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`
`I N T E R N E T S E R V I C E S
`I N T E R N E T S E R V I C E S
`
`The PalmPilot and the
`handheld revolution
`
`By Michael McCandless
`MIT Laboratory for Computer Science
`mikemc@lcs.mit.edu
`
`Have you thought that perhaps the computer belongs in your
`hand rather than on your desk? With many failed and still-
`failing efforts, handheld computation has been taking a long
`time to arrive. However, the unquestionable success of 3Com’s
`PalmPilot heralds the start of a revolution in computation.
`
`model is inappropriate for space-starved
`portable devices. The now-failed Go Corpo-
`ration was the first company to break tradi-
`tion and introduce interaction using only a
`stylus. Apple continued the endeavor, lead-
`ing to the present MessagePad 2100, but
`stylus-based PDA’s have caught on only
`gradually. Now, the Pilot has taken the lead
`at an exceptional pace. According to PC
`Data, the Pilot accounts for 70% of US
`retail PDA sales. According to DataQuest,
`in 1996, the Pilot accounted for 51% of the
`1.6 million handheld devices sold world-
`wide. These figures are amazing, given that
`
`Contrary to many past and present devices,
`the Pilot proves that portable computers
`don’t have to mimic desktops to be useful
`and successful. As a result, handheld com-
`puters are incorporating new technologies,
`and the market is rapidly changing. Soon,
`many of us will spend more time interact-
`ing with our handheld devices than with
`our desktop computers.
`
`The many guises of portable
`computers
`Portable computers come in many forms
`and under many names. At one extreme are
`laptops, which are basically
`desktop PCs that have been
`reduced enough to be lugged
`around. At the other extreme
`are Personal Digital Assistants
`(PDAs), which use a stylus or
`a few buttons, rather than a
`keyboard, for navigation and
`input. In between, suffering
`something of an identity crisis,
`are the handheld PCs (HPCs)
`and palmtop devices, sporting
`tiny fold-up keyboards and
`running a pared-down version
`of Windows 95 called Win-
`dows CE.
`So far, the PC has been the
`most successful form of com-
`putation. As a result, when
`branching out to produce
`portable computing devices,
`most companies simply aim to
`mimic the PC. However, such a
`
`6
`
`the Pilot first appeared on the market in
`early 1996. In retrospect, the Pilot will be
`seen as a turning point in the migration of
`computation from desktop machines to
`handheld devices.
`
`Behind Pilot’s success
`The Pilot comes with numerous built-in
`applications to manage personal informa-
`tion—for example, calendar, to-do lists,
`memo pad, and address book. The touch-
`sensitive monochrome LCD display is used
`for navigation, and a simplified and easy-
`to-learn alphabet called Graffiti is used for
`input. The touch of a button synchronizes
`the Pilot with a desktop PC, using 3Com’s
`HotSync technology, which also backs up
`data and installs new applications.
`The key to the Pilot’s success is its sim-
`plicity. The design is achievable rather than
`overly ambitious. For example, requiring
`the user to learn a simplified alphabet
`allows for accurate and predictable letter
`recognition. The simple design
`translates into affordability: the
`PalmPilot Personal costs $249,
`compared to $1,000 for Apple’s
`MessagePad 2100. It also leads
`to wonderful portability. The
`Pilot weighs under six ounces,
`including batteries, and is a little
`larger than a wallet. Finally, its
`open architecture and available
`software-development
`systems—for example, Code-
`Warrior, by Metrowerks—have
`allowed developers and compa-
`nies to offer many useful third-
`party applications. By simplify-
`ing the design, 3Com achieved a
`realistic, inexpensive, and practi-
`cal device.
`The Pilot clearly shows that a
`handheld device driven only
`with a stylus can be successful.
`Naturally, other companies are
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`IEEE EXPERT
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`SCEA Ex. 1015 Page 1
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`eager to get in the market.
`Sharp just released the SE-
`500 Mobile Organizer, which
`looks like the Pilot but lacks
`handwriting recognition and
`runs with a proprietary OS.
`Franklin Electronic Publish-
`ers created the Rex PC Com-
`panion, a stripped-down
`device with no input, which
`lets you browse information
`downloaded from a PC.
`
`It’s all about
`information
`Why are these devices so
`successful in the first place?
