Instant SMS

Last week I discovered a new technology being introduced by Comverse. They are calling it Instant SMS and they introduced it at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February. The basic idea is to implement the instant messaging experience using the existing SMS technology. You can see the press release at

http://www.comverse.com/press_releases.aspx?newsId=742.

Instant SMS provides capabilities such as presence, multi-media, and other features we are used to using in instant messaging on the PC, on the mobile device without requiring the provider to move to advanced network architectures such as IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem). From what I understand the presence functionality is quite limited, but I think this is a service that will catch on very quickly.

Apple's iPhone has a nice interface for SMS/MMS messages that groups them into a dialog-type view. This makes it much easier to see and manage the message based interactions you have had with specific people, much as you can with email on your desktop. However, Comverse is taking this one step further and making it more robust combining multi-media, presence, emotion icons, and other such functionality.

For those of you not familiar with them, Comverse provides systems to Telecommunication Providers. They have two separate product lines - billing and value added services such as voice mail and messaging.

NTT Docomo - Innovative Phones

While at 3GSM in Barcelona I had the opportunity to visit the NTT Docomo booth, where they were showing some interesting innovation in mobile devices. One unique feature of the phones they were showing is that they are waterproof. Yup, no fears if your 2 year old throws your phone in the bathtub, or your teenager insists that he doesn't need a coat in the rain.

One model of the phone also has the equivalent of a panic button. You put on a string and an alarm goes off, and "help" flashes on the phone.

And finally, if your child forgets the phone another alarm goes off. This is implemented by attaching a band to the wrist or clothing of the child. The phone then identifies if the child is too far from it.

NTT also showed a prototype of a phone that will help you or your kids keep physically fit. It has features such as a workout music player, pedometer, heart rate monitor, and even a haliotosis (bad breath) monitor!

IBM Delivers Telco Innovations to Improve Customer Experience

When I left for Barcelona a few days ago I looked forward to introducing the things that my colleagues and I have been working on because I was interested in hearing feedback from various kinds of people in the industry. I certainly didn't expect to read about the projects on CNN. However, they and many others have picked up the IBM press release about what we are showing at Mobile World Congress.



http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/marketwire/0359637.htm

PRESENCE MEETS THE "GOOD SAMARITAN"
IBM Research demonstrated how mobile phones and "presence" technology combined with health records can provide a potential "good samaritan" with information on how to aid people in critical medical situations. This combination of IBM Research capabilities and IBM WebSphere Presence Server exemplifies IBM's ability to create enhanced mobile applications for everyday life.

Another project in which I was very involved was also mentioned. I did not mention it previously in this blog because it was confidential, but Vodafone has now agreed to publicize it so it is also mentioned in the article.

SOCIAL NETWORKS GO MOBILE
IBM collaborated with its client, leading global service provider Vodafone, to extend social networks to any mobile device by taking advantage of communication enablers such as IBM WebSphere Presence Server. Demonstrated for the first time at Mobile World Congress, consumers can communicate with their social network friends regardless of where they are with voice and SMS from either a PC or a mobile phone.

"Working together with IBM, Vodafone developed 'BuddyComm,' an integrated communication service for social network users," said Mike Walker, director of Vodafone Group Research & Development. "This project was a unique opportunity for Vodafone and IBM to bring together research and innovation capability from both sides to achieve goals which neither company could reach by itself, providing real benefit to customers who are active on social networks."

Off to World Mobile Congress

Next week the Mobile World Congress (formerly known as 3GSM) will be held in Barcelona. This is the largest conference of the year for the Telecommunications industry.

In the IBM booth the Research lab in which I work will be showing several demos.

One is a service creation tool specifically for telecommunications providers. It helps the providers create new services more quickly by providing them with graphical modeling tools, drastically decreasing the need for the developer to know all of the complex protocols such as SIP, diameter, etc. I know this doesn't sound very sexy if you are an end user, but believe me you will be very happy if the Telco providing your phone service could cut down the development time of new offerings from the typical 18 months to a couple of weeks. It will happen. It's just a matter of time, since the Google and Yahoos of the world have changed the way services are rolled out.

Another is called .... Good Samaritan: Telco + Health + Presence 2.0.

This demo shows how mobile phones, Presence 2.0 technology, and integration with health records can provide a Good Samaritan with information to aid people in critical situations. A motorcycle goes off the road into a ditch. Cars driving by have no idea that there is someone in need of assistance. A man falls on the sidewalk. Strangers approach to help but have no idea that his fall was caused by weakness and dizziness due to a decrease in his blood sugar level. With the Good Samaritan technology, patients receive immediate and more effective assistance from both bystanders and trained medical personal who arrive on the scene. The system automatically identifies people in the area who are available and willing to help, and provides them with a) the location information and instructions on how to reach the person in need b) The relevant patient history at the level of information and instruction appropriate to their level of training (if any). This is enabled by a dispatcher who has an electronic unified patient record. With a click of a button the dispatcher indicates the level of training (bystander, simple first aid, medic, paramedic, doctor) and current issue and the appropriate information is sent to the mobile device of the person providing assistance.

In addition to working in the booth and meeting with customers and ISVs, I also plan to scout out the latest technologies aimed at our children .... so stay tuned for more updates!

