The Disappearing Smartphone

It is no secret that the smartphone has become an integral part of our lives. Although we persist in calling it a “cellphone,” as a matter of fact, it is hard to consider it as such: just try to think if there is something that these devices can't do nowadays. We use our mobiles to interact through social media, work, collaborate, learn, buy, watch our favourite series, take pictures and videos, play, and even heal. It is therefore not surprising that most people find it so difficult to disconnect from their smartphones. These devices have shaped our lives so profoundly that it would be hard to imagine what our world would be like without them. The smartphone is a very flexible and multipurpose tool—a sort of “digital Swiss knife” that embeds an extraordinary variety of services in a few square centimeters of plastic and silicon. Over the last two decades, manufacturers have progressively realized that mobile devices would soon turn into the point of convergence of virtually all ICT services and applications—a sort of “Holy Grail” of the digital revolution. As a result, today's smartphones are true technological prodigies, incorporating more features than any other digital tool. From a design perspective, it will always be possible to find novel solutions to improve the portability, robustness, performance, and energy consumption of mobile devices. Still, they will remain a “physical thing” that people have to transport, care for, protect, repair, and frequently update and upgrade. Furthermore, smartphones are intrusive companions. For example, think how these small electronic devices are turning us into zombies walking the streets, stumbling into people on the sidewalk while composing an instant message (to the point that the Chinese city of Xi'an has opened a lane specifically for people walking and texting!). ¹ Or think how frustrating it is when you have to compete with a piece of plastic for the attention of your beloved ones, friends, or colleagues.

According to several technology observers, a smartphone-free future could be possible, although this vision is not just right around the corner. In this scenario, not only smartphones but the very concept of “interface” (including keyboards, mouse devices, etc) will become obsolete. Signals of this trend include the rapid evolution of technologies such as artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, wearable devices, and automatic recognition systems. The origin of the disappearing computer vision can be traced back to the 1980s–1990s when ubiquitous computing pioneers such as Marc Weiser started to think about a world in which the boundaries between the physical and the virtual become increasingly transparent. As he put it in his famous 1991 article, The Computer for the 21st Century: “The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it.” ² (p. 94). But as of today, how far is the realization of this vision? With regard to connectivity, Weiser's dream seems to have reached at least part of the expected progresses. Today, wireless services have become pervasive in both private and public spaces, although connection protocols are still based on a plethora of heterogeneous technology standards and protocols, such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, IrDa, NFC, and so on. Display devices have also made significant advancements. Screens of different formats and resolutions are available, which can be easily integrated in virtually any type of physical environments, with varying lighting conditions. Significant steps forward have also been made in the field of tangible interfaces, which offer the possibility of turning the surfaces of everyday objects into interactable ones. However, the most advanced frontier of the “disappearing interface” paradigm that can be detected nowadays is probably represented by recognition systems. For example, I recently bought a domotic device that is commercialized by a major IT brand, and I was astonished to see how naturally and intuitively I could control services and appliances just by using my voice. Not to mention the advancements in the field of wearable devices, which can now be embedded in textiles and clothing accessories, allowing computational resources on our body to be “distributed” in a transparent and seamless way.

The realization of the “disappearing smartphone” scenario, in which portable devices will progressively vanish in the space surrounding the user, is not immune from challenges and risks. Actually, it should not be overlooked that in order to fulfill their promises and enhance our experience, these enabling technological solutions will have to be “nurtured” with our personal data. In order to allow computers to augment our lives, it will be necessary to transfer an essential part of our existence to them. For this reason, it is fundamental that such a transition toward a world where technology is integrated everywhere is accompanied and informed by the recognition of authentic human values and needs.