As the mobile phone industry undergoes sweeping changes, Professor Adrian Cheok, Professor of Pervasive Computing, discusses smart watches, haptics and mobile phones that send text messages and sweet fragrances.

Smart watches and wearable computing

Recently, we've seen wrist watch devices produced by the likes of Sony and Samsung. The concept is hardly new. If you look at science fiction on television from the 1950s through to the 1970s, there was always the 'watch communicator'. People have a desire for something wearable on the wrist. I think this form factor has been tried several times before but for the average consumer, it hasn't really taken off and I think even now, these devices are yet to become mainstream.

Compared with what you can do with a smartphone, the watch devices made by these mobile phone makers are still much more inferior in their functionality. The real application is for the user to connect to their mobile phone. If you get a message on your phone or some kind of Twitter or Facebook alert, or instance, it shows up on your wrist. So right now these watches are really connections to your phone and calendar. Certainly, there is some value, but it isn't enough to justify one wearing a watch all of the time.

Mobile devices in the next five years

For several years I have been working on haptics - ways that people can produce touch through the internet. I have created hugging suits for parents and children, for instance, to embrace and hug each other at night time. What I want to do now is to try to make something that is small and very mobile with commercial applications. My haptic ring device, is another example. The basic idea is that we can now communicate through touch - physical touch rather than just text and audio visual means. Basically I can squeeze my ring and the person I am communicating with will also feel a squeeze on his finger. The other person's ring, who is another place, will see his ring light up and I will also feel a squeezed sensation in my finger. In this way we are bringing emotional and touch communication to mobile devices.