Future Mobile devices: Winners & Losers in technology

NTT DOCOMO announced a range of futuristic ideas and products that they are going to demo at CEATEC this month. Some of the products/ideas as follows:

Extra-high-speed, next-generation LTE service

• Experience the first Xi-compatible tablets “docomo Tablet GALAXY Tab 10.1 LTE SC-01D” and “docomo Tablet ARROWS Tab LTE F-01D,” set for October release.
• Try out new broadband services for the high-performance Xi network, including internationally popular services and games such as Hulu and Qik Video.

Smartphone-ready device to measure acetone in breath for diet support

• The compact device measuring acetone for diet support that can easily be used anywhere and anytime.
• Visitors blow into the smartphone-connected device to measure acetone in their breath-the higher the concentration, the greater the level of hunger.
• The device also identifies when people are burning fat, based on the concentration of acetone in their breath, which rises when body fat is being burnt.

Smartphone jacket for ultra-high-speed battery charging

• This special battery jacket for smartphones achieves a full charge in just 10 minutes. A recharging indicator will show how the jacket will charge a smartphone 10~15 times faster than conventional charging devices.

Smartphone jackets for various purposes

• Three types of special jackets for smartphones that are equipped with sensors that can be customized to measure ultraviolet light and bad breath, gamma radiation and body fat.

Environmental sensor network

• Presentation of real-time atmospheric data (temperature, humidity, wind direction/speed, precipitation, ultraviolet intensity) collected by DOCOMO’s nationwide network of approximately 2,500 environmental sensors, and a demonstration of visualizing the data using augmented reality.

The DOCOMO booth will also offer a mobile handset recycling service, where visitors can drop off old and unwanted mobile phones, rechargers, battery packs and stands. This service is open to all mobile phone users regardless of their carrier, and mobile phones will be destroyed using specialized tools to ensure the protection of personal information.

You can watch these in action here:

I also recently attended a Cambridge Wireless Handset SIG event and David Wood gave an interesting presentation that is embedded below:

Where Next after 10 Years of Smartphones?

View more presentations from Zahid Ghadialy

Other presentations from that event available here.

TED talk: Wireless data from every light bulb

What if every light bulb in the world could also transmit data? At TEDGlobal, Harald Haas demonstrates, for the first time, a device that could do exactly that. By flickering the light from a single LED, a change too quick for the human eye to detect, he can transmit far more data than a cellular tower -- and do it in a way that's more efficient, secure and widespread.

See also :

LED-Fi: Replacement for WiFi Hotspots

Electromagnetic Radiation Spectrum charts.

In The Next 10 Years...

Verizon Wireless Promotional video...shown in the LTE World Summit 2011

Video: The Social Web of Things

Augmented Reality: Future Killer App?

Augmented Reality can be understood very easily with the two videos embedded below:

It may look cool and one may wonder how this can be useful practically, here is another video showing how this can be used:

So in future you may have quite a few people who can only look at you through the [phone rather than directly :)

The following is an extract from The Guardian article titled, "What is mobile augmented reality for?":

Mobile augmented reality is a relatively young technology, but it has already attracted a great deal of hype and scepticism in equal measure.

Overlaying digital information onto the real world, viewed through a cameraphone, is technically impressive, but the business models and usage patterns are still evolving.

That's a polite way of saying mobile AR is cool, but nobody really knows what it's for, or how it will make money. One of the more interesting conference sessions at this year's Mobile World Congress aimed to answer the key question: what is it for?

Tourism has been an early focus. Just this week, travel site TripAdvisor added an augmented reality feature to its iPad app (pictured above), while Lonely Planet has also used AR elements in several of its travel apps.

"You are most information-starved when you are in a completely new environment," said Jeremy Kreitler, vice-president of mobile at Lonely Planet. "Those are probably the environments where augmented reality will flourish the most."

The Layar chief executive, Raimo Van der Klein, pointed to the popularity of Twitter layers in his company's app, which allow people to see local tweets superimposed on their camera view of the world around them.

"In the future, it will be the physical world that will trigger usage," he said. "Your dynamic and changing context, as you interact with different media, products, packaging and people, and you would like to make sense of what you encounter."

Technology firm Qualcomm recently held an augmented reality contest for mobile developers, announcing three winners this week at Mobile World Congress. All three were games.

