Lose the Shape -UEI’s Future Vision 2-

If people can manipulate a mobile and use the functions of it without its screen nor key pad, hands of human being becomes free again while they are walking.

To use an advanced mobile, people always use at least one hand. If the mobile is not advanced, they have to use two hands.

However, future mobile which adopt the technology of mobile computing, does not need to use hands.

When you want to get information, you read the info on the screen of glasses or on the mobile-screen shaped like book.

Remember when you use a mobile. Human beings, or recent mobile human beings use a mobile switching two modes.

One is an active mode which is sending and receiving information, such as sending e-mail, writing one’s blog or searching for something on the web.

The other is passive mode which is only receiving information, like seeing other’s blog, reading spam mails, or surfing social network sites and so on. It’s the mode just killing time.

Generally, most of people’s mobile experience is the latter, passive mode.

Ryo likes writing his blog, but he says that he would be tired if he spent the most of the day writing the blog with his mobile.90% purpose to use mobile is to kill time. It may not the case only for Ryo.

If this fact thought, it can be said that human beings check or use mobiles when they want to receive information passively.

Then, there is no need for mobiles to keep the shape of “mobile phone.”

The shape doesn’t have to be fixed. Shape of book, glasses, or anything else.

But, in the present shape of “mobile phone,”  a communication tool, a battery, and a liquid-crystal display are contained in minimized size which science technology can offer now. Actually, in the past, the shape was smaller, but became rather bigger because characters or screen was too small and the usability was not good.

However, few intellectual activities are done with mobile. So few, that there is no problem for mobile to remove the function for intellectual activity.

You can get the information for pleasure or kill time on the glasses-screen.

With a mini-camera in the glasses-screen, reading the movement of eye, computer roughly understand which part of the information you are reading, or which you ignore. By doing it, the screen will automatically proceede pages. And proceeding pages is enough function for the receiving information.

During passive mode, people don’t expect useful or new information.

For example, on Twitter, Ryo follows more than 300 users, and is followed by more than 1300 users, but 90% of the information is just “twitter.”

As TV, the extreme way which continually provides exciting information need to be watched.

Both when one sees good pages randomly chosen, like on Stumbleuupon, and when on Trumblr, see one’s favourite time lines, to sum up, are just seeing something.

Like Cover Flow of Safari4, the screen is always displayed within your visibility, and if you find something new, you just make some action (shaking mobile, using device for input and output etc.) to know more about the information.

If the Cover Flow of Safari 4 is futuristic browser, our a year ago project was really relevant to it.

However, the present system of mobiles is not completely suitable for “just seeing” something aimlessly.

There are not much enough contents for mobiles nor agencies to make and maintain the contents. The task from now on is how stimulate the motivation to do it.

It can be said that present Trumber or social bookmarks are not for general, but for some fans. The fans intensely use them. To be for general, one should not be specialized something. If such bookmarks become for general people, they may become boring at the same time because they lack speciality.

I should not ignore that mobile are communication tools, and screens are necessary for the function after all.

But how many contacts are created in your phonebook? 10? 50? Or 100? Only well-experienced sales men or secret brokers need to access to all of 100 contacts immediately. For them, I definitely recommend using mobiles with screens.

If one usually make phone calls within less than 10 people, one’s mobile does not need such a great screen.

How about pen-shape mobile? Turning and pushing the button, isn’t it enough handling to make a phone call? To input contact list, one’s mobile just touch the others, or send the information by e-mail or something.

That sounds a little unrealistic, but not impossible. With the glasses-screen, one can use the pen-shape mobile as a pointing device.

To be continued…