`The answer is clear: people
`need to keep track of all sorts
`of personal information. We have always
`had this need, and our lives are becoming
`even busier and more connected. We need
`to schedule our day, look up phone num-
`bers, remember the names of people to
`whom we were introduced, keep track of
`birthdays, read the latest news, trade our
`favorite stocks, and remember what to do,
`including when and where. There’s a name
`for all these things: Personal Information
`Management.
`The PIM market for desktop PCs is
`already well-established, including prod-
`ucts such as Microsoft Outlook, Lotus
`Organizer, and Now Up-To-Date. A strong
`market also exists for paper-based organiz-
`ers. The Pilot makes carrying all this infor-
`mation with us practical, so that we can
`access it anywhere and anytime. It’s the
`same crucial information with which
`we’ve always been working; the Pilot is
`just a better means of getting to it and
`maintaining it.
`
`In the pipeline
`We’re at the beginning of a long race in
`which many will eagerly contend. Although
`the Pilot might or might not retain its lead,
`we consumers will continue to win. Com-
`petition will bring prices down while
`improving functionality. Most important,
`three enabling technologies loom on the
`horizon: wireless networking, the Global
`Positioning System, and cryptography.
`
`Wireless networking. PDAs will soon
`come with built-in access to a ubiquitous
`wireless network. This will render HotSync
`a thing of the past; your PDA will transpar-
`
`NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1997
`
`ently back up your data, at all times. In fact,
`you will no longer worry about where your
`data actually is, because that will not mat-
`ter. People will share access to the same
`underlying data, stored on a central server,
`despite being separated in space or time. An
`executive, while traveling, will see changes
`to his or her calendar as they are made in
`real time back in the office. All family
`members will be able to update the grocery
`list, anywhere and anytime, and whoever
`does the shopping will see these changes.
`Using this network, your PDA will even-
`tually subsume the functionality of the
`remote controls in your home. You will
`control and configure your home appli-
`ances through your PDA. You will set your
`alarm clock; read your personalized TV
`guide and program your VCR; turn down
`the stereo or select a different song or radio
`station; and program, from your car or the
`subway, your home’s heater to turn on
`shortly before you arrive there. This net-
`work won’t need to be, and probably will
`not be, very high performance to provide
`most of these new services. Rather, it will
`serve as a stepping stone, motivating and
`then financing better infrastructure.
`The network relaxes where and how
`computation occurs. For example, applica-
`tions that are too compute- or space-
`intensive to run directly on your PDA will
`run, instead, on a remote high-performance
`computer, but then return the output of the
`computation. When new versions of appli-
`cations are released, your PDA will auto-
`matically update. The boundary between
`your PDA and the rest of the world will
`become blurred.
`
`In due time, your PDA will
`absorb the other things you now
`feel compelled to carry in your
`pockets. Keys, now rendered as
`metal, plastic, or a magnetic strip,
`will instead be stored as bits in
`your PDA. All forms of currency
`will have digital correlates, let-
`ting you buy groceries without
`worrying about visiting the ATM
`first. Likewise, forms of identifi-
`cation—for example, your dri-
`ver’s license and Social Security
`card—will be digital. People will
`no longer be able to lie about
`their age and identity.
`
`Global Positioning System.
`Using satellites and land towers, a
`GPS device, soon to be one chip plus an
`antenna, can locate its position on the
`Earth’s surface within three meters. PDAs
`will incorporate GPS. You will consult your
`PDA to navigate in a foreign city or to find
`the nearest ATM or gas station, or a good
`place to eat. Over the network, your PDA
`will monitor traffic congestion, the weather,
`and construction conditions, altering its
`recommended route as needed. You will be
`able to locate your children or track the
`entire family in the mall or on the ski slope.
`
`Cryptography. Security is a big concern
`with present and future PDAs. I store all
`sorts of very private information on my
`Pilot—account numbers and passwords,
`PINs for my credit cards, telephone num-
`bers—all of which I do not want to fall into
`the wrong hands. And as PDAs come to
`absorb everything on our key chains and in
`our wallets, it would seem that if you lose
`your PDA, you lose yourself.
`In the short term, however, there are
`excellent tools that use strong cryptography
`to protect your information—for example,
`Andreas Linke’s Secret 2.0 freeware. These
`tools require you to punch in a password
`every time you need to access your critical
`data. Although this is adequate, the danger
`always exists that you will forget to encrypt
`certain pieces of important information.
