In the past few years, 4G and its derived services have changed all aspects of our lives. Since mobile phones were the new shiny toy when they started becoming smart, they became one of the central devices for the development of 4G and 5G networks. But at the beginning of the 2000s, did anyone ever expect 4G will bring such a ground-breaking change?

In collaboration with InterDigital, the project explores the future user experience enabled by 6G. Interdigital is a technology research& development company that works across domains, applications, and markets to identify technical challenges and next-gen patent media. Our research of imagining, designing, and testing future consumer experiences informs InterDigital's strategy for 6G.

To begin with, what is 6G, and what could be its use？

6G is fast

6G promises super-fast internet - 1000 times faster than our typical 5G networks today. We are all familiar with progress bars. The birth of progress bars stems from the fact that processing data takes time. But imagine a world without a progress bar no matter how big the file is: all downloads have only two modes, unopened and download completed.

6G is wireless

Have you ever been to a place where there is no signal? Have you experienced the frustration of needing to download the map before driving somewhere far away from the city? One of the promises of 6G is that it can be accessed in the most obscure places with unprecedented bandwidth.

6G is reliable

Although 5G initially also promised to be as powerful, it couldn’t satisfy many technical needs of users. 6G promises high reliability with its infrastructure, providing extra technical resilience and consequently reliable services like virtualization.

In short, 6G brings futuristic landscapes to reality. Altogether, these impressive bits of strength contribute to a shared, fundamentally different technology landscape. 6G can bring concepts like Edge Computing, Collaborative AI, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and the Internet of Everything to the forefront of our daily lives.

The introduction of newer, advanced technology like smart watches, headsets for AR/VR, smart home equipment, is shifting the technological focus from tangible uses to immersive experiences. A lot of the applications of this advanced technology is driven by extended reality or XR, and will potentially drive a majority of uses of 6G networks.

But, what could those even mean to an everyday user?

That brings us to the scope of the project. Our goal is to understand: