A Microsoft Windows CE version of SynapBridj is currently available, but enhancements to Administrator controls (i.e. to restrict which users have access to a specific display) are currently underway and are scheduled for commercial release in Q1 of 2007.

Since SynapBridj can work on existing Windows XP devices (desktop PCs and laptops), we currently sell the software for existing computers and bundle it with the Espresso PC for a mobile version today.

Currently, we are completing the design of the OnR-Badj and working with Jogtek (a subsidiary of HTC in Taiwan) to develop the Laser Badj, which is planned for release in Q3 of 2007.

Absolutely. In fact, the bulk of Session Control administration for SynapBridj is related to encrypting data transferred between devices and ensuring that only authorized users can control the Smart Display. The owner of the Smart Display can set the level of security they need depending on their individual requirements. Once configured, the display will only accept inputs from Smartphones that have been authorized to work with that display. Depending on the configuration, the user may also have to be authenticated.

Admittedly, once you give a person permission, it is the same as letting that person sit at your computer to work. The level of trust for such authority really will depend on the trust between the owner of the display and the owner of the Smartphone. That we have no control over.

Mira was intended to have smart displays connect wirelessly to a base station using Wi-Fi - which was part of an office or home's infrastructure and therefore was not intended to be truly mobile. When not docked with the base station, the Mira display merely served as a tablet PC. So the primary intent of Mira was that you would carry the large screen around with you – the exact opposite of SynapBridj.

However, if this same base station were to be shrunk and embedded into a Smartphone, then the comparison to SynapBridj would be more accurate. The 'intelligent base' would become mobile and the display would be 'fixed' in place. The advantage is that the user then only needs to carry their Smartphone around – which is what users do with that device already.

SynapBridj can be used with these uPC devices - just as it is currently used with the Espresso PC. In fact, there is significant synergy in using our software with these devices to extend their capabilities and untether the mobile worker from the display device.

But from a cost perspective, these devices are 2-3 times the cost of the existing Espresso PC and the forthcoming OnR-Badj. If cost is a factor in your mobile purchasing decisions, then foregoing the built-in screen (if you plan on using external monitors or projectors anyway) favours the Meta4hand solution.

SynapBridj can be applied to PDAs, tablet PCs, laptops, and other computing devices - including uMPC and robotic devices. Its wireless controls and data routing methods can be adapted to a number of uses, but we are currently focused on the most obvious user pain: overcoming the limitations of the small screen provided on handheld devices.

The most immediate use is to provide healthcare professionals, trainers/teachers and 'road warriors', those with both mobility requirements and the need to access rich or dynamic content, with more information than can be viewed at one time on their Smartphone interface. Whether this is patient e-Records, X-Rays, blueprints, CAD diagrams, complex Web pages, PowerPoint slides or a user's remote office desktop, 2DRC provides the user with the BIG picture - wirelessly.

Since these workers have already shown a preference for PDAs over Tablet PCs, but still have a need to work with robust data better served by a larger display, our technology fills a huge gap in these markets. Eventually we expect that this technology will become mainstream, much as WAP did for cell phones, since SynapBridj offers significant advantages to anyone attempting to access remote data over a Smartphone.

Because of the slow evolution of the PDA and Smartphone markets, it's easy to miss that the original intent of mobile wireless, to provide users with ANY data, ANYwhere, and at ANYtime, has ultimately failed to materialize.

OEMs have introduced compromise solutions that have not delivered on this promise - primarily due to the restricted screen size of the devices built for mobility. So fundamentally we are enabling OEMs to deliver what they have already promised.

We also enable wireless carriers and application service providers to deliver better and more complete business solutions to THEIR customers.

Ultimately, this means that we also solve a content and context problem for their end-users, i.e. enabling the delivery of content not designed or suited to small screens and allowing this content to be viewed within a larger context - as opposed to isolated data elements on small screens. In Healthcare, the context and currency of information is critical. Giving doctors the ability to see more information - together with related data - provides the BIGGER picture in more ways than one. It could just save lives.

Further, we save corporations thousands, if not millions, of dollars by eliminating the need to transform data to fit onto handheld devices. The user can now work with the same 'desktop' application that they use in the office - without the need for additional training. But now they can do so virtually anywhere in the world.

A number of manufacturers are producing displays with built-in intelligence. That is, the display already has computer-like capabilities. In most cases, this represents an All-in-One PC such as those built by Hy-Tek Manufacturing, Elonex, Sony or Apple. It could also be a television with a built-in Web browser, such as manufactured by Thomson in the United Kingdom.

Despite being commercially available, Smart Displays are not typical in most businesses or households today. For this reason, Meta4hand is working with original equipment manufacturers to provide an adaptor for legacy displays, i.e. televisions, dumb monitors, and projectors, to enable communication between any display and any Smartphone. This OnR-Badj will need to be carried along with your Smartphone until such time as SynapBridj is pervasive enough to no longer require adaptors.

By being small enough to fit into a pocket or purse, the OnR-Badj doesn't have to be brought out until heavy mobile computing is necessary. Ultimately, this is more convenient than securing your laptop or tablet PC when they're not in use AND it's much more mobile.

In the future, we anticipate even more displays to have such intelligence built in to support Web browsing and other emerging Web Services. As Smart Displays become more prevalent, these devices will begin to show up in public places such as airports, food courts, Convention Centres, medical examination rooms and other locations where people meet and interact. Corporate Boardrooms and Design Galleries are also anticipated to make the move to Smart Displays because of the simplicity of being able to just hang them on the wall and start work. In the home, SynapBridj will find its way into set top boxes and high-end HDTV systems.

