Nokia boffins explore RFID bracelets

Boffins at Nokia's labs in Helsinki are experimenting with various futuristic technologies - from RFID bracelets and high definition video capability to using wrist movements as a user interface.

The Finnish phone giant is currently looking into the possible future applications for controversial tracking technology RFID. One scenario, according to Nokia, is an RFID connected device that can be worn as a bracelet and used, for example, as a shopping assistant.

Nokia's RFID vision could see the bracelet phone equipped with location services, alerting a particular shop to the arrival of a high-spending customer, or alerting a shopper when a desired item is in stock.

Wrists are a key feature of Nokia's future vision with the handset maker eyeing up the potential of "multi modal" devices with voice or hand gestures used as a method of user interface, controlling a user's home electronics as well as the phone itself.

Jyri Huopaniemi, head of mobile applications research at Nokia's research centre in Helsinki said: "In the digital era, the home is becoming and turning into an intelligent space. It's a repository for personal digital content."

Huopaniemi added that personalisation was Nokia's most "active research topic" and the company was looking into HD video recording and editing functions for phones, as well as a memory prosthesis - a way of digital recording and storing your entire life.

As well as whizz-bang consumer devices, Nokia is also putting effort into dreaming up the next generation of enterprise apps, including an intuitive lifestyle calendar, which would suggest meeting preferences based on your usual timetable, and using an Ultrawideband connected mobile device to draw on an intelligent whiteboard.

While RFID bracelets may sound a little like something from Dick Tracy, the technology may yet be a reality. Huopaniemi revealed that Nokia's lifeblogs started off as a labs' research project.

However, one of the more interesting potential developments ahead for Nokia is a potential transition from phone maker to PC maker as devices converge.

"Telecoms, consumer electronics, different media are coming together. The device of the future might be combination of both [PC and phone]. Whether the mobile device will replace PC... it's an area of active research," Huopaniemi said. "As for the form factor of the future, we can't really comment - we don't know."