For years, touch was considered an important part of communication — until it took a young girl from Goa to tear through the scratch guard, break through the guerrilla glass touchscreen and create a touch-free revolution in mobile technology. To the mobile phone junkie, this translates into a future where he wouldn’t have to touch a thing to be in touch with the world.
So, one doesn’t ‘touch’ a mobile phone anymore, how does one communicate? Through gestures, of course. The next generation of phones is being prepared for gesture recognition through ‘3dim’, or high quality 3-d sensing achieved through patented signal processing methods. So, instead of issuing commands to your mobile through touch, you can use a set of hand movements that it can recognise and respond to.
But interpreting gestures and signs can be a pretty confusing affair — at times, the same gesture could mean different things to different people, like the famous Indian head bobble. To avoid the muddle that gesture recognition could cause, technology has come up with a few alternatives that could help us communicate, both with our mobiles and with one another.
Accoustech : A technology that uses acoustics to help mobile phones convey a message — this is in complete irreverence to the silent mode. Mobiles will henceforth use sounds, such as snarling noises to indicate year-end appraisal, childlike laughter to signal wife leaving town, sobs to announce that your favourite serial is beginning — and loud growls to indicate hunger.
Chromatech : This technology works through chromatic gradations — or colour changes that the mobile displays. Bright shades of yellow indicate that gold prices have come down, red communicates a bad feeling that the prices have gone down further after your gold shopping, green indicates that the neighbours got a better deal than you did, and shades of black and blue point out that what you’ve bought is not even 18 carat gold. Employers can also use this technology to find out if their employees are faking a fever and playing hooky, by holding their mobile close to them — if it turns pink, they are in good health and are fit enough to work.
Optech : This uses an optical mode of communication. The wallpaper and the display of the mobile screen change based on your mood, from bright, happy flowers and tranquil waterfalls to Megadeth skulls and Ghost Rider close-ups. Other display techniques include a change in opacity and dual tones, for the Gemini types or for those in two minds.
Aromatech : This technology enables your mobile to release various aromas that can convey a message. Digital scent technology has been around for some time now — so why not make use of it? It could also help employees alert their colleagues who are goofing off. A quick garlic and BO whiff from their mobile would be enough to let them know that the boss is approaching their desk.
Statech : Using technology that releases static pulsations, mobiles resort to communication of the seismic kind, thereby giving the good old vibration mode its share of the limelight. This method allows the mobile to sense its owner's mood and pass on messages through a series of vibrations. So when someone sends you a message about a big question mark on IPL 7, your mobile will make sure that you look appropriately shaken up.
Energetech : This is cutting-edge technology of the energetic kind, in the form of shock impulses that involve electroreception. In other words, the mobile carries your message in the form of an impulse. If the recipient is carrying his mobile in his person, the effect would be telling — or screaming, depending on the intensity of the shock.
Note: All the new technologies were created by taking traditional communication methods used by animals and changing the ‘tic’ in their names into tech. All of them are deemed fictional until the time someone really comes up with them.
(sureshl.india@gmail.com)
