Psion looks to the future

Ace and Halo devices herald new mobile era

Despite recently suffering disappointing sales in the palmtop market, Psion, perhaps bolstered by success with its Teklogix wireless networks, is still looking lustfully into the future and has come up with two new concepts, the Ace and the Halo.

Based on the burgeoning world of third-generation mobile technologies, these two conceptual designs give an insight into how things may look in a few years' time.

The Ace is a handheld communicator allowing the user to view three different LCD screens simultaneously, which could be used to make a video conference call while viewing an agenda and database at the same time. The display fans out elegantly from the main handset and allows you to choose an image for each screen.

Halo is a projection communicator necklace; actually it's not a necklace but you do wear it round your neck. It includes a camera, phone, PDA and web browser and rather, than using a screen, it projects images onto a suitable surface, such as your hand or the wall.

The device also has a throat microphone and does the washing-up; okay, we made that last bit up. Still, it would be good, wouldn't it?