Qualcomm's vice-president of ventures, Nagraj Kashyap, took the view that games are often a good proving ground for new technologies in their early stages, with AR no different.

"It's just something that appeals to a wide cross-section of users," he said. "But to have augmented reality become mass, we need to move out of just the gaming context."

Qualcomm sees much potential in marketing, particularly when AR is used to add an interactive layer to print advertisements. Kashyap also thought educational and instructional AR content will be popular in the future. "Imagine pointing your phone at a newly bought washing machine and getting instructions for it on your phone."

However, Philipp Schloter, chief executive of developer Abukai, said that looking for individual killer apps is the wrong way to approach augmented reality.

"This is really more of an enabler that sits across many different areas," he said. He was backed up by Peter Meier, founder of Metaio, the company which makes the Junaio AR browser app. "I always see augmented reality as a new user interface technology, and less as something for which there's the killer app out there," said Meier.

"For me, this is about accessing and understanding information more easily, and enjoying information that is somehow related to the real world ... I don't think there's a killer app. This is more like the next touchscreen for mobile phones – more like the next user interface revolution."

David Marimon, who heads up mobile augmented reality and visual search for operator group Telefonica, suggested that new uses for AR will be found as different kinds of developers start to work with it, including visual and interaction designers.

He also said that Telefonica is keen to help developers find new uses for AR by providing them with technology and APIs to tap into the operator's customer data.

"We know where mobile phones are thanks to GPS and other sensors, which is a very intuitive starting point to get the context of the user," he said. "We are also working on visual recognition to acquire that context: we need to know what the user is looking at, for which we can use the camera."

In the recently concluded Mobile World Congress, there was a panel that discussed the options on Augmented Reality or AR as its better known. The slides are embedded below but only the initial slides provide some value.

Augmented Reality Panel - Mobile World Congress 2011

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I have heard of some and can can think of some more simple applications that can actually be very useful. Maybe some of them are already being developed.

1. reviews of Pubs/Clubs - If you planning to go to some Pub/club in an area you can just look at the places through your lens and immediately see the number of stars received in reviews.

2. Virtual tour guide - One of the apps Lonely Planet are working on is developing virtual tour guides that can tell you all the information about a place once in your mobile camera

3. In some countries where For Sale sign could not be put while selling houses, you can go in an area and look at the houses though your camera and it will tell you which house is for sale, which estate agent and what is the price

4. Some manufacturers have suggested that simple procedures required with gadgets like changing the toner or a printer can be done using AR apps.

5. Games is certainly and area that is going to be a major user of AR for effects and to get people excited

6. Dating apps could use AR to tell about the places where singles hangout in the real time.

7. Educational purpose.

8. CV's for Jobs - Personally, I think QR code can do the job in this case

9. AR could be used as your personal shopping assistant in the supermarket helping you do your shopping in the least amount of time - assuming you know all the things that need to be bought in advance

And many more uses of AR can be thought of and debated.

Finally, there is also a recent presentation titled "Augmented Research" embedded below:

Augmented Research

View more presentations from Face

Five quick videos from Mobile World Congress 2011 - 3

More on HTC Freestyle and Brew OS here.

More on Live translating service here.

Ps: I know there are 6 videos ;)

Smarter Cars of the Future

We all know that cars are getting smarter. Back in Oct., Google unveiled the cars that can drive by themselves. I am sure they will make our life much better and we will be able to catch on the sleep at early morning commute.

Then there were quite a few futuristic cars at the CES 2011 last month. One such video is embedded below.

The following is a summary from the an IEEE article:

Cars have been getting smarter for years, studded with suites of sensors and supporting electronics aimed at keeping them from crashing. But entertainment and convenience have rapidly caught up to safety as the impetus for new in-car electronics development. Because automakers typically spend three years developing and producing new cars—and new gadget candy to go with them—they’ve found themselves constantly playing catch-up with consumer electronics and consumer expectations. So car companies have teamed up with the makers of smartphone software platforms to integrate a spectacular array of apps designed for handsets with cars’ digital dashboards, center consoles, and speaker systems.

Take for instance Ford’s new Focus all-electric vehicle, which made a big splash at the 2011 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last month. It features a software application called MyFord Mobile.

