The future of communications revealed
Mobile phones embedded in teddy bears, devices working by electricity running through the skin of the human body, Malta as well located to attract business as Wall Street...The participants of a half-day seminar on the future of telecommunications...
Mobile phones embedded in teddy bears, devices working by electricity running through the skin of the human body, Malta as well located to attract business as Wall Street...
The participants of a half-day seminar on the future of telecommunications heard this and much more from Roberto Saracco, a director at the Future Centre of Telecom Italia in Venice. He was the main speaker at the event held recently at the Malta Council for Science and Technology (MCST) in Villa Bighi, Kalkara. It was organised by Createch and sponsored by the MCST Forlink Project.
Dr Saracco gave insights into the future of communications, rarely heard about before in Malta.
"It is difficult to imagine specificity in communication for a country. Surely we are seeing that thanks to better communication infrastructures, developing countries can close the gap with developed ones much faster," he replied when asked how Malta can benefit from the developments in the next 10 to 15 years.
"At the same time effective communications tend to shrink geographical distances making it possible for any country to be a business hub. Malta for many businesses is no longer an island but thanks to communications is as well located as Wall Street."
He added that the flow of tourism bringing people from different nationalities can be exploited, via efficient communications, to let companies in their homeland deliver services they are used to in a seamless fashion while they are in Malta. In this case Malta's infrastructure acts as an intermediary with those businesses.
"The more open the infrastructure and the service provision can be, the more business Malta can attract," he suggested.
Malta will surely be hit by a wave of technological developments expected to change how we communicate, work and entertain ourselves.
In the next years we are going to have "better" terminals in terms of screen resolution, longer lasting batteries (for mobile usage), more flexibility in the access to a variety of gateways (multimode terminals) and also terminals able to interact with the environment through specific communications (i.e. Near Field Communications) and by embedding sensors.
In addition to this "linear" growth in terminal capabilities we are going to see a variety of everyday objects becoming terminals.
"In 10 years' time it will be normal to have screens on a table with multitouch interface, cellphones embedded in teddy bears, keys with communication capabilities, and pens that write, digitally record and transmit whatever we are writing to our storage system located at the office or at home. These are just three examples but any object may potentially embed terminal features and they will," Dr Saracco said.
One of the most interesting and intriguing areas of development are the so-called "body area networks" where the human body acts as an important link in the chain of communication and electronic device processing power.
"Our skin can transport high frequency electrical current with no side effect (it is not even perceived by our senses). This means that we can use our body as a springboard to connect a variety of devices touching our skin, as well as transmitting signals from one body to another (such as a real handshake) or from a body to the environment. In Japan NTT is studying this area in the project Red Tacton and they have achieved interesting results."
The director from Telecom Italia also sees great strides in the application of technology in medicine and entertainment.
"Medicine will see a dramatic change with the progress of nanotechnology, non-invasive surgery, robotic healthcare and genomic-based cures."
More personalisation will also feature in the next-generation entertainment.
"Marketing will shift its focus and we will see new players coming up to the forefront, interplaying more and more with the media world and entertainment. The new technology will revolutionise the distribution chain, will link production with the end consumer, while third parties will enter the value chains using successful products as distribution means (see the iPod phenomena and the parasitic business it generated, with over 3,000 products that piggy back on the iPod)."
On a concluding note on the nature of business in the future, Dr Saracco sees technology as a pervasive enabler rather than a driver in itself.
"I would say that communication technology will be pervasive in most business and will be a taken-for-granted enabler. Real drivers will come from the top of the pyramid. The big biz of cell phones in 10 years' time will significantly shift to other things, as you will no longer buy a cell phone, since any object will embed cellphone capabilities. Communications infrastructures will remain a huge endeavour requiring massive investment. This will surely have an important effect in many countries," he concluded.
The participants of a half-day seminar on the future of telecommunications heard this and much more from Roberto Saracco, a director at the Future Centre of Telecom Italia in Venice. He was the main speaker at the event held recently at the Malta Council for Science and Technology (MCST) in Villa Bighi, Kalkara. It was organised by Createch and sponsored by the MCST Forlink Project.
Dr Saracco gave insights into the future of communications, rarely heard about before in Malta.
"It is difficult to imagine specificity in communication for a country. Surely we are seeing that thanks to better communication infrastructures, developing countries can close the gap with developed ones much faster," he replied when asked how Malta can benefit from the developments in the next 10 to 15 years.
"At the same time effective communications tend to shrink geographical distances making it possible for any country to be a business hub. Malta for many businesses is no longer an island but thanks to communications is as well located as Wall Street."
He added that the flow of tourism bringing people from different nationalities can be exploited, via efficient communications, to let companies in their homeland deliver services they are used to in a seamless fashion while they are in Malta. In this case Malta's infrastructure acts as an intermediary with those businesses.
"The more open the infrastructure and the service provision can be, the more business Malta can attract," he suggested.
Malta will surely be hit by a wave of technological developments expected to change how we communicate, work and entertain ourselves.
In the next years we are going to have "better" terminals in terms of screen resolution, longer lasting batteries (for mobile usage), more flexibility in the access to a variety of gateways (multimode terminals) and also terminals able to interact with the environment through specific communications (i.e. Near Field Communications) and by embedding sensors.
In addition to this "linear" growth in terminal capabilities we are going to see a variety of everyday objects becoming terminals.
"In 10 years' time it will be normal to have screens on a table with multitouch interface, cellphones embedded in teddy bears, keys with communication capabilities, and pens that write, digitally record and transmit whatever we are writing to our storage system located at the office or at home. These are just three examples but any object may potentially embed terminal features and they will," Dr Saracco said.
One of the most interesting and intriguing areas of development are the so-called "body area networks" where the human body acts as an important link in the chain of communication and electronic device processing power.
"Our skin can transport high frequency electrical current with no side effect (it is not even perceived by our senses). This means that we can use our body as a springboard to connect a variety of devices touching our skin, as well as transmitting signals from one body to another (such as a real handshake) or from a body to the environment. In Japan NTT is studying this area in the project Red Tacton and they have achieved interesting results."
The director from Telecom Italia also sees great strides in the application of technology in medicine and entertainment.
"Medicine will see a dramatic change with the progress of nanotechnology, non-invasive surgery, robotic healthcare and genomic-based cures."
More personalisation will also feature in the next-generation entertainment.
"Marketing will shift its focus and we will see new players coming up to the forefront, interplaying more and more with the media world and entertainment. The new technology will revolutionise the distribution chain, will link production with the end consumer, while third parties will enter the value chains using successful products as distribution means (see the iPod phenomena and the parasitic business it generated, with over 3,000 products that piggy back on the iPod)."
On a concluding note on the nature of business in the future, Dr Saracco sees technology as a pervasive enabler rather than a driver in itself.
"I would say that communication technology will be pervasive in most business and will be a taken-for-granted enabler. Real drivers will come from the top of the pyramid. The big biz of cell phones in 10 years' time will significantly shift to other things, as you will no longer buy a cell phone, since any object will embed cellphone capabilities. Communications infrastructures will remain a huge endeavour requiring massive investment. This will surely have an important effect in many countries," he concluded.