Here Come the Jetsons

Robert Scoble is a technology writer. And he writes a LOT.

That aside he probably keeps connected with emerging consumer technology better than anyone else.

He has a recent blog post where he talks about how Qualcomm is showing us the future of the cell phone. Qualcomm just shipped a developer SDK, called Gimbal.

This SDK talks to every sensor in your phone. The compass. The GPS. The accelerometer. The temperature sensor. The altimeter sensor. Heck, we’ve known about sensors in cell phones for a while now.

But now, thanks to this SDK your smart phone will start to make sense of the data. Developers will have a single data pool on your cell phone to talk with (Qualcomm was very smart about privacy — none of this data leaves your own cell phone unless you give it permission to).

Then later...

... these new systems are going to know whether you are walking, running, skiing. Whether you are shopping, working, entertaining yourself.

Wait a minute. This sounds like the Jetsons.

Here's one of his examples.

In the future my cell phone will know I ordered a pizza. Will know when I get in my car. Will know who is in the car with me. And will give me contextual data that will make my life better. For instance, on my todo list I might have put "pick up a hammer at the hardware store." It will know that Round Table Pizza is near the hardware store. It will know I have an extra 15 minutes. It can use Waze to route me to the hardware store first, tell me to pick up my hammer, and then head to Round Table to pick up that pizza.

While I can envision hardware/software with these capabilities, I can see real problems.

Think about hopping the in car with your wife to go pickup a pizza that you ordered. Your phone connects to the bluetooth in the car and runs through your todo list. It sees the opportunity to swing by the hardware store before the pizza is ready. It mutes the radio playing your wife's favorite radio station and tells you to alter your route to go to the hardware store for a hammer.

How well do you think that will go over?

This scenario can play either way.

You hop the in car with your wife to go pickup a pizza that you ordered. Your wife's phone connects to the bluetooth in the car and runs through her todo list. It sees the opportunity to swing by the the local department store to pick up those cute shoes she's been looking at on the web. It changes the route in your car's GPS and you're off to the department store. An hour and a half later your wife emerges with the shoes and a matching dress. And the pizza is ice cold.

I rest my case.