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Friday, June 29, 2007 The iPhone's Untapped PotentialApple could do a lot more with all the sensors in the iPhone. By Kate Greene
Apple is known for its innovative gadget design, and with the release of the iPhone, it continues to live up to its hype. But while people are fawning over features like the smart, multitouch screen and the advanced Web browser, there is important technology under the hood that will likely go underappreciated. The iPhone has tiny, powerful sensors--an accelerometer, an ambient light sensor, and an infrared sensor--that are able to pick up cues from the environment and adjust the phone's functions accordingly. Apple has decided to use these sensors for detecting when to convert the screen view from portrait to landscape, for adjusting the brightness of the screen based on the brightness of the environment, and for disabling the touch screen when a person holds the phone to her ear. Of course, Apple isn't the first to put sensors such as accelerometers in phones. Nokia, for example, has a sports phone (called the 5500) that uses an accelerometer as a pedometer. When a person takes the phone jogging, the accelerometer logs the rate of vibrations and sends that data to software that determines speed and distance. The 5500 also offers an accelerometer-based game in which a user tilts the device to navigate a ball through a maze. In addition, Nokia offers a developers' kit so that people can make their own accelerometer-based games, potentially mimicking the style of those played with Nintendo's popular Wii controller. (See "Hack: The Nintendo Wii.") These functions, while useful and entertaining, are still pretty mundane, says Nathan Eagle, a research scientist at MIT. "These are trivial uses for what has the potential to provide a whole slew of new features and functionality," he says. Separate research taking place at MIT, Intel, and other companies suggests that, with the right software, built-in hardware such as accelerometers, light sensors, a GPS, and the phone's own microphone could provide contextual clues about people's activities and behaviors. A sensor-enabled phone could feasibly help monitor your exercise habits, keep track of an elderly relative's activities, and let your friends and family know if you're available for a call or instant-messaging conversation. It could even provide insight into social networks. "If you get access to [a phone's] accelerometer data, you can get a variety of contextual clues about how the user is living their life," Eagle says--for instance, whether or not a user is riding a bike, taking the subway, walking up stairs, or sitting for a long period of time. The data can be used to let workers know if they need to take a break or if a person is meeting exercise goals, he says. Eagle and Sandy Pentland, professor of media arts and sciences at MIT, have used Nokia phones equipped with sensors to study the behavior of people in groups and even predict their actions to a certain extent. (See "Gadgets That Know Your Next Move.") To explore other possibilities, researchers at Intel use a small gadget, about the size of a pager, that amasses data from seven sensors: an accelerometer, a barometer, a humidity sensor, a thermometer, a light sensor, a digital compass, and a microphone, says Tanzeem Choudhury, a researcher at Intel Labs Seattle. Most of the sensors are used to determine location and activity, but the microphone can provide interesting insight into social networks, she says, such as whether a person is having a business conversation or a social chat. Aware of privacy concerns, the researchers designed the microphone data to be immediately processed so that all words are removed, and only information about tone, pitch, and volume is recorded. Recently, Intel researchers equipped a first-year class of University of Washington graduate students with these sorts of sensors and, based on their interactions, were able to watch social networks develop over time. |
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The Future of Mobile Social Networking
06/02/2008
Comments
hsfrey on 06/29/2007 at 12:50 PM
7
Just because something CAN be done doesn't mean that it SHOULD be done! The author gave not the slightest hint that such questions had ever crossed his mind. Nor did the editor.
stradric on 06/29/2007 at 1:26 PM
19
Parijata on 06/29/2007 at 2:54 PM
4
"A team from Google Research has developed a prototype system that uses a home computer's internal microphone to listen to the ambient audio in a room, determine what is being watched on TV and offer web-based supplemental information, services and shopping contextual to each program being watched," reports TechCrunch.
VCRAGAIN on 06/29/2007 at 3:23 PM
34
- now we need a sensor "sensor" to report who is watching or sniffing or listening - what a wondrous thing is man !!!
nicko82 on 07/03/2007 at 2:48 PM
3
Search for these terms and you might come across some interesting, yet very useful, futuristic technological advances, which are still in the research stage. The iPhone is the only one that stands out, so far. But you'll hear of a lot more in the future.