The app, which runs on Ford’s proprietary Sync platform and is compatible with the BlackBerry, iPhone, and Android devices, links the car with the driver’s smartphone and home computer. The software lets the driver listen to a smartphone’s music library and lets passengers watch movies or TV shows. It delivers information such as when electricity prices are at their lowest (to allow for the cheapest battery recharging) and where the nearest charging stations are. And it allows a smartphone to function as a remote control, by means of a connection to cloud-based servers. This remote communication lets the handset keep tabs on the car’s location and the batteries’ state of charge. It will also let the driver start the Focus EV from indoors on a blustery January morning, then step into a car whose seats and steering wheel are already warm. The MyFord Mobile app lets the driver remotely start the car, turn on the heater or air conditioner, or unlock the doors from anywhere in the world (including beneath the bedcovers).

And because the system differentiates one driver’s key from another’s, it presents information on the reconfigurable 4-inch screens on either side of the speedometer in the current driver’s preferred color and style. The state of charge, for example, could be shown as a percentage of the full charge, as an estimate of the remaining miles before recharging, or as a simple bar that gets shorter as the batteries’ energy is consumed. This differentiation also works for utility and entertainment options; it automatically queues up driver A’s list of radio station presets, favorite mobile apps, and preferred display options for the 8-inch center console touch screen. Because MyFord Mobile links the Focus to the driver’s handset, it can also access his or her contact list for hands-free calling and read out e-mails and texts through the car’s speakers.

Ford is trying to position itself as a technological leader in the automotive industry with MyFord Mobile and Sync AppLink Voice Control, which puts the driver in control of all the Sync system’s capabilities via voice commands, but it has stiff competition from the likes of Mercedes-Benz, Continental, and Toyota. Launched by Mercedes-Benz in November 2009, the Mbrace system, designed and engineered by Hughes Telematics of Atlanta, was the first telematics service on the market to give smartphones the power to remotely lock, unlock, or locate a car. It didn’t signal a revolution in the way the average driver interacts with his or her vehicle because when the German luxury vehicle maker offers a new technology or set of features, there is usually a multiyear wait for them to trickle down to cars whose sticker prices aren’t stratospheric.

The second generation of Mbrace debuted last September. It introduced Mercedes-Benz Concierge, which not only opens the car to information from the outside but also makes some car-based information and entertainment options portable. The Mbrace Mobile Application 2.0 gives iPhone and Blackberry users single-phone-number access to recommendations for nearby entertainment and restaurant options, directions, traffic updates, and more, whether the person is in the car or not. The concierge then sends destination information to the smartphone or directly to the in-vehicle navigation system. With the Mbrace system’s latest wrinkle, the Drive2Friend service, the driver can dictate a friend’s mobile number and the app sends a text message reporting that the driver is trying to find the person. The friend has the option of allowing his or her location to be sent back to the car via cellular triangulation.

While Ford was showing off its wares at CES, Continental was also there showcasing the Android-based AutoLinQ system, which lets the driver connect to the car in three ways.

AutoLinQ’s Mobile View lets you to send text messages to your car; the smart vehicle can text you back with information such as its location. In this demo [Flash video], a smartphone user is shown making a remote inquiry about the status of his car. Mobile View reports that the sunroof is open and offers the option to close it or ignore the warning. When he taps Close on the handset’s touch screen, the sunroof’s glass panel glides shut. This type of call-and-response vehicle update also tells whether doors are closed and locked and whether the headlights or interior lights are on. Mobile View doesn’t wait for a query to alert the driver when the alarm is triggered, the battery is depleted, the air bag has been activated, or the internal temperature of the car is too high or low. And like MyFord Mobile, it turns the smartphone into a remote control for locking and unlocking the doors, starting the engine, flashing the lights, and more.

AutoLinQ’s Home View lets you download apps and configure vehicle settings from your home computer. Clickable tabs at the bottom of the Home View screen let the car owner move through screens showing a wealth of data on the car’s status, driver preferences, navigation information, and applications that can be downloaded or fine-tuned. The status menu tells whether the ignition is on and displays the fuel and motor oil levels, the pressure for each of the four tires, and much, much more.

Car View, in AutoLinQ, is for updating features from the driver’s seat. Car View provides the same information as Home View but lets the driver use the center console touch screen to download apps on the fly that provide better control of the car and the ability to remotely manipulate electronic devices back home. An app that sends an alert when a game or match in the driver’s favorite sport is about to appear on television also gives the option to activate a digital video recorder at home, pull up a Web site featuring periodic updates about the game, or listen to play-by-play on the radio.

