Wednesday, November 14, 2012

The Phone I Want

Sure, the newest phones are pretty cool. Bigger screens, faster processors, better data speeds, but there are a couple of big things that phones don't (and can't) really have that would make them the ultimate killer device for me. These things are either a) already on the market, or b) logical extensions of things that are out there.

Here's what I want:

1) A full-size keyboard. Obviously, a phone can't have this directly. It would make the phone too big to be useful. However, there are devices that use infrared technology to project a full-size keyboard onto any flat surface, such as this. If this technology could be made small enough to fit inside a standard smartphone, (say with the aperture next to the front-facing camera), that would work for me.

2) A bigger screen. Now, I don't want my phone to have a 13" screen. That's what my laptop is for. However, I still can't really get into watching TV and movies on even a 5" screen. So, why not include a miniature HD projector like this one in the back of the phone? Again, it's still too big right now, but if the components can be smaller, there is no reason not to make this happen.

3) Bigger touch screen. Combine the first two ideas, and I can see a future in which the phone has two projectors, one facing front and one facing back. Stand the phone up, and the front-facing projector gives you a large touchscreen (using the infrared technology) that you could manipulate, just like any other touchscreen device, while the rear-facing projector mirrors the screen onto the wall for viewing by others.

Also, if the components are small enough, and you can project the touchscreen onto any surface, it would do away with the need for the phone itself to have a large screen, paving the way for the phones themselves to stop creeping up in size, which is good...unless they can come up with a way to make pockets bigger on the inside.