Future Smart Phones That Fold Up And Charge Over Thin Air
Future Smart Phones That Fold Up And Charge Over Thin Air: Imagine You pull your phone out of your pocket and unfold it like a napkin into a tablet. You press your finger on the screen, and it unlocks. You switch to the camera app, and a spider-like array of lenses shoot simultaneously to capture one giant photo.
These are all things I’ve seen phones do — some in prototype form, others in models you can get only in China. Analysts in Korea say we might see a folding “Galaxy X” phone from Samsung as soon as next year.
The shake-up couldn’t come soon enough. You probably couldn’t live without your phone but feel as excited about it as you do running water. And the water company doesn’t hold an event every year to hype slimmer faucets.
From the front, the iPhone 8 is pretty much indistinguishable from the iPhone 6 that came out nearly four years ago. Americans are holding onto old phones longer than ever — 25.8 months, according to the most recent research from Kantar Worldpanel.
The tech industry has been doubling down on software and artificial intelligence capabilities, which still hold huge potential. But there’s a lot to be done on improving phone hardware, too, the number one reason most people upgrade.
Long-time tech analyst and futurist Tim Bajarin, of Creative Strategies, tells me he’s also excited by what he sees coming. “When we turn the corner on the next decade, that is when we will start to see a revolution in everything from flexible displays to glasses,” he says.
Here are ideas that will, at the very least, make your next phone interesting.
Fingerprint scanners go inside
The big idea: You can have it all: a phone that’s entirely screen on front and a fingerprint scanner still right where it belongs. When full-screen phones came into fashion, some Android phones moved this key function to the back.
Recent breakthroughs let phone-makers embed the fingerprint reader inside the screen.
Just press your finger over the right area of the screen — indicated by a thumbprint image — and the phone unlocks. Component maker Synaptics figured out how to take a picture of fingers by looking in between the phone’s pixels; Qualcomm created an ultrasonic sensor capable of scanning not only though screens but also metal… and even underwater. So far, the tech has made its way into phones from Chinese makers Vivo and Xiaomi.
Batteries charge over thin air
The big idea: Battery life is the biggest problem with today’s phones. Now imagine if you rarely had to think about your battery because your phone was constantly charging itself. This is going to sound a little crazy, but researchers have figured out ways to beam low levels of power through the air. Firms such as Energous and Ossia send power using radio frequencies, while rival Wi-Charge uses infrared light that’s closer to lasers.
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