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Mozilla Labs Presents Seabird Concept Phone

Posted by Soulskill on from the does-it-print-money dept.

Several readers tipped news of a presentation on the Mozilla Labs blog about what they call Seabird, "a community-driven mobile phone concept." It's an imagining of what future phone tech could look like, using dual pico projectors and a Bluetooth/IR dongle to more easily interact with apps and web interfaces. "With mobile phone companies such as Samsung, LG and Motorola moving towards display applications for projectors, the technology remains open for expanding user interaction and input at the same time. The Seabird, on just a flat surface, enables netbook-quality interaction by working with the projector’s angular distortion to deliver interface, rather than content. With the benefit of a dock, each projector works independently and delivers laptop levels of efficiency."

17 of 61 comments (clear)

  1. Only a concept, will not be made by Sonny+Yatsen · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You see dozens of concept phones and they're always cool or super-capable in some way. But it's easy to create a cool concept when you don't have to consider real world limitations like battery life, cost, size limitations, etc. This phone concept is no different. It is packed with every phone fantasy the Mozilla community had. Of course it's going to be cool. But it's also telling that the Mozilla Labs people also have no intent for actually making one.

    --
    My postings are informational and does not constitute legal advice. Act on it at your risk.
    1. Re:Only a concept, will not be made by JustinOpinion · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yes, it's only a concept phone, and Mozilla has no plans to make it. Yes, it's easy to make technology super-awesome when you only have to deal in concepts, and not engineering.

      But are you implying that this makes concept designs useless? Personally, I love them. The point is to show all the many-splendid things that could be possible if more advanced technology were available. Which makes sense to do, since technology continually advances. A concept design does many things: it gets people excited about possibilities, it gives product designers/engineers ideas about what to try next. Perhaps most importantly, it lets us all ruminate about, and discuss, design choices long before major effort has been expended. This lets us pick out great ideas and shoot down bad ones.

      For instance, I'm sure many Slashdotters had moments of "that will never work because of X" or "that would suck because of Y" while watching the video. These criticisms can be helpful, as a concept design is refined to bring it closer to what a real-world device would have to do. And conversely many of us I'm sure had ideas like "That's awesome! If it could that, I bet I could hack it to do Z!" Many things we now use, and take for granted (touchscreen mobile phones among them) were ridiculous concept-designs at one time.

      All I'm saying is that rather than just being "this is not and never will be a real device... lame" we should be discussing what is right or wrong about this particular design. We should be dreaming about future technology... because we are part of the process of making that technology come to be!

    2. Re:Only a concept, will not be made by MozeeToby · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Well, it's like Google rolling out Gigabit broadband. They know that it's not going to work right now, the technology isn't there yet to do it in a way that is profitable. But they are very curious about how people will respond to such an offer, how they use a net connection with such high download speeds, and what kinds of web services they can plan to bring to bear when the technology does make it cost effective.

      Similarly, this is the direction that the Mozilla team thinks that mobile phone technology is going (I'll leave the argument about whether they are right and wrong for another post). So, if the phone of the future has multiple projectors, head tracking, in air gestures, multitouch, voice activation, keyboard and mouse integration, etc... what kinds of products and services make sense on such a device? How do those new technologies change the way people use their phones, and how can software writers capitalize on them?

    3. Re:Only a concept, will not be made by ion.simon.c · · Score: 2, Informative

      Well, it's like Google rolling out Gigabit broadband. They know that it's not going to work right now, the technology isn't there yet to do it in a way that is profitable.

      This is in Tennessee:
      http://chattanoogagig.com/

      1gbps symmetric service for 350USD/month.
      Split that with ten neighbors, and you almost beat the download speed (and absolutely crush the upload speed) of Comcast's best offering for far less than half their price.

  2. Re:How much are the bulbs? by Sonny+Yatsen · · Score: 4, Informative

    LED lamps for pico projectors are much smaller and cheaper (especially for projectors that only need a throw distance of about 4 inches like in this concept) than projector lamps.

