“Stop looking at your cell phone screen”: this is what its creator says

The problem with mobile phones is that people can’t stop looking at them. At least that’s what the man who invented them fifty years ago thinks so.

Martin Cooper, an American engineer dubbed the “Father of the Cell Phone,” says the device in our pockets has virtually limitless potential and could one day help fight some diseases.

But right now, we might be a little obsessed with them.

“When I see someone crossing the street and looking at their phone, I feel terrible. They don’t think,” the 94-year-old engineer told AFP in his office in Del Mar, California.

“But after a few people get hit by a car, they will understand,” he joked.

Cooper has a watch apple watch and last iPhonein which you intuitively move from email to photos, YouTubeor operate a hearing aid.

He updates the device every time the company releases a version that he carefully reviews.

But he admits that with millions of apps available, that might be too much.

“I will never learn to use a cell phone the way my grandchildren and great-grandchildren do,” she said.

mobile phone inventor

He iPhone Cooper’s phone, which he uses primarily for calls, is a rather distant version of the heavy bundle of wires and circuitry he used to make the first mobile call on April 3, 1973.

At the time he was working for Motorola leads a team of designers and engineers who strive to create the first truly mobile technology and not be left out of the emerging market.

The company invested millions of dollars in the project in the hope of winning Bell Systema giant that has dominated the telecommunications industry in the United States since its founding in 1877.

engineers from Bell they put forward the idea of ​​a cellular phone system right after The Second World Warand by the late 1960s, they were able to put phones in cars, in part because of the huge battery they required to operate.

But for Cooper, it wasn’t true mobility.

In late 1972, he decided he needed a device that people could use anywhere.

With resources Motorolabrought together specialists in semiconductors, transistors, filters and antennas, who worked without interruption for three months.

At the end of March, the team presented the model DynaTAC (abbreviation for “Dynamic Adaptive Total Area Coverage”).

“This phone weighed over a kilogram and had a battery life of 25 minutes of talk time,” he said.

“The latter was not a problem. The phone was so heavy that you couldn’t hold it for more than 25 minutes.”

That first call shouldn’t have been long. It is enough that it was successful. And what could be a better recipient than a rival?

“I was on Sixth Avenue[in New York]and it occurred to me to call my competitor in the Bell System Dr. Joel Engel.”

“And I said, ‘Joel, this is Martin Cooper. I’m calling on my cell phone. But a real, personal, portable, portable phone.”

“There was silence on the other end of the line. I think he was grinding his teeth.”

The future of mobile phones

Those early cell phones were expensive, costing $5,000, but they delivered value to their early users, who Cooper said included real estate people.

“It turns out people who work in real estate show houses or take on new clients over the phone… Now they could do both at the same time, which doubled their productivity.”

“He cellular telephone he has become an extension of a person, he can do a lot, ”said Cooper.

“And we are only at the beginning of the journey. We are just beginning to understand what he is capable of. We hope that the mobile phone will revolutionize education in the future. It will revolutionize the field of medicine.”

“I know it sounds exaggerated, but in one or two generations we will beat disease.”

Just like your watch tracks your heart rate while swimming, telephone control your hearing aids mobile one day they will be connected to a series of body sensors that will detect diseases before they develop.

Between the volume of fifty years ago and the current devices, the distance is gigantic. However, Cooper always knew that the device he and his team created would change the world.

“We knew that one day everyone would have cell phones. We are almost there. There are more mobile subscribers in the world than there are people. So that part of our dream came true.”

“When television came along, people were hypnotized. But somehow (…) we came to understand that there is a quality associated with watching TV.”

We’re in the phase where we’re mindlessly staring at our phones, but not for long, Cooper says.

“Each generation is smarter than the previous one. They will learn to use cellular telephone more effective. People will figure it out sooner or later.”

AFP