December 11, 2003
2003: Cell Phones - for so much more than just talking
For the next couple of weeks, I will be posting a series of entries rounding up the most interesting mobile news (best and worst) reported this year. They will be filed away under a new category, Textually 2003 - The Year in Review.
Cell Phones - for so much more than just talking
Other than using a cell phone to communicate by voice and text messaging - features now commonly used by families and friends, industries, corporations, government, police forces, the media and the entertainment industry, marketing, sports, the arts, religion, fund raisers, retailers, colleges, scientists, terrorists, pornographers...- or to organize a busy life thanks to contact and calender features, in 2003, cell phones have been used to take pictures, view videos, follow a picture soap opera, watch TV, listen to real music, hear the radio, buy a coke from a vending machine, pay for transport fare, concert tickets or update a parking meter, translate a text message, play games with other people in real time, locate a child or a stolen car, search for a prostitute, remotely control a computer, a household appliance or the security system in a private home, detonate a bomb, open a locker door, display contemporary art on a cell screen or join a symphony orchestra.
Cell phones have reportedly been used to repel mosquitos, log sunshine reports to avoid sunburn thanks to tiny ultraviolet light sensors, act as a smoke detector or be used as a lie detector. And a system used with earphones and camera phones could help blind people to see, thanks to soundscapes.
And down the road, research is working on cell phones which can warn of gas leaks (thanks to sensors that verify changes in the atmosphere) and cell phones that will be able to warn about the presence of bacteria and viruses (thanks to bio-sensors) or detect dirty bombs (thanks to detectors that can upload information to a central database). Wild.
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