Drive Future Communications Systems Problem-solving techniques grow with electronics advances, but new riddles emerge to vex planners. Rapidly evolving communications techniques are leading scientists to integrate technology trends and human methods of thinking to solve problems that are yet to be encountered. Moore's Law portends a doubling in semiconductor processing power, or circuit density, every 18 months. This phenomenon already has had a tremendous impact on communications and handheld devices. According to Raju Rishi, director of international information technology solutions, Lucent Technologies, Holmdel, New Jersey, four fundamental concepts will change the way the general population communicates in the future.
Miniaturization is the first concept.
The density- doubling trends indicate that a device such as a cellular telephone will become a quarter of its size every three years. Early in the next century, cellular telephones could be the size of a large coin and would be mainstream technology. The ramifications of reducing the size of commonly used items are significant. For example, a cellular telephone that is the size of a quarter will require new and different user interfaces because a dial pad will not be an acceptable user interface for a device of this size. Miniaturization will also allow 360-degree video cameras to be incorporated onto a single chip, created through a concept known as triangulation.