Thoughts on disruptive technologies?
 

I don't remember exactly who (though I think it was Quim) or where it was said, but the device which is supposed to be released this year will afair be a testbed for disruptive technologies.

Well that was the plan as far as I remember it, and even if the plan has changed, I think these so called disruptive technologies are an interesting topic.

There's a link from M* Weekly News (23rd May 2011) to the Nokia conversations blog (http://conversations.nokia.com/2011/...tion-at-nokia/) which talks about future devices, etc. It has links to some cool projects that are going on at Nokia Beta Labs (unfortunately for Symbian). E.g.

http://betalabs.nokia.com/apps/nokia-situations

http://betalabs.nokia.com/apps/nokia-bots

The first is something that we talked about a long while back, and iirc achipa was working on a framework to allow both time and location based events to be triggered. I'm not sure how disruptive this is, but it would certainly be quite useful and cool. In addition, if it could be linked to the calendar so that different flags could be set for calendar events (e.g. can interrupt, can interrupt from these numbers, etc.) it would be even better.

The second is a simple (in concept) learning app, which can learn which numbers you phone at different times/locations (e.g. I don't phone my wife's work number when we're both at home) as well as learning which apps or web pages you use at certain times so that they can be opened and ready for you.

Now both of these things are very cool projects IMHO, the shame is that we could probably have implemented these things ourselves if we had put our minds to it (and indeed we have spoken about both of these types of apps in the past), but that's one of the problems with coding in your spare time and just not having time to do all the things you'd like to.


There was another app from iirc Nokia Beta labs, which I thought was potentially quite cool (especially for conferences), though I can't find the link now. It was a IM type app, which could use BT or ad-hoc Wifi and would notify other devices in the neighbourhood of who you are, interests, etc.


Anyway, I think these kinds of apps are cool, I'm ever hopeful that we do get a new device which can be a testbed for such "disruptive technologies" and just thought I'd ask everyone else what ideas they have for disruptive technologies?

Re: Thoughts on disruptive technologies?
 

NFC, augmented reality and location and time based software sounds good, but I think that in truth we're still a way away from anything that utilises them to the extent that we could talk about a disruption.

The reason for this is, that most of these services require functions to be on that drain the battery very fast. Also, pop any device attached to GPS in your pocket and you're gonna lose your signal. At the latest the "screen locked" mode will cut off your connections on most current operating systems. Also, Tomi Ahonen has shown with data, that people are never interested in sharing their own locations, but only interested in other people's locations, creating a improbable future for location-based services.

So I think that Foursquare and Layar (as examples) will be seperate apps that people use for fun. I also expect other "IRL games" to become more famous, but they won't come commonplace anytime soon.

I think the next things to change radically will probably be around UI paradigms. Apple kind of started it, and nothing counts more right now than a good UI. Companies are getting away with all kinds of shenanigans (for eg. WP7) as long as it looks good.

My bet was that Nokia's MeeGo UI would begin to change the direction in which UI paradigms were going, but apparently it was reverted back to the icons-on-a-desktop + apps list paradigm that we're well familiar with. WP7 is disrupting this notion of a UI somewhat and what we're seeing on the WeTab out of the San Francisco summit looks to be re-thinking UI paradigms as well.

So my bet of the next future disruption is on how things work and what they look like. Changes to the core of how and why we use our devices are still far away.

Re: Thoughts on disruptive technologies?
 

It's "disruptive", all right -- it has already disrupted Meego schedules and Linux mindshare.

Good job, Microsoft.

Re: Thoughts on disruptive technologies?
 

Agreed about them not quite being disruptive, they are definitely cool though :)

/me makes note.


Depends on whether you can only share with some people I'd have thought. I've no problem sharing my location with my family, and if I were away at a conference I'd happily share my location with the people there, but yes, I'm not overly fond of just randomly letting everyone (and Google) know where I am all the time. But equally I'm not so fond of tweeting my innermost thoughts ever 5 minutes so perhaps I'm not a typical netizen ;)

I've no interest in the games provided by these services, but rather the data they provide.

Yes, there was a comment in that Nokia conversations post about UI changes, etc.

Re: Thoughts on disruptive technologies?
 

Going back to the original post, have you seen ConnLock? This is the brainstorm thread that led to it's creation. ConnLock lets you disable automatic lock when you are connected to network you trust. Baby steps have already been made towards that disruption.

One way round this would be to use Cell Tower data. I don't even think Geolocation would need to be turned on. As soon as you get near home, the phone recognises the Cell Tower A and does xyz. Go to work, find Cell Tower B, the regular contacts used from that Cell Tower jump to the top of the contacts list when the dialler is called up.

Re: Thoughts on disruptive technologies?
 

I don't use a device lock, but I can see that this might well be quite useful for some people. Expanding it to also control other aspects of the device when you're connected to a known network, or in a given location, etc., etc., and indeed we have one of those Nokia Beta labs ideas.

Yes, though this also requires a network connection atm afaiu, as the device does not have a local tower id to geographical location db. This is something that certainly could be added though, or even built up from visited areas (sounds a bit like an iPhone all of a sudden ;) )

Is liblocation open though? I must check, as ideally one add the ability to use cached/local db cell ids to that api.

Re: Thoughts on disruptive technologies?
 

When you think "disruptive" you've got to get away from the spec sheets and get towards the use cases. Look again a Situations and Bots, these are essentially asking for the same thing (context awareness by the mobile device, software adapts to behavior of the owner) but going about it two different ways.

