Motorola is undertaking some interesting initiatives to deliver on its corporate slogan of ‘seamless mobility’. Today it announced the winners of its MOTOFWRD competition, which encouraged university students from throughout the UK to submit their visions of a connected future, prompting a wide range of essays, animations and videos exploring the way in which telecoms, media and computing are converging.

The overall winner was Richard Long, a student at Birmingham University, whose essay entitled ‘Seamless Dreamless’ described a world in which users can interact directly with their surroundings through mobile networks.

Key to this vision is the ‘portal’, a wearable device which serves as an interface between the human user, their contacts and their physical environment. In his winning entry, Long describes the portal thus:

“A Portal is the key to this new digital world, and it is a right of passage for children to
receive their first Portal. Just like the mobile phones before, it represents their
independence and freedom, as the Portal controls the environment they live in, their
world. The Portal is able to interact with the displays that dot the conurbations, the lights
that line the street, the service machines in cafes, restaurants and airports and with
virtually any device using protocols based on OSI models.”

Long will work with Motorola as part of a 6 week internship programme and was presented with the keys to a Mini car, a cheque for GBP 5000 and a wide range of Motorola products at a ceremony in London. Sir David Brown, chairman of Motorola, Ltd., told the audience of analysts and university students: “We have been
astonished and delighted to see the imagination and creativity shown by the student
population towards the concept of seamless mobility in this competition.
Motorola has been redefining mobility for more than 70 years and ideas like these are
an inspiration to us to continue to challenge the boundaries.�

The mobile industry is becoming more and more aware of the opportunity for the handset to serve as a gateway to the embedded intelligence in home appliances, media systems and public terminals. By virtue of its ubiquity and wireless capabilities, the mobile phone is the natural choice for controlling services such as hone automation, electronic ticketing and media consumption.

However, this evolution of the mobile from a device which helps us interact with other people to a device which helps us interact with the physical environment is presenting unique interface and design challenges.

PMN will host a debate on these issues as part of the forthcoming Mobile User Experience conference on 31st May and 1st June 2006 in London.

Further information on Motorola’s web-site.