Nokia, MIT Team Up for Lab for Handset Research

On Friday, mobile phone giant Nokia and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) opened a new laboratory in Cambridge, Mass., to simplify and expand the way mobile phone users employ handsets for a variety of functions, including one that would allow users to place Web queries via their phones, silicon.com reports.

Representatives with the Nokia Research Center Cambridge are already working on seven initiatives in conjunction with MIT researchers from the institute’s Center for Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, according to silicon.com.

Bob Iannucci, senior vice president of worldwide research operations for Nokia, told silicon.com, “We see value in mobility moving from the devices to the software that runs on top of them.”

Iannucci said making simple programming software for handsets and other mobile devices is one of the research center’s main goals, as better applications will eventually make it easier to do complex tasks via mobile phones, silicon.com reports.

Researchers from Nokia and MIT are working together on the Swamp/Me initiative, in which they’ll develop applications that allow users to perform Internet search functions via their mobile devices, for example, according to silicon.com. 

Nokia also displayed a test version of a program that would allow users to organize their electronic calendars via voice commands, silicon.com reports.

Iannucci told silicon.com the main purpose of the collaboration is to increase the speed of innovation in the field, so that those innovations can more quickly be used within Nokia products.

“We’re seeing a general trend to have much more open innovation, at least on this pre-competitive side of things,” Iannucci told silicon.com.

For related news coverage, read Strong Phone Sales Boost Profits for Nokia.

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