`In the long term, PDAs will exploit bio-
`metric identification, using your voice, fin-
`gerprints, pulse, and other reliable aspects to
`transparently confirm who you are, before
`allowing access to your data. Because this
`procedure will be so simple, everything will
`be encrypted by default. Also, once a high-
`
`7
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`SCEA Ex. 1015 Page 2
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`

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`IEEE EXPERT
`
`JULY/AUGUST 1997
`
`INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS
`
`& THEIR APPLICATIONS
`
`Coming Next Issue
`
`AI in Health Care
`Over the last few years, optimism has grown that the world of medicine is finally going to be truly “online.” Many
`believe that the answer to some of the major challenges faced by the health care community lies in computerization, and
`it appears that with increased networking capabilities, effective new solutions to old problems are emerging. Further-
`more, both administrators as well as practitioners are becoming convinced that technology will change the face of health
`care, balancing improved quality of patient care with cost effective management procedures.
`The role of AI in provoking and supporting these changes is of particular interest; despite AI’s long history of research
`in the medical domain, relatively few AI systems are either currently in clinical practice or about to get there. Guest
`edited by Erika Rogers of California Polytechnic State University, this special issue considers the following questions: What
`is the changing face of health care? How does this affect AI research in this area? and What contributions can AI make
`towards realizing these changes? Articles in this special issue are
`
`IEEE COMPUTER SOCIETY
`
`®
`
`®
`
`•
`•
`•
`•
`•
`•
`
`“Integrating a Knowledge-Based System for Parenteral Nutrition of Neonates into a Clinical Intranet”
`“Guardian: An Intelligent Autonomous Agent for Medical Monitoring and Diagnosis”
`“Neural Network Learning for Intelligent Patient Image Retrieval”
`“Knowledge Architectures for Patient Access to Breast-Cancer Information”
`“TraumaTIQ: On-Line Decision Support for Trauma Management”
`“OSSIM: Voice-Enabled, Structured Medical Reporting”
`
`IEEE
`
`IEEE Expert, covering the full range of intelligent systems developments for the AI practitioner,
`researcher, educator, and user.
`
`IEEE Intelligent Systems: New name in 1998
`
`& t h e i r a p p l i c a t i o n s
`
`performance wireless network is in place,
`your sensitive data will not even be stored
`on the PDA but on a secure, central server,
`to be downloaded and decrypted on demand
`and then discarded. Thus, even if you lose
`your PDA, it will contain no sensitive data.
`For instance, as you hold your PDA, it will
`detect your pulse and measure your finger-
`prints, thereby confirming your identity. It
`will then unlock doors, let you pay bills at a
`hotel or restaurant, and provide your driver’s
`license when you rent a car.
`Cryptography, when properly imple-
`mented, offers tremendous security—secu-
`rity well beyond what we now tolerate in
`
`the “real world.” Digitally encrypting our
`credit card number and storing it in a PDA
`is far better than stamping it on plastic and
`storing it in our wallets.
`
`All this and more. Besides these revolu-
`tionary changes, evolution will ensure that
`these devices steadily improve. Memory
`capacity will increase, as will the process-
`ing power and the performance of the wire-
`less network. Battery life will lengthen.
`The screen, which is rather low-resolution
`at present, will become color with a very
`high resolution.
`
`Related links
`
`Read more about the Pilot
`Download Pilot software
`An excellent tutorial on GPS
`Secret 2.0, for encrypting Pilot data
`
`Metrowerks CodeWarrior developer’s kit
`
`http://www.3com.com/palm/
`http://www.palmpilotfiles.com
`http://www.trimble.com/gps/
`http://www.tphys.uni-heidelberg.de/~linke/pilot/
`secret.html
`http://www.metrowerks.com
`
`8
`
`The future commodity
`The Pilot’s success is just the beginning.
`The market frenzy that the Pilot has created
`will ensure that PDAs soon incorporate all
`these technologies, and that they will be
`priced reasonably. Eventually, PDAs will be
`a commodity item, much like calculators or
`digital watches are today. The PDA will just
`be a rather generic conduit, a standard plat-
`form, to access all your private information,
`securely stored on a distant, reliable server.
`There will be no risk if you lose your PDA;
`you will just buy another one, pull out a
`backup, or borrow your friend’s for a few
`minutes. You will not hesitate to give your
`children each a PDA, just as you give them
`each a packed lunch box for school. Your
`PDA will grant you access to all your
`important data and devices. Soon you will
`need to carry little else.
`
`Illustrations by Sally Lee; sally@sls.lcs.
`mit.edu; http://www.sls.lcs.mit.edu/sally.
`
`IEEE EXPERT
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`SCEA Ex. 1015 Page 3
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