A story from the pages of Unwired View, that’s either really cool, or really scary, depending on your point of view. It’s all to do with a new patent by Google, that uses accelerometers and motion sensors in a whole new, innovative way.
In the interests of fairness, I’ll try to show both the cool side, and the scary side of the debate, and leave it up to you which side of the fence you come down on.
Modern phones with GPS onboard can pinpoint your location, and you can do things like local searches through Google Maps, to find your nearest petrol station, pub, public lavvy, or whatever. The whole point is that using, for example, your HTC Magic becomes a more personal affair, with it being able to deliver the info you need at the exactly the right moment, wherever you may be. Nokia are following the same ethos in the Ovi Store, allegedly, with the Store knowing where you are and showing you apps that might be useful, say, if you’re stuck in Mablethorpe with only a Nokia N97.
The new Google patent takes things to a new level altogether, by using the motion sensors to work out what you’re actually doing. Like, for example, if you’re sat bored out your mind on the train, the motion sensors will record a particular signature, or if you’re out jogging, a different signature will be produced. The phone can then automatically load up apps that’ll be useful for what you’re doing. So, go jogging, and the music player could automatically kick in, so you have something to run to; or if you’re driving, the phone can automatically put itself into hands-free mode, and start up the sat-nav.
That’s really quite clever, and it opens up the door to a world where phones can sense your activities, and morph themselves into whatever’s needed at the time, without you lifting a finger. Since everyone seems to be doing this joke… I shall refrain from saying about your phone knowing when you’re doing furtive, night-time activities with your partner, and it trying to sell you prophylactics…
As for the scary side of the debate, run the following sentence through your head: “your phone, and by extension, Google, know exactly where you are and exactly what you’re doing, all the time.”
That sentence alone is enough to get many people frothing at the mouth about privacy and intrusion, but I’m not touching that debate with a very long stick. Suffice to say, as with pretty much anything Google do, I can see a big split forming between people who love it, and people who hate it. Having said that, there’s no doubting it’s innovative and very, very clever…
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