James Clerk Maxwell, a physicist from Edinburgh, has laid the foundations of mobile connectivity which began in the mid-1800s. As per his visionary insights, more than 150 years later billions of devices are sold each year and phones have become a powerful social tool.
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Professor Peter Grant of the University of Edinburgh will provide some more information regarding Maxwell’s insights at the National Museum of Scotland. Professor Grant will also take a look at the growth of smartphones and tablets, and how these are changing the way of communication utilized by people and use information.
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He will also throw light on the concept of cellular phones which were believed to be pioneered by US Bell Corporation in 1947.
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He will be joined in his presentation by a representative from the company Aurasma, who will reveal how augmented reality technology might change the way we use mobile phones.
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Maxwell’s research also enabled scientists to understand how electromagnetic fields could be used to transmit signals. This led to the development of wireless communications, such as the telegraph and radar.
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Peter Grant said, “The mobile phone market today is worth more than a trillion dollars annually. It is interesting to consider the events and personalities that helped to shape the devices that we all rely on every day.”
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The Japanese engineers developed the first analogue network in the late 1970s, which proved to be the precursor to today’s digital communications. It was more than a century later, in 1979, that the first commercial mobile phone call took place in Tokyo, Japan.