There are several reasons, but each comes down to personal, or mutual, benefit. Here are some scenarios:

* Co-worker or client collaboration - sharing information or working together to create documents.

* Presentations - presenting sales, training/education, executive/ management, or reference materials to groups.

* Public Services - Internet Cafes, airport lounges, and other public service establishments that want you to come in and will cater to your needs - in this case, by supplying monitors for you to work on while you partake of their other services.

* Healthier Kiosks - during the SARS outbreak, people were afraid to use equipment touched by others for fear of contamination. Kiosks can be used safely via your own Smartphone without the need for using public keyboards or touchscreens.

* Emergencies - if lives are on the line, would you say 'NO' to EMS or law enforcement personnel?

Of course, with mico-optical viewers, you don't even have to impose on others OR show your content to them. You can wear it in front of your eye so that only you can see it. For military and Homeland Security forces, this can be a strategic advantage.

If collaboration is required, simply pull out the Laser Badj that you keep in your pocket or purse and enjoy up to 46 inches of viewable area via Digital Laser Projection.

Because SynapBridj can also leverage Wi-Fi as the communications channel, doctors can use wireless PDAs rather than Smartphones in hospitals. (Although some Smartphones do allow the cellular channel to be turned off independently of the Wi-Fi service.) That way, a doctor can use the hospital’s Wi-Fi network to provide the data while simply using the PDA as a wireless keyboard and mouse for the external monitor used to work with this data. Outside of this infrastructure, the healthcare professional can fire up their cellular connection to remotely access patient e-records without having to store such sensitive information on their PDA or Smartphone.

As battery technologies improve, we plan to come out with a battery-operated OnR-Badj. However, our intent is to continue to shrink the Badj using nanotechnology so that the device can fit a card-format and be powered by the display itself. (Because TVs, monitors and projectors will continue to require a direct power source. And if it's got it, why not use it?)

Until either technology advances sufficiently to allow the Badj to remain pocket-sized or smaller under battery power, we believe the best approach for the power user right now is to use the power source already available in most buildings and vehicles.

No. That's 'all-or-none' or 'either/or' thinking.

2DRC is in addition to what your Smartphone can deliver on its own. As such, the Smartphone can suffice for 90% of your mobility needs in allowing you to make voice calls, send emails and text messages, look up PIM information, take pictures, make voice recordings, etc. SynapBridj merely allows you to extend its capabilities WHEN YOU HAVE A DISPLAY IN FRONT OF YOU.

It just gives you choice. If a display is in front of you, and your Smartphone isn't up to giving you what you need, i.e. screen real estate to create or view rich content, then why head back to the office or home when you can simply leverage the external display you have in front of you to act as your desktop?

For super mobile users, the Laser Badj (a pocketable smart display device using laser light to produce a 'screen' on any non-transparent surface) can be taken with you to provide a digital laser image of your desktop without the need to go and find a monitor or TV. Simply place the Laser Badj in front of a wall (screen, dashboard, etc.) and the image is instantly in focus and produces 4 to 46 inches of desktop 'screen' - depending on lighting conditions.

The fundamentals are the same as far as the cellular connection providing the requested data from a remote server to the handheld or laptop. However, for SynapBridj, the handheld is NOT the intended recipient of the data - merely a smart wireless keyboard and mouse that also happens to be the router for passing the data along to another device.

The unique feature of SynapBridj is its ability to pass both control information AND data through a tiny handheld device to a 'smart' device inside, or connected to, an external display. The short-range wireless protocol used can be either Bluetooth or Wi-Fi (802.11x).

At first, that doesn't sound particularly significant. But it is.

The laptop has its input controls built in. So there is no need to pass user inputs to another device wirelessly. But a Smartphone does not have direct input into the external display. So such inputs must be passed TOGETHER with any remote data that the user is attempting to access via their wireless network. And the passing of such inputs cannot wait until the remote data has finished downloading. To simulate the distributed desktop experience, the two forms of inputs must be passed together to the external display. Otherwise, the stop/start of pointer navigation and keyboard inputs would be frustrating for the user.

All other existing methods result in 'pushing images' or forcing the user to work within the confines of the handheld device's own screen. For users to actually collaborate together in a session, they cannot rely on 'presentation' solutions; they have to be able to actually control the external interface on which they are working.

The best way to explain this is to start with a standard laptop. If the screen from that laptop were removed, with part of its 'intelligence' going with the screen (making it a 'smart' display much the way that Apple has embedded the computer in the iMac G5) and part of it going with the keyboard and mouse section, then that screen could be placed anywhere and would still appear to provide a normal, but wirelessly connected, laptop experience so long as the two parts could still communicate with each other. (This is taking the distributed computing model and marrying it to wireless technology.) The user then just needs to be in proximity of that 'smart' screen to see the information they are working with while using the 'wireless' keyboard and mouse that was left over.

Now imagine that you could shrink that keyboard and mouse to fit into the same Smartphone that you carry with you throughout your day - such as HP's 6315. You would now have a virtual laptop in the palm of your hand - just by finding the smart screen. Plus, you'd also have the advantage of being able to leverage your cellular network from your Smartphone to connect you to your remote data when you're on the road. Now you can view and interact with this data on any larger screen that has such intelligence built in. This can be an All-in-one PC or any display attached to a Distributed Wireless Communicator.