Mozilla Seabird: Crafting the Future of Mobile Phones

Posted by: Umair H. Peracha 24 September 2010 One Comment

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Mozilla Seabird: the community driven concept mobile phone from Mozilla is an experiment in how users might interact with their mobile content as devices in the future.

The Mozilla Seabird is a concept Mobile Phone first conceived by Billy May – a member of Mozilla Community. The phone is not an actual hardware or an OS by Mozilla but rather a unique set of usability features taken from tons of community members and conceived into a product that would meet user needs of the future. According to Mozilla Lab Blog:

While mobile CPUs, connectivity and development platforms begin approaching that of desktops, the lagging ability to efficiently input information has grown ever more pronounced.

To be honest, we are really lagging behind in Input arena. Be it iPhone or Blackberry, the divergent input mechanisms are not meeting the needs of all users. A QWERTY keypad might work for some Executives very well while a touch would go good with others. But there is no unique solution to this problem. Even worst, ask an App developer how many constraints he has while developing an Application for multiple devices.

The Seabird imagine taking input in 3D space, canceling all barriers of small size devices. This concept phone is perhaps talking about the sci-fi stuff from Iron Man or the Minority Report. Content delivery is one thing, making it interactive at 3D level is whole lot different.

But it’s not just the 3D that this phone takes into account. According to the Mozilla Labs Blog:

The Seabird, on just a flat surface, enables netbook-quality interaction by working with the projector’s angular distortion to deliver interface, rather than content. With the benefit of a dock, each projector works independently and delivers laptop levels of efficiency.

The idea is called Pico Projectors where on the left and right side of the phone, a keyboard will be displayed onto a flat surface while an infrared sensing technology would tell where people’s fingers are typing. It would also power a virtual trackpad in front of the phone.

The phone could also be placed horizontally to project a virtual keyboard on one side and a large screen on the other.

The Concept phone boast some cool features such as:

8.0 MP Camera
Dual Pico Projectors – 45 Lumens @ 960 x 600
Embedded Bluetooth / IR Dongle
Bluetooth Headset
InfraRed Tracking
Haptic Clicking / Pan and Zoom in 2D and 3D space
3.5mm Audio Jack
Wireless Charging
Mini USB
Dock – Virtual Monitor and Keyboard
IR Keyboard and Virtual TouchPad

Of course, this is just a concept and not something actual. Big players like Apple, Nokia and Microsoft aren’t even in position to make something like that due to several constraints attached with the development of Mobile Phone (Battery Limitations, Phone Size, etc). But this concept is helpful in a sense that it has outlined the needs of the future users.

Check out its awesome video: