One the greatest challenges facing the growth of the cell phone industry is how to attach true identification and authenticating protocols to the interface. Privacy and security concerns are creating large drawbacks for turning a cell into an electronic wallet or a universal key-chain. As phones are beginning to carry a great deal of information concerning their owners, there must be technologies and systems in place that will ensure its legitimate use.
There are a few biometric and security software technologies that are being pursued and installed in the various handhelds, ranging from facial geometry as scanned by the phone’s camera to biometric enabled fingerprint scanners that are embedded in the phone. Market success rates are varied at best, with consistent reports of failure and negative experiences (phones will turn off after three false negatives, or it won’t turn on in the first place, etc).
If cells are going to grow into the multipurpose tool that everyone envisions, then new and less invasive technologies must be employed. There needs to be more effort in figuring out ways that the handheld/human interface can be reconciled, without taking away from any one feature. And if possible they should even be adding to what the cell is promising to bring us.
Right now the idea seems to somehow make the cell inoperable if someone other than the owner has a hold of it. One of the attempts we’ve read on is how a certain website in England will send a loud howl to the cell if you report one missing. And there’s always some sort of password in the works, aimed to prevent someone getting the data you have stored in it. We’re pretty sure there’s plenty more in the works that are taking this sort of protection in all sorts of directions.
Things will change when the cell can share an interface with its owner, electronically attaching their digital ID to their cell. With ID alone, without considering all the services that might be developed, there will then be a level of informed attachment that allows the cell to work only if and when you and it are near each other. If your cell can be controlled through contacts with your new biometric footware (which is the first product that we at Plantiga are developing), a digital ID is invoked. It will not only make the cell useless when away from yourself, but it can also be set to ring when you’ve stepped beyond a certain distance from it, or when someone has carried it beyond this same set distance. A ‘tethered’ cell would not be too much of an exaggeration.
