Today you will not find many people who do not have cell phones, but before 1973 there were not any! Martin Cooper who is nick named the "father of the mobile phone". Martin was the CEO and the founder of a company called Array Comm, this company worked on researching smart antenna technology and improving wireless networks. Also, he was the corporate director for Motorola! Cooper is named the inventor of the first handheld cell phone and the first person to make a call on a handheld cellphone on April 23rd, 1973. It was that phone call that Cooper had made to Dr Joel S. Engel begin a fundamental technology and communications market shift toward making people be able to make a phone call to a person instead of just to a place. What would we do without Martin Cooper; nowadays you rarely here of people who do not own a cellphone. Also technology has definitely changed since the first cell phone because the cellphones today look nothing like the ones back in 1973!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooper's_Law
That "cell phone" is the most ridiculous looking phone I have ever seen! I never knew that cellular phone technology dates back to the 1970's. It's pretty neat to look back in time and see a cell phone that is larger than the size of today's regular telephones. Plus, you're absolutely right, where would we be without our cell phones today? I do not think that society could ever go back to attempting to communicate by having people calling places as opposed to actually calling the people themselves. Society and people are just too fast paced now, and never stay in one place for too long.
ReplyDelete...And I thought my old Nokia was huge...
ReplyDeleteIt's mind boggling to recall a time when, not people but PLACES were the only things that had telephone numbers. Personally, I do feel that this is surely one of the most valuable inventions ever created. Bless you Mr. Cooper! Also, I find it amusingly ironic that Motorola has proven to be one of the longest lasting cell phone brands available to us (according to T-mobile's corporate office, at least.) Very very interesting!
I had no idea that the invention of cell phones dated back to 1973, wow before I was born! Mr. Cooper sure did create not only an extremely popular device, but in today’s world you could say, a life necessity. In emergencies when one is not at a home phone what would we do? Yes, cell phones were not a life necessity in the past, but things have changed. It was just normal to walk to a pay phone if needed. Fortunately, they were placed everywhere, just had to make sure you had change on you. This is one piece of technology that I feel society has made evolve into a good thing, if it is not abused. The only bad thing is that it makes you always accessible.
ReplyDeleteThe first cell phone is a monster compared to the cell phone of modern technology. The device did really change communication in a big way though. Instead of all things being stationary it pushed towards mobility. Instead of all work being done in an office most cell phones can now do more than early computers. The whole camera being built into every cell phone has also let aspiring photographers capture pictures at a moments notice no matter how unprepared they were when they got into the situation. The mobile antena technology also really pushed the movement to mobility by inspiring inventors to work on things like mobile internet networks we see today. Even house phones on lan lines need to be wireless these days.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is great that Star Trek inspired Martin Cooper to invent the cell phone. If it wasn’t for that show and for his invention there would not be millions of cell phones in use each and every day.
ReplyDeleteBeing one of those people who uses their cell phone to stay connected to the world, it was really interesting to read about who and how the cell phone was invented. I was shocked to see that the cell phone dates back to the 70’s especially because they did not really become popular until the 90’s.
Looking at the picture made me think about how far we have really come with cell phone technology. The cell phone in the picture is longer then his head! Now we have cell phones that fit in your pocket and are no bigger then a deck of cards. In addition, cell phones have so many capabilities such as making calls, text messaging, internet access, email access and GPS.
~Angela (A Bag of Tricks)
So all those hours we spent watching science fiction shows as kids were not just a mindless waste of time! Watching Science Fiction made us all ponder the possibilities for the futureof technology ,art, and society. Star Trek gave us a glimpse of future technology (warp drive, cloaking shields, "beaming up" humans and rearranging their particles to transport them in space). Star Trek also gave us a look at future fashion in uniforms and hair styles. Pointy sideburns and ears meant you were one of the good guys. We also learned how different societies might interact in the future (Klingons versus other planets). The Star trek shows also gave us a glimpse of reproduction in different cultures when we watched Spock go back to Vulcan for his cultural mating ritual and the rapid reproduction of those furry little tribbles. Am I showing my age here? Maybe someday in the future I can flip open my cell phone and command "Beam me up Scotty!"
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