The Mobile World

Abstract

Within our deliberations around large-scale systems, we cannot ignore the mobile world and the impact that mobile technology is having upon everyday transactional activity. This chapter acknowledges the phenomenal growth of mobile phone technology and its acceptance worldwide, discussing both the scale of this growth and the attendant growth in the development of device form and functionality. It witnesses the veritable technology explosion, fuelled by commercial gain and the opportunity to change what had been a largely social telecommunications service into one of the most lucrative business opportunities of contemporary times. Such dramatic technological change necessarily imposes an equally dramatic cultural change, especially with regard to younger generations and their understanding of technology and social interaction. Such matters are discussed, along with the development of mobile devices for payment purposes and how personal identification is weaved into this overall framework. We then consider how biometrics may be used in relation to mobile devices, whatever their form factor, and predict a rise in interest in biometric technology as the mobile world becomes all-pervasive. Such rapid development introduces many new challenges, particularly from a security and personal identification perspective and it may be that biometrics can perform a useful function in this respect. We ponder the situation as mainstream applications seek to catch up with the rapid developments in mobile technology, increasingly offering services which exploit mobile functionality. This, in turn, will introduce yet more security-related challenges. Lastly, we consider mobile futures, including the relationship with cloud computing, cloud-based services and cloud data storage. The mobile world and biometric technology may be destined to embrace each other in a ­significant manner within the near future.