Continental is also designing unique apps that will enhance vehicle performance. For instance, the Filling Assistant will detect underinflated tires and notify the driver. When the driver goes to inflate the tires, the Filling Assistant will report pressure information to the driver’s smartphone and honk the car’s horn or flash its lights to indicate when a tire has enough air.

Not to be left out, Toyota, the world’s leading automaker, debuted the QNX-based Entune at CES 2011. Entune is an upgradable suite of entertainment, navigation, and information functions. "Consumers have grown accustomed to having the world at their fingertips through their mobile phones," says Jon Bucci, vice president of Toyota’s advanced technology department, who notes that putting them in the car is a natural evolution.

After downloading the Toyota Entune app to a handset and syncing it with the Toyota vehicle, the driver can begin accessing content and services, including Bing for Web navigation and OpenTable, which can make reservations at any one of 15 000 restaurants, with directions sent seamlessly to the navigation system and information appearing on the center console. Entune also lets a driver get customizable real-time traffic updates, sports, weather, stocks, and information on prices at local fueling stations. The system doesn’t forget music, which has almost always been a part of the driving experience. Entune includes Iheartradio, which delivers roughly 750 local radio stations at the touch of a button.

The tide of apps extending handset capabilities to cars will only continue to rise. ABI Research, in Oyster Bay, N.Y., reports that the number of users of automotive apps will increase from 1.4 million in 2010 to more than 28 million by 2015. And according to Global Industry Analysts, the vehicle telematics market is expected to reach US $11.2 billion by 2015.

You can read the complete article here.

In other news, Robots in future will have their own Internet and content like Wikipedia, etc. Does anyone else remember 'The Terminator'?

Locating Wireless Devices Where GPS May Not Be Available

Some of you may have read my earlier posts on stealing spectrum via Femtocells and using Femtocells abroad illegally. This presentation tries to answer one such problem on how do you find the location where GPS cannot be used. This could also be used in case of Cognitive Radios. See my old blog entry here.

OFCOM Locating Wireless Devices where GPS may not be available

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Mozilla Seabird – A Community-driven Mobile Phone Concept

Since Mozilla Labs launched the Concept Series with an open call for participation we’ve had thousands of people join in, share ideas and develop concepts around Firefox, the Mozilla projects and the Open Web as a whole.

In response to our open call Billy May, in early 2009, produced a throw-away concept for an “Open Web Concept Phone”. Working directly off of that community feedback, Billy has since finished the exploration with his concept “Seabird”.

The following write-up is by Billy May and explores what an Open Web phone might look like:



The Mozilla Seabird, part of the Mozilla Labs’ Concept Series, is an experiment in how users might interact with their mobile content as devices and technology advances. Drawing on insights culled from the Mozilla community through the project’s blog, a focus quickly developed around frustrating physical interactions. While mobile CPUs, connectivity and development platforms begin approaching that of desktops, the lagging ability to efficiently input information has grown ever more pronounced.

More details here.

The shape-shifting future of the mobile phone

A normal day in 2014

Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) launches Qi

The WPC has chosen the Qi logo as the international symbol of wireless charging compatibility. Qi—pronounced “chee”, meaning “vital energy” in Asian philosophy—represents an intangible flow of power. Qi is the sign of interoperability between power transmitters and power receivers. All Qi receivers will work with any Qi transmitter. Every electronic device bearing the Qi symbol can be charged on any charging pad or surface marked with the same Qi logo.

In a post last year I mentioned about the wireless chargers. There were few that were released but they are expensive and not sure about the reliability.

The following is from eWeek:

The Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) has launched version 1.0 of its specification for charging handsets and other devices wirelessly, to be marketed under the name “Qi”, and has certified initial products for Blackberry and iPhone devices.

The product announcements come a year after the consortium announced version .95 of the spec. The products, including chargers for iPhone and BlackBerry devices, are to be demonstrated at a WPC meeting later this month.

Qi is based on inductive power transmission, already used in products such as the Touchstone charging dock used by the Palm Pre and the charging station for the Wii gaming console remote control. Such chargers allow a device to charge when placed on a flat surface or in a sleeve or dock. They eliminate the need for the connection of a metal contact connection, such as is found in standard cordless phone chargers.

