The first few years after the advent of the smartphone, evolution of mobile phones generally went in a straight line. Companies offered their customers bigger screens, more powerful processors, higher resolution cameras and faster data connection capabilities. In recent years, though, improvements have been less than obvious. The introduction of details like eye control and bendable screens signal a new era of mobile phone features. If this trend is to be believed, then 2018 will certainly be full of surprises in as far as mobile phone features are concerned. Here is a sample of futuristic features to expect as the year progresses.
Sensors
The development of Bluetooth 4.0 has resulted in the introduction of a large number of wearable sensors, especially those that can be able to transmit biomedical information like blood pressure, heart rate and so on. These sensors can also transmit information on the environment like humidity and temperature as well as exercise stats like steps walked and calories burned. All these are transmitted to a smartphone, but each of them requires a separate application. One of the trends that will likely dominate 2018 is the integration of all these capabilities into a single smartphone function. Already, companies like Samsung have started building sensors into their phones. While it might not necessarily materialize in its entirety, it is likely that in the next 5 years, wearable devices will be able to communicate directly with the smartphones through one point of communication or app.
32 core processors
Although it is revolutionary, this is one innovation that has followed the straight line trend of giving the customer more than what they got the previous year. Take nothing away from the 32 core processor, though. Every function happening in a smartphone depends on the processor power. The development of such powerful processors is being driven mostly by competition between Intel and ARM.
Cameras
Cameras are getting better every year, but if trends in the past few years are to be believed, then 2018 will be the beginning of the true computational camera. The point and shoot style seems to be nearing its end. Most cameras in future will no longer be digital. Instead, they will be computational. They will be able to react to and track objects almost as fast as the human eye does. Already, technologies like Chimera by NVidia and MEMS autofocus by Digital Optics are heading towards this. Soon, the boundary between video and still photos will disappear, with all the captured still images moving as long as the shutter or record button has been pressed.
Battery life
This is the one thing every smartphone user craves, the true all day battery. Competing technologies in the market already show indications of this happening. The hydrogen cell technology being developed by Apple is one. The mobile phone giant is partnering with power cell Developer Company Aquafairy and researchers from Kyoto University as well as ROHM the semi-conductor manufacturer. Perhaps a more promising technology is the lithium-ion micro-battery, which can apparently be more than 2000 times more powerful.
Mobile phones are growing in capability and power, and with such features, they will soon be powerful and capable enough to be a one stop shop for everything.