The 7th Future of Wireless International Conference, themed “Wireless is Dead, Long Live Wireless!” took place on 23-24 June 2015. Hosted by Cambridge Wireless at the Emirates Stadium, London, it brought together more than 350 leaders in the tech world to extrapolate trends in wireless, challenge the industry as we know it and debate the disruption to come. Tim Rundle was invited as a keynote presenter to give an industrial designer’s perspective on the opportunities surrounding 5G technology. Rather than propose potential advances in hardware, as was expected, he chose take a more human centred approach and ask whether the increased speed of information transfer and analysis could be used to allow us to disconnect from our mobile devices more often.

The idea that people are starting to become more aware of the negative aspects of smart technology was validated through research into emerging products, services and lifestyle trends such as 'digital detoxes' and 'dumb phones' of which the MP01 from Swiss tech brand Punkt is a notable example. Additional secondary research was conducted into emerging or increasing health issues, particularly around stress, that may be linked to constant states of connectivity.

Rundle's keynote outlined the human issue at the core of our new connected lifestyle and suggested that maybe the most successful new technologies will be those that require less of our constant attention and give back time to more meaningful interactions.