With innovations happening in the space at a lightening pace, Mobility, which still is in infancy, is auto-terminating into something called Ubiquitous Computing – Intelligent and Pervasive Mobility and it’s a short distance from mobility in its current avatar to graduate into Ubiquitous Computing.
We are in the most interesting times today, the times of ‘Tsunami Transformation’ & in such evolutionary stage of transformation, it’s sometimes very difficult to pin-point the stage of transformation are we in. If we take a look at the history of Interaction, we realize that every form of human interaction is unique to the actors involved; heterogeneity is what defines us as humans!
Let us just visualize how interactions have transformed over times.
- Circa 1440 BC~ Moses receives the 10 commandments on two not-so-lightweight Blue Sapphire stone tablets called Tablets of Testimony
- Fast forward to early 19th Century when the first typewriter was developed having 2500 parts and
- Now visualize developments in mid 50s of previous century when the foundation of the avatar of the current IT was laid.
As technology has progressed, these tools have evolved into standalone devices that could support more forms of interaction—hence the emergence of the mobile Smartphone, a small computer that allows us to stay connected and to interact with people and computers in a variety of ways.
The locus of innovation has moved to the world of the consumer, which had previously been, firmly, in the realm of business technology. The opportunity to use consumer devices and other on-demand services for business purposes has given rise to a concept called the consumerization of IT.
Welcome to the world of Mobility… Here you are served everything from Snack-on-the-go to formally closing a multi-billion dollar deal… All collaborated invisibly and virtually.
Mobility
Customers’ expectations of total mobility, ever-faster connectivity, personalized services and perfect instantaneous delivery seem to be growing as quickly as their data usage. At the same time, pace of change is unprecedented – cloud, M2M communications, rapidly evolving world of devices and apps, etc. Expectations and technology are feeding into each other, creating the need for faster innovation and time to market, improved network infrastructure, and so on.
Impact
For most part, hardware peripherals will probably not see a substantial impact from mobility. The area most impacted by mobility is the network and the impact is both
- Constructive —creation of newer network infrastructures—and
- Destructive —obsolescence of older technologies.
Newer and faster network standards are excellent from point of view of very high throughput using Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) systems, in the range of over 100 Mbps.
[quote font=”tahoma” font_size=”13″ font_style=”italic” color=”#262626″ bgcolor=”#f2f2f2″]
“While current mobility patterns are based on menu-driven, GUI-based tools; Ubiquitous Computing holds the promise of understanding natural human interactions such as presence, movement, or speech.”
Vikas Gupta
Head IT
Essar India
[/quote]
When it comes to IT facilities, Mobility will change the way employees operate. Workplaces will actually shrink to the size of a small mobile device while coverage of work itself, will go beyond the confines of physical establishments.
Some Examples of Umpteen probabilities cropping up
- Bluetooth-enabled mobile devices carried by fire marshals in factory premises, keep updating their current position on the floor supervisor’s dashboard through wall-mounted sensors, resulting in faster response time.
- Richness in communication channels will help product development and marketing, where enterprises can exploit augmented reality applications for product demonstrations, and to address consumer pain points faster and more effectively.
- Applications already allow smartphones to scan barcodes. Coupled with this, RFID tags connected to inventory items can be read using Near Field Communication (NFC) enabled mobile devices and supply chain managers will get real-time information on materials movement in ERPs, crucial in a Just-In-Time (JIT) environment, reducing inventory costs to a bare minimum
- Same RFID tags will also help with quality control
- Surveillance of plant facilities &/or premises under large uneven topography are being aided by enterprise mobility without the need for expensive wiring.
- Sensors on machines in a factory allow technicians to know when maintenance is needed.
- Mobility will develop wireless M2M and human-machine-interfaces, allowing designated personnel to supervise and control shop-floor activities from anywhere, demonstrating ubiquitous control
With all this happening in Mobility Space at a lightening pace, this Mobility, which still is in infancy, is auto-terminating into something called Ubiquitous Computing – Intelligent and Pervasive Mobility and it’s a short distance from mobility in its current avatar to graduate into Ubiquitous Computing.
Whereas Mobility sets you free to connect and use devices while on the move, ubiquitous computing lets the environment connect to you in many unobtrusive ways.
Whereas Mobility took computers from desktop and put them in your pocket, Ubiquitous computing sends information seamlessly into your environment, where numerous tiny devices monitor you, connect with you, and even think for you.
While current mobility patterns are based on menu-driven, GUI-based tools, Ubiquitous computing holds the promise of understanding natural human interactions such as presence, movement, or speech.
And some or I should say many of this is already happening:
- When I enter my office, the lights come on automatically & when I leave, they go off.
- In the near future, several actions may be triggered as I set out to work
- Smart car will suggest an optimal route by assessing traffic along a smart city network
- My virtual assistant will receive an alert and my office temperature will adjust to my preference
- My desk shows high priority tasks and scheduler will prepare visitor passes for guests
- Cafeteria will receive a request for our preferred beverages
- Automatically connect to video conference, basis my confirmed invitations
- Wall color and lighting in my room will change to match my preferences, and translation services based on the geography of my customer will be launched
And when many smart devices connect, you have an intelligent environment.
Welcome to this world of ubiquitous computing! Good Bye Mobility…
