Little Springs Design. 2001 – 2010.

Theoretically, mobile computing has just as much capability as computer-based computing. A mobile device could theoretically run a full computer OS, particularly if the OS was designed correctly. It could theoretically have just as easy text input, and just as large a screen. None of this is true now, but it could be in the future.

Will it? Probably not, but the capacity is there. For example, people will want to use mobile devices with a single hand, not two hands and a surface upon which to rest a keyboard and mouse. Perhaps a future with high quality speech recognition will bridge the gap.

Despite this theoretical convergence, mobile devices have a capability that desktop devices do not, and will not: the ready capability to make intelligent assumptions about the user's current context. They share this capability with environmental computing, except that with environmental (ubiquitous) computing the system makes assumptions about all people who enter a space, whereas mobile devices make assumptions about one user entering any type of space.

There are myriad sources of information possible, some gleaned from the environment and others intrinsic in the information on the device. Sources include:

• Geographic location, such as from GPS. This oft-discussed source of information can be used to determine travel status, whether the user is likely to be late for a meeting, or what the user is doing (if on a train line, the user is probably on or waiting for a train)</ li>
• Precise location, such as from a wi-fi network, Bluetooth, or an RFID reader. This source allows for extremely targeted marketing or very local information transfer.
• Calendar. If the user is in a meeting, sending advertising is inappropriate. However, sending industry news may be very appropriate.
• Camera, either for capture of images directly, or for recognition of image content such as bar codes, faces, traffic signs, or other environmental data.
• Local data sources. Bluetooth, RFID, wi-fi, or other mechanisms can be used to allow the local environment to talk to the mobile device. Consider a coupon for 20% off a specific product, as long as it is purchased within the next 15 minutes.
• Contacts. If the user is with another person, the device could download any public information regarding that person.
• Other personal devices. Apple's Airport Express, which can route music from iTunes to a stereo, is a stationary version of device interaction.
• Other users' mobile devices.

Magic starts happening when these and other information sources are combined for the benefit of the user. Travel applications can combine several of these informations with online sources to alert the user when they need to leave for the airport, even in an unfamiliar city. If the user is out of the office and near restaurants at lunch, any place with a special or matching the user's food interests could send information to the user.

As time goes on, more sources of context will become available. Now we just need to get the devices, technology platforms, carriers, and application developers to create interesting applications.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 6th, 2005 at 5:14 pm and is filed under Business, Design, Devices, Location (LBS), Mobile applications, Mobile web, Theory. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.