Situations takes the understood model of computing that's pretty much framed much of how we (owners, users, and non-service providers) do mobile: program it, and then its "intelligence" is allowed to come to the surface.

Bots takes the method of computing (somewhat understood) that says "given enough data points, can we automate certain tasks which used to be the domain of the owner to provision?" The intelligence of this system comes to the surface after a period of learning, and with little "additional programming" by the owner - or even the need of a "service layer" to bolster the intelligence as all of the data is collected and compiled on the mobile locally.

So, looking at use cases based on what we see with Situations and Bots, what can those disruptive technologies look like on a platform like Maemo/MeeGo:

• different user interface behaviors for going into certain types of apps (treating pictures and videos as windows that you slide open and close instead of poking into and out of)
• more context shifting from the mobile (using the sensors to adapt not just the screen, but the processor, battery draw, and even sound qualities based on those items)
• if the mobile has the hardware to be a sharing point (UnPnP, HDMI, TV-Out, USB-Host), can the use of that hardware we pushed more to the front of the use without costly accessories (instead of docks, the device simply plugs-in as is and through sensor frameworks adapts to device/environment)
• what areas of the UX should remain owner-programmable (themes, sounds, etc.), which areas should the device not all to be programmed for automation, but learns what the preferences are for owners and maybe recommends a better or more efficient course

And things of that ilk. Remember also some of the directions for the platform, its not just about a terminal that you place in your pocket, hands, or near your ear. We've been hearing about the integration to automobiles (and other forms of transportation), connecting to utility grids, and even combining with similar devices to create larger shared experience screens/environments.

Disruptive means that you take what people think is normal, and you add something of definitive value such that they assume that normal is no longer good enough. That should be the direction for developers here, and certainly the focus of anything with MeeGo that Nokia or others release in terms of hardware. For example Nenya.

Re: Thoughts on disruptive technologies?
 

So developing an aspect of ARJWright's reply, one use case could be the interaction with the Car's IVI of the calendar app. The interaction could be cloud-based eg a Google-Calendar sync system, or it could be a direct sync PC <--wifi/3G--> Mobile <--bluetooth--> IVI <--3G--> PC. In this scenario an extra field or two would have be added for tasks which require travelling to. Once the location of the task is entered, a mode of transport field would appear, where the user can specify one or more modes of transport for this particular task.

As the task nears certain reminders and/or tasks could be triggered in the calendar. e.g. for that meeting that requires a train journey, a task to book tickets could appear a couple of days before the date of travel to ensure cheaper Advanced Fares are paid. In this scenario the user is driving to the train station. The system has been monitoring the TMC output for the last week and has noticed the general congestion on the route to the station, and so sets the daily alarm 20 minutes earlier to compensate (by now the system knows how long it usually takes for the user to get ready for work). When the alarm rings it gives a reminder of what time it would be best to leave the house. The train station happens to be on the route the user takes every fortnight to his mother's house so the IVI brings up the route but leaves the voice off until the junction for the station car park approaches. As the train nears the required stop (calculated using Cell Tower data & the time), the phone alerts the user. On alighting the train at the destination the personal navigation system on the phone is triggered with the 10 minute walk to the meeting highlighted.

The system could all be coordinated from the Home PC (or maybe the MeeGo set-top box) which will have to be running all day with its radio tuner to allow for the TMC component to work.

The obvious privacy issues with this kind of system that have already been exposed in the iphone and TomTom would have to be addressed.

This just helps cover the user's travel needs, but a whole intelligent PDA system could be developed that could create a real disruption.

Re: Thoughts on disruptive technologies?
 

I would love to see face and voice recognition technologies used upon unlocking screen or when starting device for security. It could also be used in IVI to distinguish between users and load their preferences accordingly.

The use of location for adjusting settings such as connection, possibly other phone related settings like Mrsellout pointed it out would also be welcome as long as we can overcome the strain on the battery.

There is only a thin line between useful hence cool and annoying. Good example is Win7 and Vista; so many beautiful new features and no way to switch them off. People like changes, new looks as long as they can find the old features as well with at least the same details as prior. For this reason user should always have the power to permamently overwrite things or to describe rules and conditions.

Re: Thoughts on disruptive technologies?
 

Cell tower ids would effectively be a free location source if liblocation were able to interrogate these and use a local database of ids to lat/lon, rather than needing to request the lat/lon from the network each time.

Wifi ap scanning would be another possibility (I'm not sure how power hungry wifi scanning is, but probably less so than cell network traffic), again if liblocation were open this is something we could implement.

Re: Thoughts on disruptive technologies?
 

You can't plan disruptive tech/fads/products by committee.

The best incubation tube (and target/reward) for potentially disruptive development is an active and sizeable target market.

Re: Thoughts on disruptive technologies?
 

Agreed, but as someone has to have the ideas somewhere it's not just down to random chance, therefore I thought it was worth asking for people's opinions on what they think might make for useful disruptive technologies/applications/use-cases.

Target market size is important to get acceptance and test things, but is not directly related to the development of "disruptive technologies" - that needs skilled programmers and people thinking about the future. I'd like to think we have both of those in the Maemo/Meego community.

Re: Thoughts on disruptive technologies?
 

One disruptive technology which would be relatively easy to implement would be a Mapping/navigation solution which learnt your preferred repeated routes. For instance I often run sygic on the commute to work for the traffic updates, but it always tries to route me a particular way for the last few miles, which is always congested on a morning.

The idea about the calendar/alarm app being location and route aware, and monitoring the travel status and adjusting the alarm leadtime accordingly is a great one