The consortium, which includes Samsung, Sanyo, Olympus, Philips and Texas Instruments, aims to standardise inductive power charging technology so that chargers can be used with any device bearing the Qi logo. The specification is suitable for devices using up to 5 Watts of power, which the WPC said should cover “the majority of handheld mobile devices”.

“Qi can now be integrated into products. All ingredients for growing the market are now on the table,” said WPC chair Menno Treffers, in a statement.

Initial Qi-certified products are to include a charging sleeve for the iPhone 3GS and 3G and a charger for the Blackberry Curve 8900, both to be launched by Energizer this autumn. Sanyo, ST-Ericsson, National Semiconductor and others said they are working on Qi products.

Prototypes are to be demonstrated at a WPC meeting in Eindhoven, Belgium, from 15 to 16 September. The WPC said it has now begun work on a wireless charging specification for devices requiring more power, including netbooks, laptops, tablet computers and power tools.

The consortium said it chose the brand Qi (pronounced “chee”) to refer to the concept of energy flow in traditional Chinese medicine, not the cult quiz show QI (for “quite interesting”) hosted by Stephen Fry on British TV.

The technology is less ambitious than the system demonstrated this summer by Witricity, which operates at a distance of a few metres, using resonance, which the company claims has green benefits through replacing disposable batteries

From ZDNet:

"It took us only 18 months to develop the Qi standard, and less than one month to see the first products certified. Qi is now the industry's choice for wireless power," said Menno Treffers, chairman of the WPC, in a statement.

Three sets of specifications — for interface definition, performance requirements and test procedure — were handed over to consortium members in July. The only standard released publicly as Qi 1.0 is the interface definition, with the others being restricted to consortium members. The WPC has grown from 27 members in July to over 55 members, including Nokia, LG, Research In Motion, Duracell, Energiser and Texas Instruments.

Wireless charging has great potential to make charging easier for consumers", said Petri Vuori, Nokia's director of mobile solutions research, in the WPC announcement statement. "For full user benefit, a standard ensuring cross-compatibility between different manufacturers' products is required. Qi low-power standard specification release 1.0 is a significant milestone into this direction."

The Qi standard uses inductive charging to transfer up to 5W of power between devices and chargers. There are already products on the market that support inductive charging, but these are tied to particular products, rather than being universal.

The WPC said that it now plans to begin work on a wireless power standard for medium power devices such as netbooks, laptops, tablet computers and power tools.

The group expects the technology to boost the market for wireless battery charging from 100,000 units to 100,000,000 units annually. "Qi can now be integrated into products. All ingredients for growing the market are now on the table." said Treffers.

You may also be interested in the video below:

Challenges in Mobile phone 'Ad-Hoc' Networks

Last month I blogged about a Mobile phone based Ad-Hoc network. The following slide, again from Dr. Ariela Zeira, InterDigital's Vice-President of Advanced Air Interfaces shows the possible problems in having an LTE based approach for a Mobile phone 'Ad-Hoc' network.

This kind of technology is probably quite a few years away.

Interdigital's 'Fuzzy Cells' technology for cell edge performance improvement

Back in LTE World Summit 2010, I heard from Dr. Ariela Zeira, InterDigital's Vice-President of Advanced Air Interfaces about various things Interdigital have been working on.

One of the technologies that caught my attention was Fuzzy Cells technology to increase the cell edge rates. The following is from their press release for Mobile World Congress:

BARCELONA, Spain, Feb 15, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- InterDigital, Inc. today announced the demonstration of its "Fuzzy Cell" technology that improves cell-edge performance at the 2010 Mobile World Congress. The Fuzzy Cell technology is part of the company's comprehensive suite of "Next Generation Cellular" (NGC) innovations that combine advanced network topologies and spectrally-efficient air interface solutions for LTE-advanced and beyond.

"Many wireless operators and customers are experiencing a substantial degradation of service quality caused by the ever-growing demand for mobile data," said James J. Nolan, Executive Vice President, Research and Development, InterDigital. "We are at the forefront of developing solutions for more efficient wireless networks, a richer multimedia experience, and new mobile broadband capabilities that support operators to capture revenues from the boom in smartphones. The Fuzzy Cell fits nicely within our much broader efforts on spectrum optimization, cross-network connectivity and mobility, and intelligent data delivery techniques."

