Simple design and innovation choices can have a profound impact over time, especially when it comes to inventing something wholly new. Below we take a look at two of the most influential tech inventions of the past 100 years and chart the course of their evolution through time to the present day.
Video Slot Machine
All modern slot machines descend from a machine known as the Liberty Bell, developed by German inventor and San Francisco resident Charles Fey in the 1890s. If you want to read more about Fey’s slot machine there are comprehensive resources online that detail his process of refining the machine into the characteristic mechanical “one-armed-bandit” that all slot machines are based upon.
The electro-mechanical video slot machine itself first began to take shape in the 1960s. From then on, slots were increasingly electronic, though early models retained the classic mechanical side-lever for novelty value. The first true video slot machine came about in the 1970s, and it ran using a small Sony TV as its display. These machines were eye-catching, innovative, and increasingly affordable for venues to install in bulk.
Ongoing refinements led to the advent in 1996 of “second screen” games that nestled bonus rounds and challenges within the wider experience, taking cues from developments in the wider world of video games. The next major shift in Video Slot design could be seen as inevitable in retrospect. As the basic design of slots increasingly eschewed mechanical components for digital programming, the transition to fully digital slots games was all but certain to occur in the near future. This shift decisively occurred from the mid-1990s onwards, when the world’s first online casinos began trading to a global audience.
Nowadays, digital online slots are the most popular type of slot game played around the world. These simultaneously preserve the basic design of Fey’s creation yet add to this endless creativity by way of novel design choices, themes and mini-games. If you want to have a unique experience and discover more about the world of slots, there is a list of all slots games for the user to enjoy wherever they are.
Smartphones
It is difficult to pinpoint a decisive origin for the modern smartphone. This is due to the fact it is a convergence of many disparate pieces of technology. Today our phones serve as our calculators, cameras, recording equipment, mp3 players, game consoles, entertainment and more. For as long as portable phones have existed, people have been attempting to create devices that increase productivity while on the go.
The most direct ancestor to the modern smartphone can be found in the world of PDAs. This term is an abbreviation of “Personal Digital Assistant”, though they are commonly also referred to as pocket computers. These devices were always costly and sought to make use of the most innovative technology available for the time of their release, from resistive touchscreens with stylus input, to early modem internet connectivity.
The very first PDA was released in 1984. Called the Organiser, this device, by Psion, was far ahead of its time and incorporated a small physical keyboard to increase efficiency in word processing. The first device to combine this tech with a cell phone was IBM’s 1992 Simon Personal Communicator.
True smartphones as we understand them today didn’t really emerge until the 2000s, when increasingly sophisticated business oriented cell phones began launching with network data packages and simple web-browsers. Throughout the early part of the 2000s, the term smartphone became popular and was frequently associated with Nokia’s flagship devices, and the Blackberry phones.
In 2007, Apple launched the iPhone, with its capacitive touchscreen, largely button-less design, this was also the first phone to really focus on the experience of downloading and installing apps. Now all smartphones follow in the footsteps of this crucial innovation, and in spite of ongoing refinements, their basic design hasn’t altered from the blueprint set out by this first iPhone.
