ACTION
DR MARTIN COOPER
Mobile Intelligence How Clever?
From the brick-sized mobiles paraded by 1980s businessmen all the way to iPhoneBerrys, every piece of cell-phone tech arose from his vision. His idea of a portable handset distinct from car phones is the most vital step in the giant leap from wired to wireless. Working at Motorola, his prototype mobi, weighing 1kg, took less than three months to produce.
It Is Said...
MICHAEL McALPINE
“Marty said, ‘We’ll get this thing down to the size of the palm of your hand.’” Travis Marshall, former Motorola executive, speaking to The Economist
How Clever?
Personally Speaking
Battery Recharger As an assistant professor at Princeton University, McAlpine realised that PZT, a piezoelectric material that converts mechanical energy into electricity, can provide humankind with a new, natural and neverending power source – the movement of the body. As you walk, jog or run, power is generated. One day, you will never have to plug in your iPod again; thanks to McAlpine, you are plug enough.
It Is Said...
“McAlpine and his colleagues have suggested applications such as shoes that help power MP3 players or smartphones. There’s even the thought of placing silicone sheets against the lungs to harness natural breathing motions to power pacemakers, as opposed to using batteries that require surgical replacement when they run down.” Jeremy Hsu, Popular Science
Personally Speaking
“PZT is 100 times more efficient than quartz, another piezoelectric material. You don’t generate that much power from walking or breathing, so you want to harness it as efficiently as possible.”
Smartest Thing Ever
Finding a new use for implants. McAlpine’s team are working on scaling up the silicone-based technology, meaning silicone implants could produce a significant amount of renewable, personal power. Also, the researchers note, by feeding external power back into the device you can make the implants oscillate, flex or, indeed, jiggle... 70
“Our culture was based upon a conviction, almost a religion, that people were naturally and inherently mobile and that any communications
device that inhibited this was wrong... It was [AT&T], the largest company in the world, against us, a little company in Chicago. We demonstrated our dream – and won. Today, the exciting industries are wirelessly enhanced medicine and social networking in the enterprise, both of which are revolutionary to the same extent that cellular technology was.”
Smartest Thing Ever
Making the first call. In 1973, Cooper, stood on Sixth Avenue in New York and placed the first mobile call to an industry competitor. It marked the moment we began calling people, not places. The man on the other end of the line? Joel S Engels, research director at Bell Laboratories. As in, ‘Alexander Graham’ Bell Laboratories.
“WE DEMONSTRATED OUR DREAM – AND WON”