While cellular networks have become virtually ubiquitous, users continue to experience inconsistent and unpredictable performance when moving around. While this degradation is often the result of network congestion or an obstructed path of the radio waves, it is also inherent to traditional cellular deployments, whereby signals degrade towards the fringe of any given cell due to interference from neighboring cells. It is estimated that typical users experience this situation, known as being in the cell-edge, more than 50% of the time. Advancements in HSPA and LTE primarily increase peak data rates and only offer modest improvements in average performance throughout a cell.

Fuzzy Cells is a novel approach for leveraging existing resources to improve spectral efficiency and cell-edge performance. In a traditional deployment a device connects to one site at a time (even if multiple sub-bands are used at each site) and all sites use the same power levels and sector orientations for all sub-bands. In a Fuzzy Cell deployment, a device may connect to multiple sites at a time through the different sub-bands and continue to realize full system bandwidth. The power levels and sector orientations of the different sub-bands are optimized for best performance. In simpler terms, the device exploits the best combination of base station support regardless of its position, removing traditional limitations of cell or sector boundaries. Importantly, Fuzzy Cell technology can also allow gains indoors as it allows connection to more than one cell/sector at a time as available. The Fuzzy Cell technology provides additional improvement over Fractional Frequency Reuse (FFR) methods that are supported by current specifications.

The following shows the demonstration of Fuzzy cells:

I haven't heard any news recently on this technology but its an interesting concept, not sure if it would be adopted in the near term in the standards.

Next Generation Wireless Enablers in 2020

Enabling Wireless Communication Future presented by Tim Watkins, Vice President Huawei West Europe Region on 18th May 2010 in LTE World Summit 2010

Mobile Phones 'Ad-Hoc Networks'

Picture Source: Daily Telegraph

Couple of years back I blogged about MCN and ODMA concept. Another variation of this idea is now in news again.

From the Daily Telegraph:

Australian scientists have created a mobile phone that can make and receive calls in parts of the world that would normally have no reception.

The phones contain a built-in mini-tower that allows them to connect to other phones via Wi-Fi and create their own network.

Researchers at South Australia's Flinders University devised the phones to work in the event of a natural disaster or terrorist attack when normal mobile phone services had been cut off.
Dr Paul Gardiner-Stephen said the phones had been tested successfully in the remote Outback where mobiles cannot pick up a signal.

"There was absolutely no infrastructure or support for the telephones so they were acting entirely on their own to carry the calls," he said.

The phones are unlikely to replace existing mobile systems, but could be combined to create fail-safe communication.

"One of our dreams is that every phone will come out with this one day so that if there is a disaster anywhere in the world everyone's phones will then switch over to this mode as a fallback," Dr Gardiner-Stephen said.

"When the infrastructure is knocked out we still provide good service while the traditional mobile phone network provides no service."

At the moment, the signal between phones is limited to a few hundred yards, but the team hopes to expand the range in the future.

I dont see them becoming reality for quite some time to come but its an interesting concept.

This is not the first time this idea is being proposed. As I have discussed, ODMA was intended to do something similar but did not take off. MANET's are other areas that have been worked on for quite some time and you can find good ideas and journal papers. There is also this paper talking about Ad-Hoc networks for mobiles using Bluetooth.

In fact going many years back, Iridium idea was launched with something similar in mind. I remember reading jornal papers back in 1996 that mentioned that Iridium phones will work like landline phones when you are in your house and will work as cellular when out of house and in an area with cellular coverage. If there is no cellular coverage then it will rely on Satellite communication. Of-course in those days nobody thought data usage will become this popular and so it was focussed on voice. Still I cannot see this happening for many years to come.

Andrew Gilbert from Qualcomm on 'Future of Wireless'

Andrew Gilbert from Qualcomm at The Future of Wireless International Conference 2010, organised by Cambridge Wireless and held in Cambridge, UK on the 29th and 30th June 2010.

ng-connect LTE car from ALU

Back in the LTE World Summit 2010 there was this ng-connect LTE car demo. I wasn't able to get a demo as there didnt seem to be anyone willing to be filmed for the blog. The first I heard about this ng.connect program was last year when I blogged about the case for early LTE in USA.

The ng connect program ecosystem brings together lots of companies that are collaborating from research to sales and marketing. If you click in the picture above you will be able to see the enlarged image and at the bottom you can see the names of these companies. The car is ofcourse Toyota but I wasnt able to see that in the list of companies.

