed that dress and so forth).

They finally define ubiquitous computing usage as a practice that would feel has to feel as smooth as “a walk among trees” : tablets somehow achieved this as the industry convinced housewives or elders into using them in kitchen, living room and so forth without the need of a computer, it took usage of tech to a very basic (book related) way that doesn’t strike their brain each time they want to search for something on the internet or send a mail. Settings are easier and the UI is way smoother for them. Instead of going on and on about the subtleties of what we have vs what they thought, I should share my personal vision of the embodiment of their vision, it is through this Benko et Al paper: http://www.hbenko.com/publications/2017/MeetAlive_iss17.pdf

I think this kind of vision of offices is what symbolizes ubiquitous computing, although I’m still not convinced this is conceivable in a private environment (I’m not sure family interaction needs to be automatized more than it already is). Still, I’m quite sure their vision of shareable devices might be the solution to the social interaction aspect of ubiquitous computing. That’s something I’d definitely look into if I were to work on family or children based devices that cope with both latest tech and natural social interaction because I think tablets worsened the personal computer issue. For instance, my older brother and I were always playing on the same computer together and shared many references in video games culture whereas our younger brothers are each with a tablet of their own and they only share through the virtual world. Perhaps it’s only a shift of media but I am convinced the social interaction is increasingly deteriorating.

Most Downloaded Application in the future MR App Store

ART&Share GO: Drawing/painting in a real 3D environment (mixed reality to share art in public places: you draw in VR but people can watch it through their phones or AR glasses. You make it a top tier app by adding some kind of social attraction to it (scores, ladder) i.e. adding some Pokemon Go flavor to it. ⇒ VR drawing with friends watching. but how to implement it with AR? Sketch: clay with friends (see the Week 3 prototype for more details)

Augmented maps :Google maps AR giving anything you want about your surrounding environment: comparing street view and your smartphone camera / AR glasses to add interactive info. This would definitely be a useful app for tourists, people looking for bars, restaurants, street art lovers or art and architect buffs in general. This could also be a breakthrough in public transportation (knowing real time and schedule within or out of the metro/bus/train) .

⇒ Street view with layers added by a person telling you everything about places/bars/arts and so on.

VRSports, a great way to watch sports as a full experience without going to the stadium would be putting 3D cameras all around the court and using a VR headset to connect real time to the game, for NBA basketball, this could be a breakthrough in terms of live sports as the closer you are to the action the better it is and the sound immersion could be optimized. ⇒NBA 2K my career mode.