D11 tech conference of WSJ’s subsidiary All Things Digital (allthingsd.com) has some interesting stuff going on. One of the recent interviews that happened was with Motorola Mobility’s CEO, Dennis Woodside and its Senior Vice President of advanced technology and projects, Regina Dugan. It was in this interview that you can watch here that Regina introduced us to two important innovations happening in Motorola.
Now, as you well know how Google acquired Motorola and how it intends to develop the smartphone manufacturer into a part of its own, most of the discussion concentrates on how this will be achieved. There are certain important developments happening in Motorola’s research facilities, and they are thinking about solving some issues that plague smartphone users these days, such as authentication.
One of the first things that Regina introduced us to is the electronic tattoo that can authenticate your phone. Remember how you get access to your smartphone’s functions normally. You either put up a password or use that swipe pattern to get access every single time you want to access your phone. It has become quite a difficult thing to do.
Earlier, when I had my first mobile phone (not a smartphone, not even a feature phone) that could only make calls, I had a keypad lock function in which I had to tap ‘*’ to unlock the phone. After about two days of using it, I was so annoyed that I searched inside the phone’s settings to find a way to turn this off. In short, that particular key lock doesn’t achieve any benefit. Today’s passwords and pattern swipes are no different. It won’t protect you from hackers.
It would in fact be beneficial to have your body act as an authentication token that the phone can recognize and work with. This is what motivated this advanced thinking from Motorola. The first, electronic tattoo, in association with a company called MC10, can authenticate the phone as soon as you touch it.
Secondly, there is another method, a pill of authentication, shown here.
This pill, made by Proteus Digital Health, is approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Once you swallow the pill, your body’s digestive acids can power it. It will then generate an 18-bit signal that can help authenticate any smartphone.
With these technologies, Motorola will be able to reduce the time it takes to do various things and probably increase security as well. Dennis Woodside did also mention about other major concerns being addressed, such as battery life, but it is not known whether we will get to see any of these or others in action in the upcoming Moto phones. Dennis has confirmed about six or so devices will be launched before the end of this year.
Now, as you well know how Google acquired Motorola and how it intends to develop the smartphone manufacturer into a part of its own, most of the discussion concentrates on how this will be achieved. There are certain important developments happening in Motorola’s research facilities, and they are thinking about solving some issues that plague smartphone users these days, such as authentication.
One of the first things that Regina introduced us to is the electronic tattoo that can authenticate your phone. Remember how you get access to your smartphone’s functions normally. You either put up a password or use that swipe pattern to get access every single time you want to access your phone. It has become quite a difficult thing to do.
Earlier, when I had my first mobile phone (not a smartphone, not even a feature phone) that could only make calls, I had a keypad lock function in which I had to tap ‘*’ to unlock the phone. After about two days of using it, I was so annoyed that I searched inside the phone’s settings to find a way to turn this off. In short, that particular key lock doesn’t achieve any benefit. Today’s passwords and pattern swipes are no different. It won’t protect you from hackers.
It would in fact be beneficial to have your body act as an authentication token that the phone can recognize and work with. This is what motivated this advanced thinking from Motorola. The first, electronic tattoo, in association with a company called MC10, can authenticate the phone as soon as you touch it.
Secondly, there is another method, a pill of authentication, shown here.
This pill, made by Proteus Digital Health, is approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Once you swallow the pill, your body’s digestive acids can power it. It will then generate an 18-bit signal that can help authenticate any smartphone.
With these technologies, Motorola will be able to reduce the time it takes to do various things and probably increase security as well. Dennis Woodside did also mention about other major concerns being addressed, such as battery life, but it is not known whether we will get to see any of these or others in action in the upcoming Moto phones. Dennis has confirmed about six or so devices will be launched before the end of this year.