The following Youtube clip gives an introduction to the connected car

The following is from the Demo from France. In January 2010, Alcatel-Lucent launched for the first time in Europe the ng Connect LTE Connected Car in its Velizy, France facility, showcasing the capabilities that Long Term Evolution (LTE), the next generation of mobile networks, will bring to automakers, service providers, application developers and end users. Also demo'd in Velizy was the live LTE drive tour in a van, testing mobile services on a campus-wide network, demonstrating a smooth transition between 3G/HSPA and LTE networks.

The final video is slightly longer clip which shows the thought process behind the connected car.

If you havent had enough already then I would also recommend this post.

Police call for remote button to stop cars

From The Guardian:

British Police are urging Ministers to give them the power to stop vehicles by remote control.

In what will be seen as yet another example of the in-creasing power of Big Brother, drivers face the prospect of their cars being halted by somebody pushing a button.

The police lobby is being led by Superintendent Jim Hammond of Sussex police, who chairs an Association of Chief Police Officers technology working group which is examining the idea.

'Providing an effective means to remotely stop a vehicle is fast becoming a priority,' Hammond told a European conference. 'The development of a safe and controlled system to enable remote stopping has the potential to directly save lives.'

However, Bert Morris, deputy director of the AA Motoring Trust said: 'People don't like the idea of Big Brother taking over their driving. In years to come that might be acceptable, but it's very, very important that there's a step-by-step approach.'

Cars could be stopped by the gradual reduction of engine power so it slowly comes to a stop, or by making sure when drivers come to a halt they can not move again.

Stopping cars remotely sounds futuristic, but the basic technology is already available and used in lorries to limit the top speed to 56mph and in new systems to immobilise stolen cars.

The key is the electronics box in most new cars which, when the driver presses the accelerator or brake, sends a message to the engine to speed up or slow down. It can be programmed to limit the speed generally or according to the position of the car, established via a GPS satellite. For remote operation, a modem, which works like a mobile phone, can be used tell the car to slow down or stop.

Similar radio telemetry was used by Formula One pit crews to adjust the engines of racing cars at up to 200mph - until it was banned this year.

'The technology exists and will become more refined as time goes on,' said Nick Rendell, managing director of the Siemens business developing this technology in the UK.

A senior police officer - assumed to be the chief constable or deputy - can already give the order to stop a car remotely, but that power has rarely if ever been used, said Morris. To use any new powers more widely, police must first overcome some practical problems to reassure Ministers that vehicles would be stopped safety. Ministers will also want reassurances that drivers would not be mistakenly stopped.

ACPO insists that it would only introduce the technology when it was safe. It is calling on the Government to introduce the legislation which it says will be vital to stop vehicles when - as expected - manufacturers develop tyres that run when they are flat. This will make 'stingers' - the spiked strips thrown in front of speeding cars - useless to stop stolen and get-away cars or dangerous drivers.

It is also linked to pressure to make cars 'pointless to steal' because of growing concern about more violent car crime as vehicles become harder to take. The RAC Foundation recently found there were as many as 1,200 car jackings in Britain last year.

Another link is to technology which would stop cars going above certain speed limits - either a fixed maximum such as 70mph, or varying according to the local limit.

The system could even be programmed to reduce speeds below the limit in bad weather or when school children were expected to be about, said Robert Gifford, director of the Parliamentary Advisory Committee on Transport Safety, which believes the technology could cut the 3,420 deaths a year on Britain's roads by 59 per cent.

Experts now believe the technology could start to be used voluntarily by the end of the decade and ultimately could be made mandatory.

Pomegranate concept mobile: With video projector, live voice translator, harmonica, coffee maker, shaving razor, etc

The Pomegranate NS08 is a concept (fictional - though some people refer to it as a hoax) phone that promised amazing stuff until you dig deep and realise that its just an idea to market Communication Nova Scotia's Come to Life program. Check out the Youtube clip for the complete advertisement:

The following is from Wikipedia:

The Pomegranate phone is the latest campaign from Communications Nova Scotia's Come to Life initiative, the place-branding program of the Government of Nova Scotia. Communications Nova Scotia has been criticized by some for spending $300,000 on the ad campaign, though the website received more than 1,100,000 visits from 201 countries/territories since its launch on September 30, 2008, and they are considering it to be very successful.

Via: Techflight