I'll give you a simple example concerning ringtones, to give an insight of its uses:
The phone may sense that its in your pocket - switch to vibration.
The phone may sense that you are in a meeting - switch to silent.
The phone may sense that you re driving your car - switch to handsfree, or speaker.
The phone may sense you re sleeping - switch to silent.
...and a lot more. However some of the means of sensings these kind of things have not yet been invented, although the iPhone covers a lot of them.
Through sensing things the phone can help with a lot of things that you probably cannot be bothered, or usually forget to do.
Yes you re right though, there are lots of concerns for privacy. Its one of the main challenges for the designers. Thats an issue of its own.
anton on 07/11/2007 at 3:38 AM
7
> The phone may sense that you are in a meeting - switch to silent.
> The phone may sense that you re driving your car - switch to handsfree, or speaker.
> The phone may sense you re sleeping - switch to silent.
That's just confusing. If I set my cell phone on vibrate, I want it to vibrate. If I set it on silent mode, I want it to be silent - regardless wether it's sensors think I'm sleeping or not, driving a car or whatever. Also the sensors can never detect what *I* am doing, it can only detect what's happening to the unit. And who sleeps with his cellphone.
How to really improve cellphones:
* Increase in speech quality. Japan has one of the most advanced cell phone systems on the planet, still the sound quality is often incomprehensible. * Also, the user iterface for each cell phone is different, it's difficult using another cellphone than the one you are used to.
* The user interface needs a lot of improvement. Let's say I want to switch off one of the three (!) answering machines that come with my cell phone (one on the server, two are build-in): is the function to switch on/off the answering machine under "Settings 1", "Settings 2" or "Set up"?
* As someone suggested in another comment below, remote control replacement! That's a really great idea and would help me get rid of 6 separate remote controls.
* It would be really cool to have a cell phone with GPS and a map. Such cellphones exist in Japan, but they rely on a working GPS connection *and* Internet connection at the samer time = unreliable & expensive. It would be much better if the maps are saved in the cell phone, not retrieved from a server.
nicko82 on 07/15/2007 at 8:24 PM
3
> The phone may sense that you are in a meeting - switch to silent.
> The phone may sense that you re driving your car - switch to handsfree, or speaker.
> The phone may sense you re sleeping - switch to silent.
>>That's just confusing. If I set my cell phone on >>vibrate, I want it to vibrate. If I set it on >>silent mode, I want it to be silent - regardless >>wether it's sensors think I'm sleeping or not, >>driving a car or whatever. Also the sensors can >>never detect what *I* am doing, it can only >>detect what's happening to the unit. And who >>sleeps with his cellphone.
Whats confusing is that some people are not so used to the technology yet to have ubiquitous computing in their lives. What I said was just an example.
What if you re in a meeting and you forget to switch to silent for example, and it starts ringing and embaresses you? Thats the point of it sensing things and setting itself. The main challenges still lay into how the phone should sense what you are doing.
As for quality of sound and maps and stuff, it could all be done with 3G. Ask the phone companies that paid billions to have the systems installed why they are not taking full advantage of the scheme.
PaulTiffany on 06/30/2007 at 12:26 PM
2
One idea I have: Using something like Alltel's unlimited call circle to constantly record to Skype or something... essentially creating my own human speechome. ;)
Another idea: Why aren't all cellphones universal remotes already? "Honey, can you call the remote?"
This site has already discussed using GPS/camera technology for amateur cartography. That has the potential to be incredibly powerful.
Using cell-phones in an ad-hoc wireless network for internet access outside the EVIL telecomm providers.
What about putting the iPhone on its belly on a desk for silent mode?
Regarding google and apple eroding privacy. Oh well. Privacy is over-rated. Besides, I'm sure you'll always have a choice. It's just a question of whether or not the forms have automatic yes checks.
banditbulz on 07/08/2007 at 12:38 PM
2
sniper555 on 07/11/2007 at 5:17 AM
1
hollifieldcs on 11/14/2007 at 1:10 PM
1
Regarding privacy, this is just another paradigm shift for most and will soon be considered acceptable by the masses. Think about taking someone from 1920, 1950, 1980 or even 1990 and plopping them into 2007 with the amount of tracking and intrusive technology that exists today, but none of us give it a second thought.