Martin Cooper, American engineer nicknamed the “father of the mobile”, says he is “devastated” by the current use of the mobile phone.
The problem with cell phones is that people spend too much time glued to them. And it is the one who invented them, fifty years ago, who says so. For Martin Cooper, an American engineer nicknamed the “father of the mobile”, the little gadget has almost infinite potential and might even one day help eradicate diseases.
But there, right away, he judges that we are perhaps a little too addicted to it. “I’m devastated to see people crossing the street looking at their cell phones. They’ve lost their minds,” the 94-year-old inventor told AFP from his office in Del Mar, California.
“But when a few people have been run over by cars, they will understand,” he jokes. Apple connected watch on his wrist, state-of-the-art iPhone in hand, he intuitively switches from his emails to his photos and from YouTube to the application for adjusting his hearing aid.
He sources each new model and thoroughly tests their capabilities. But, he confesses, the millions of applications available make you dizzy. “I will never, ever be able to figure out how to use a cellphone the way my grandchildren and great-grandchildren do,” he says.
Real mobility
Martin Cooper’s cell phone, which he uses primarily for making calls, bears little resemblance to the heavy block of wires and electronic circuits he used to make the first mobile call in history, the 3 April 1973.
He was then at the head of a team of designers and engineers from Motorola, which had invested millions of dollars to try to beat Bell System, an American telecom giant, in the design of the first mobile telephone system.
Bell System had raised this idea at the end of the Second World War, but had only managed to install, from the end of the 1960s, telephones in cars, in particular because of their enormous battery. For Martin Cooper, this did not allow real mobility.
So, following three months of non-stop work, his team finally managed to develop the DynaTAC rover. “This phone weighed more than a kilo (…) and its battery allowed you to hold a conversation for regarding 25 minutes,” he recalls.
But “it was not a problem”, because the device “was so heavy that you might not lift it for 25 minutes”, he specifies. For his first call, Martin Cooper had the genius idea of calling his rival at Bell System, Dr. Joel Engel. “I said to him: + Joel, it’s Martin Cooper (…) I’m talking to you from a mobile phone. But a real mobile, personal, portable, hand-held. +” “There was a silence on the other end of the line. I think he was gritting his teeth.”
“Beating the Disease”
These first cell phones were not cheap: around 5,000 dollars each. The first to adopt them, according to the inventor, were real estate agents. Thanks to mobile, they might both show houses and respond to new customers. “It doubled their productivity,” he says.
“Today, the mobile has become an extension of the person, it can do much more,” says Martin Cooper. “And that’s just the beginning, we’re only beginning to understand what he’s capable of.” “In the future, we can expect mobile to revolutionize education and health,” he said. “I know I sound like I’m exaggerating, but just know that in a generation or two we’re going to beat the disease.”
In the same way that his watch monitors his pulse when he swims, according to him, phones will one day be connected to body sensors that will perceive diseases before they occur. The former engineer knew mobiles would eventually change the world, though he hadn’t imagined everything they would be capable of.
“We knew that one day everyone would have a phone. We’re almost there.” As for people hypnotized by their phones, he thinks that will change. “Each generation will be smarter. They will learn to use smartphones more efficiently,” he predicts. “Sooner or later, humans always end up moving forward.”