Future Tech - Part 1 - Transparent Phones, Star Trek to Iron Man.

Smart phones have come along way since 1973's Motorola brick was released. They have evolved as we want more usability out of them. First it was just a simple clone of the house phone but one you can take with you, then you could text, email, web browsing... now it is a computer in our pocket that in some cases, help us run our lives, but in other instances, people are so obsessed with them, needing them to fulfil their need to be narcissistic and post their trout pout all over social media.
Regardless of what we use the phone for, companies are always striving to produce the next best thing, improvements in technology go hand in hand with that need and want.
So I have been looking into what we can expect in the near future, and look at how much that hand held rectangle will change.

The future of phone designs has been depicted by TV and film for a long time, and if it wasn't for TV we may not have the phone we use day in and day out today. Or a much older version at least.
It all started of by the Communicator we see in the original Star Trek, a device that flipped open, made a cool noise so kirk could tell Scotty hundreds of miles above him in space, to ''beam me up''. In less than a decade later, Motorola introduced the world to the first''Communicator'' in 1973, more commonly known now as a 'mobile' or ' cell' phone.

In Star Trek the next generation, that same communicator was the size of a badge. But the mobile phone has had hundreds of different interpretations. One of my favourite was the phone in the hand in 2012's Total recall. You can use it as a normal phone or place it up against any piece of glass and its a full computer complete with video calling. Watch it, it is a pretty cool looking bit of tech.

Another well known version of the 'Phone' was in Iron man 2, a fully transparent smart phone, (that could apparently take over any TV). But you could already buy one... well. I say that, it was partly transparent. In 2009 LG launched the LG GD900 Crystal. It was a typical 'slide open' phone from the time (thanks to the Matrix) but the key pad was completely transparent while the bulk of it was as you would expect. It didn't last long, as it just wasn't as powerful as the competition at the time, so it was discontinued soon after. But we knew it was possible, it was just a matter of time.
Today however, there are already transparent TV's available to the public, so why not mobile phones? The problem is space, if you have ever opened up a phone, you will know it is packed inside, from the main PCB chip board to the battery, mic, speakers, charge port. It has to go somewhere. In a TV they have the entire perimeter of the TV to stuff all that, and the power supply, just like the Xbox 360, is external. The basic answer is, Technology hasn't caught up enough yet, to make a phone completely transparent without having an external power supply, which kind of defeats the object.

There are a couple of prototypes out there that some companies are working on, most notable is Polytron Technologies, but these designs would be very basic and not very powerful compared to phones of today or even by 2010 standards, as the main PCB is tiny meaning the mobile chip would be even smaller, running on tiny batteries. Do you see the point I'm making? Most companies are aiming for 2020 to have a fully transparent phone on the market that could compete in terms of power.
However, you can buy one today. Lenovo Zuk Z2 has a full ''HD'' 5” display. It was thought that it would change the smart phone world like apple did with the iPhone. But it never happened. Yeas it was a powerful spec, but when tested by critics, it would run out of power after minutes of heavy use, and standby charge was less than 2 hours.
Consumers want a phone that can last all day and only be charged once a day. Yes, the Lenovo z2 is cool, but half of it is solid, full of all the tech needed to run a phone, but the problem is battery and power. Until these problems are solved. The idea of a transparent phone, will remain an idea.

Searching even deeper into the power issue, I think the solution will be just round the corner. Carbon Nano Tubes have proved to hold massive amounts of charge, and you can fit a billion in a square millimetre. When the production of nanotubes becomes common place, then we can see the birth of the transparent phone.

I think this post from me is a little ironic as I haven't used a mobile phone for about 3 years now (I have one, I just don't use it... ever). It just amuses me how many people are disconnected from the real world around them, and the only thing important to them is how many digital friends they have, how many people are following them or how well that virtual farm is performing. So I did away with mobile phones, and never looked back, yeah sure its a little annoying when I'm out driving by myself as no one can get hold of me, but id rather live a full life with real friends, go visit them in person than my life revolving around social media.

Thanks for Reading.

Stu @TechMojo

Images...
https://the-gadgeteer.com/2016/07/13/star-trek-bluetooth-communicator-review/
https://creators.co/posts/4158949
https://mobilesreview.co.in/lenovo-zuk-z2-with-transparent-display-launched-live-picture-gallery.html
https://www.seeker.com/which-mobile-used-in-iron-man-2-1768406584.html