Alcatel-Lucent generally deals with the back end of the wireless world but it was showing off some stuff that will hit consumers at CES 2011 and it was showing how 4G LTE can transform a wide variety of services.
These are all part of its ng Connect program and this is a collaboration with hardware makers, retailers, developers, carriers and more to harness 4G LTE for more content on multiple connected devices. We’re talking some futuristic stuff here like a clothing shop which does a body scan of your figure, can video connect you with specialized stylists and let you order the clothes.
As for the mobile side of ng Connect, we saw a few examples of how this can be good for people toting a smartphone. One of these apps is called a Virtual Venue and the company is working with some baseball teams to change the way you watch sportin events.
We saw the ng Connect Virtual Venue app running on the Samsung Galaxy Tab and this concept app will allow you to use your device to watch live feeds of the game, switch the camera view, map out the nearest bathroom (with a live view of the line!), find food, order it and potentially even have it delivered. It’s definitely cool stuff.
The other example of ng Connect with 4G LTE was a prototype kiosk which uses the next-generation mobile data network to display content. The kiosk has 4G LTE coming in and it transmits WiFi to deliver content to shoppers. The first half of the screen could be used for promotions, while the bottom half can be used for buying stuff.
For example, a customer can text a number and the machine would deliver it to their device. You could also use one of the specialized RFID tags that Alcatel Lucent offers, scan it against the kiosk and the content will be beamed to your smartphone. Check it out in the video below with the 4G LTE kiosk and a Google Nexus One.