TI envisions phone becoming central repository for apps, media and info

The same goes for user interface and input methods. While 12-key number pads have evolved into full Qwerty keypads, and stylus-based interfaces have become haptic screens, the input methods on phones are still relatively ungainly. Smartphones are capable of running advanced applications and services, but their input methods still severely limit our ability to interact with those apps and services, just as the size of the screen limits the quantity and quality of the content we can view, Goren said. Voice technologies will vastly improve those inputs, as noise filtering, natural language recognition and artificial intelligence improve. People will be able to speak their needs to their devices rather than input them by thumb or finger.

But Goren proposes that the phone may even evolve further beyond its physical limitations and become a computational and multimedia hub that interacts and controls other devices in its vicinity. Just as consumers use their iPhone as a central repository for their music, which they then connect to home and car stereos, TI envisions a future where the phone becomes a central repository for content, applications and data. Much of that content or data could be trapped in the device, with the customer having limited or no access to it from the phone’s interface, but when the device interacts with any number of appliances around it, that data comes alive. For instance, a phone could become a portable video repository, which could stream an HD movie to any TV or video monitor it connected with. Instead of synchronizing with an office PC, the phone could become the office PC at home, inserted into a monitor and keyboard docking station like a laptop, thus unlocking the full array of business and enterprise located within. As the smartphone becomes more powerful, Goren said, it feasibly could become the central hub for all of our communications, computing and entertainment needs, while all other devices became peripherals.

BEEFING UP THE PHONE

Creating such a device-centric scenario depends on many more factors than just compute power. Security and backup platforms become vital. The power drain on such a device becomes critical. And connectivity means must be developed that allow the phone to interact with and even control all of the disparate devices around it. Perhaps the biggest demand on such a platform, though, would be memory. While the Flash memory embedded in phones has leaped enormously since the advent of mobile data and entertainment, creating a device that stores every modicum of information relevant to an individual’s life and work would require far more than a the handful of gigabytes (GB) available today in Flash micro secure digital cards and embedded memory.