Communication devices of the future

From empathy vests to phone gloves, ten future technologies that will change the way we communicate.

The number of cell phones in the world today is 1.5 billion and growing. Airlines will soon be allowing cell phones on planes. Cities such as Philadelphia and San Francisco have plans to blanket themselves with seamless Wi-Fi networks. Telecoms such as Verizon Communications are doing trial runs of fiber to the home (FTTH), technology that promises broadband speeds of more than 100 times that of current digital subscriber lines (DSL) or cable.

It all adds up to a future flooded with great, big wired and wireless pipelines of data coming at you from all directions, in all locations, at all times. To some, this will be a wonderland of entertainment and telecommunications possibilities. To others, this will be a nightmare of in-your-face digital annoyances.

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So what's on tap?

Cell phones are a hot area of innovation. In the years ahead, look for VoWi-Fi, which can turn any hot spot around the world into your home telephone line; WiBro, a version of the same IEEE 802.16 standard that is behind the much-hyped WiMAX protocol that will tap into always-on broadband connections and provide a bandwidth of up to 1 megabit per second on devices that are moving up to 60 mph. Also look for passive bio-identification that will learn how you walk or use a devise and make use of that information to keep it secure from thieves and evil-doers.

One of the most talked-about devices is one that engineers have been working at bringing to market for years: multimedia paper. The magical stuff will allow entire books to fit on a single memory-enabled, polymer sheet, displayed using infinitely reconfigurable magnetically-charged pigments; or futuristic printing technologies that will allow mass-produced, super-cheap color screens that could be applied like wallpaper.

Perhaps the oddest, most radical idea is The Hug, a multisensory wireless phone and fuzzy pillow that lets people communicate using sensors, heating pads, gently buzzing motors and arrangements of lights while they carry on a telephone communication.

Regardless of your views on the matter, this always-on, always-connected future will mean at least an evolution, and at most, a radical rethinking of the devices we use to communicate. Many strategists foresee a convergence of devices, creating one super-capable, portable widget that handles computing, communications, scheduling and finances. Another possibility is that cheap computing power will simply add intelligence to everything from our appliances to our clothing, and every object will join into an organically linked network. Other people see a need for electronics that can help us communicate in different and unorthodox ways--moving beyond mere voice and the written word.

In the near term, the devices we use will have to become more efficient, affordable to more people, easier to use and more self-aware. Our increasing societal and personal dependence on these objects means that we can't have them running out of batteries at the wrong time, getting lost or crapping out on us in any way. These gadgets must also be affordable, too, and usable by all. There is no shortage of thought being put to all of these challenges, and here we take a look at communications advances that are both far out and coming soon.