Silicon Germanium chips by IBM have been coming down the pike for a while. They will benefit QUALCOMM more than the competition because it will make the air interface energy more important than energy going into processing. The processing power is also more important for CDMA than for GSM and analogue which is heading for irrelevancy. With cdma2000 the processing power will be even more important.
QUALCOMM is the main prospective beneficiary, other than the chip producers of course.
People will have Earcell [TM] stereophonic systems, one in each ear, produced by the likes of Phonak, initially to help hearing impaired people but eventually all of us. You'll be able to pop a little ear canal hearing aid in each ear, with a wireless link to a little control box which will receive and transmit signals to Globalstar satellites or terrestrial cdma2000 systems.
I asked Phonak about such a thing several years ago, but they weren't doing anything about it then. Maybe they and others will be taking a look again. Stereophonic hearing protecton, sound filtering [great for driving, noisy factories etc], adapted to individual hearing needs. It will be like having the person you are talking to right there in full stereo.
The box will send and receive super weak signals to the Earcells which will have a micro battery, rechargeable in the main box, with GPS, security alarm, and all that stuff, right down to the Vegemite dispenser. The Earcells can have voice pickup from sound transmission through bones to the ear rather than talking into a machine.
Once again, the advantage is mostly to CDMA and QUALCOMM.
Mqurice |