Press Questions

Yesterday a press conference was held at the IBM Research Lab where I work, and I presented the latest Presence and Communication Technologies to the press. It was an interesting experience, partly because these were not technology experts and everything I described was very new and exciting to them.

One of the questions that the press asked our lab director was whether we do any research about the possible consequences of the technologies we are developing. I thought that was an interesting question. When I took the stage I mentioned this blog to them and emphasized that while we cannot stop the advancement of technology, we can ensure public awareness of its advantages and disadvantages.

Speaking of press and modern communications, it turns out that kids in Japan are writing novels .... on their cell phones! There is also a college in Japan that is offering its courses both over the internet and over mobile phones. Read more about both here.

Mobile Phones of the Future

Ever wonder what the next generation of mobile phones hold in store. I'm not talking about 2G, 3G, 3.5G, etc. What will be the big changes in terms of not only connection speeds, but the ergonomics of the phones themselves?

Yes, today's kids and more and more adults can text at amazing speeds and even new lingo has been born around texting. However, the tiny keypads and displays are without a doubt a challenge. Being somewhat of a gadget freak and of course being involved in Telco Research, I will pull out my crystal ball and give you my best guess at what we might begin to see.

Displays as we know them today will remain but will be augmented by miniature projectors. Instead of squinting at the small screen while browsing the internet you can project it on the wall, back of a seat or the table in front of you. This will also be a huge improvement for the elderly and other people who's close up vision is less than perfect.

In addition, we will begin to see more and more text-to-voice and voice-to-text capabilities. Text-to-speech will be used to read us chat, SMS, and email messages while we are driving and in other situations where we prefer to listen than to read. This technology exists today, although sometimes the result is a bit too monotonic to be enjoyable. In the future though, who knows, maybe you'll be able to choose your favorite actor's voice to hear your messages.

Speech-to-text is a harder nut to crack but progress is being made. We are already starting to see some start ups providing email and SMS transcription services, although they are not yet fully automated. Jott is one such example.

In addition to speech recognition, I believe we will see some interesting breakthroughs in terms of keyboard ergonomics. All of the major handset vendors are working hard to provide small but comfortable keyboards for their smart phones. However, I believe that in this area the breakthrough will be when they find a way to project a full size keyboard onto a flat surface. I actually found such a gadget that can be connected to your phone via bluetooth, but I've never actually tried it.

As for the geaky bluetooth ear pieces that we see on so many people, I'm not sure how their future will pan out. With mobile phones being used as mp3 and mp4 players the desire for stereo ear pieces will increase. Today's stereo bluetooth ear pieces for cell phones have wires, though not connected to the phone, making them less than attractive in my opinion. In addition, music quality is not as high when listening over bluetooth. Here my crystal ball says that someone will develop ear buds that can be put in each ear with no connecting wire, using some new kind of near range communication protocol.

In a few years we'll have to come back to this post to see how accurate my crystal ball proved to be. For an interesting wish list related to cell phone chargers, you might want to take a look at this post from Telecopalyse.

Cell Phones & Health

After reading the title of this post you probably thought, "Oh no ... yet another article on whether cell phone radiation is detrimental to kids health." Rest assured that I am not touching that one with a mile long pole! However, after striking fear into the hearts of my dedicated readers (all 1.5 million* of them) about the dangers of modern communication to our kids, I decided that it's important to remember the advantages as well.

The ability to reach out for help in emergency situations is one of the many reasons that parents by their children cellular phones, but of course you don't need to read my blog or anyone else's to know that. Putting parents numbers on speed dial is the most basic way to make sure you can be reached in an emergency.
However, in medical emergencies children are not always able to make the necessary call either because of injury, illness, or sometimes just plain panic. As a result many countries have initiated campaigns to request that cell phone users add an entry in the contact list of their phone containing the name and number of the person to contact in order to obtain the child's (or adult's) medical history, illnesses, allergies, etc. When emergency personnel arrive they can then look for the special entry in the child's phone and easily make the call to the correct person to obtain crucial information that could affect treatment.

In the United States and Britain it is recommended to give the entry the name ICE (in case of emergency). In non-English speaking countries different acronyms or names are used. In Israel for example, 101 (the equivalent of 911 in the US) is used. So to add an ICE number in your phone in the US or Britain you would add an entry that looked similar to the following:

ICE Jim 1-555-654-1234

Eilish O'Regan points out in his article another important health related use for cell phones. Have you ever sat in a doctor's office with a child trying to describe symptoms the child experiences but that are not evident during the appointment with the physician? Or, probably I should ask ... who has not been in this situation? The child had a fit or seizure, turned blue, red or whatever color, has an intermittent odd rash??? No matter what you do though, it doesn't happen in the doctor's office? So, take a picture or video with your mobile phone! Obviously a higher quality camera is preferable, but since your phone is more likely to be with you use it. A picture is worth more than a 1,000 words in these situations. I know I once had a very weird phenomenon in one of my children diagnosed this way.

* If you believe that I have 1.5 million dedicated readers, then you probably believe that I am a belly dancer in my spare time. Since I am not, I will be honest and share with you that to date I have had about 200 readers from countries such as the US, Canada, England, Ireland, Israel, India, Kuwait, New Zealand and Croatia. Thanks to all of you who are following this blog!