The Smartphone is the ‘Demat’ to Achieve Digital India

We spoke to Aiyappan Pillai, Vice Chair – IEEE Bombay Section &  Founder, ICT Consultant - Congruent Services to understand the upcoming trends in the personal technology domain. Here are the excerpts:

Q. In the consumer products to be launched in the coming future, how do tech companies balance out the demand for convenience and time savings alongwith affordability for masses?

Convenience and time savings do not necessarily preclude affordability where solutions satisfy basic/primary needs across the social spectrum. In this case, to drive volumes, the Tech companies have to ratchet up the technology baseline for entry-level products. For example, an essential home- appliance that is pro-actively monitored to pre-empt break-downs is a time-saver for all. To state a cliche, it ultimately depends on the perceived value. Multiple levels of services may be offered to achieve differentiated pricing. However, attractive pricing could also drive the adoption of seemingly secondary/trivial “needs” such as refrigerators monitoring daily essentials and giving timely reminders or placing orders. So it is a continuous push and pull combination between tech companies and consumers to enhance the value proposition of a product from its utility as "trivial need" to that of "essential", thus addressing the affordability aspect.

Q. What new features can be expected in smartphones to improve access to social schemes such as those in education, finance and healthcare?

The mobile-phone is the key to our digital life that is essentially a "demat" form of a citizens civic, identity, financial, educational, professional records and their inter-linkages. Aadhaar is fast emerging as a critical component in the above scheme. It is also being used to address the core issue of inclusion of the under-served population. Any feature that significantly lowers the barrier to usage and allows easier user adoption merits incorporation in the product. This is important considering the literacy and numeracy levels of the under-served population.
Bio-metric, fingerprint, handwriting NFC and signature recognition capabilities are essential to enable secure, equitable and targeted access in the key areas of education, finance and healthcare services, even in entry-level models. Good resolution cameras with appropriate scanning apps allow digitization of records needed for the above services. Besides, user-interface with multi-lingual voice-recognition apps with learning capabilities would help bridge the literacy gap. The above needs to be combined with intuitive icon and picture-based prompts for user transactions. In addition data optimization apps can help use available bandwidth optimally. In order to improve the overall experience, it is essential for apps to be designed with a "no-frills" option in a bandwidth and memory constrained scenario

Q. What role are new technologies such as Biometric Identification, VR, Wireless Charging, Touch- based inputs, Multilingual processing etc going to play in making lives more secure and aware?

These technologies enhance the dependability of the authentication method and hence the security. Bio-metric identification capabilities, touch-based inputs, voice recognition etc. are expected to be a standard feature of devices irrespective of where they are used. While the digital life brings along with it security and privacy challenges, the solution lies in adoption of appropriate security technologies, a few of which were mentioned earlier. As these devices are used to enrich our experience in different domains, be it education, entertainment, financial planning, shopping, leisure or business
Wireless and human activity-based charging will enable the use of devices practically everywhere.

Q. What shall be the challenges in terms of cost escalation, privacy, security concerns, etc?

Digital technologies today offer humanity a golden opportunity to include every human being in the global economy. Reliable security and privacy mechanisms must be available by default, similar to safety or pollution control requirements applicable to vehicles. The typical reaction is to increase the cost based on security enhancements. However, one must take a holistic view beyond the individual device. It is a question of the success of extending the digital eco-system to every citizen and how that itself will propel volumes. Privacy issues will arise, for technically, there is nowhere to hide once you embrace the digital world. This needs to be addressed by standards, adoption of right practices, suitable legislation and law enforcement in order to foster confidence in the new Digital world. While the challenge is real, the benefits are very compelling. Hence standards, legal frameworks, technologies and social constructs need to evolve continuously.

Q. What are the key technologies/products expected to be released in the Smart living, Personal Entertainment and Personal Healthcare spaces?

I look at the key technologies from two angles- technologies for enabling the specific need and ways to power the enablers. I expect to see the following technologies/products in each of the spaces:

SMART living: The principal goals of SMART living is effectiveness and efficiency while ensuring convenience. Intelligent Home Appliance management system that address hygiene, energy and health aspects of our daily lives will gain traction. Here IoT, Data Analytics, Cloud technologies and machine-learning are major enablers. A key shift is to a holistic approach from an open loop "guesstimate" based decision to a closed loop system afforded by physical evidence-based analytics and action. Hence energy management will encompass all appliance and possible energy generating systems in the household. Hygiene management will encompass sensing the cleanliness of the environment and initiating automatic cleaning or disinfecting actions.

Personal Entertainment: VR and AR based products will provide immersive experiences, be it gaming or movies.

Personal Healthcare: Products and apps centered around the smartphone that help monitor vital body functions, exercise regimens and diet. The trio of IoT, Data Analytics and Cloud will drive the physical measurement and analytics based guidance for healthy practices.

Powering solutions: These shall range from activity based charging to super-efficient compact batteries made with new combination of electrodes.