    --
    My postings are informational and does not constitute legal advice. Act on it at your risk.
  3. So this projector keyboard thing... by not+already+in+use · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's always funny when you see future technologies that are doomed for failure. The projected keyboard has to be one of the most obviously useless features continually perpetuated as something that we will eventually have. I can only imagine how difficult and frustrating it would be to try and use one.

    --
    Similes are like metaphors
    1. Re:So this projector keyboard thing... by Sonny+Yatsen · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I think Thinkgeek sold a laser projected keyboard at one point (or maybe they still do). I think the common complaint is that there is zero tactile response (since you're essentially tapping on a bit of tabletop) and the key press detection isn't very good.

      --
      My postings are informational and does not constitute legal advice. Act on it at your risk.
    2. Re:So this projector keyboard thing... by Pojut · · Score: 2, Informative

      You mean like this crazy contraption?

      --
      Living With a Nerd
  4. Delivering interface, rather than content by noidentity · · Score: 2, Funny

    The Seabird, on just a flat surface, enables netbook-quality interaction by working with the projector's angular distortion to deliver interface, rather than content.

    <slowly steps back and avoids eye contact>

  5. When can we get the hardware & software separa by KarlIsNotMyName · · Score: 3, Interesting

    So with these things becoming more like tiny computers than cell phones, what will it take for us to be able to buy just the hardware and install the rest ourselves?

    --
    We are all God's parents.
  6. what do projectors have to do with community? by F34nor · · Score: 2, Interesting

    A phone that could route calls through it peers seems far more community driven than some new interface. I want to be able to call someone 10 feet away without a tower, I want tol be able tol reach a tower by routing through my neighbor or his femtocell, I want an idle cell that can see a network to be a tower. Oh yeah and I want people to know that if you buy your own hardware at&t can't disable the good shit.

  7. Mozilla seems to affection sea related by youn · · Score: 2, Funny

    seamonkey... seabird... I can't wait til they come up with a see-through product :)

    --
    Never antropomorphize computers, they do not like that :p
  8. Albatross! Albatross! by adavies42 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Albatross! Albatross!
    What flavor is it?
    It hasn't got a flavor!
    Everything's got a flavor!
    It's bleeding seabird flavor!
    Right, I'll take two.
    Albatross! Albatross! Stormy petrel on a stick!

    --
    Media that can be recorded and distributed can be recorded and distributed.
    -kfg
  9. Why has it got mini-USB instead of micro-USB? by judgecorp · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I don't want to quibble, and I know it does everything else you could want, but surely mini-USB is yesterday, and we should get with the excitement in data cable connections... :-) http://www.eweekeurope.co.uk/news/mozilla-shows-seabird-concept-phone-10036

  10. It's kinda funny for a "phone" by thewils · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That nowhere in the concept video do we see someone actually talking on the thing.

    --
    Once I was a four stone apology. Now I am two separate gorillas.
  11. Re:When can we get the hardware & software sep by mark72005 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm looking forward to the day these devices can plug into my television, home theatre, and use my wireless keyboard by bluetooth - replacing a computer, gaming console, cable box, etc.

  12. Perhaps it's most telling by sv_libertarian · · Score: 2, Interesting
    That we are starting to move away from standalone devices for a single task. I read nearly all my email on my phone. By the time my laptop is booted up, I'm already partway through the night's email. The tiny keyboard is the limitation for me right now, I use my computer for anything requiring a reply of more than a few sentences. Meanwhile, my computer makes phone calls, my amateur radio sends data, my cell phone browses the web, I make a phone call with my handheld 2 meter radio, and on and on and on.

    Personally, I'm thrilled to have a tiny computer in my pocket. And if I could somehow dock it, run it off of AC power, and connect a keyboard, mouse and larger display to it (and possibly external data storage) I wager a modern Android phone would handle nearly all of my communication. A good cellphone with a decent dock could be a very useful tool. The next ten years of mobile phone evolution excites me to no great end.