To the Human Media Laboratory (HML) at Queen’s University in Canada, we’re all living in the past. The lab’s head, Dr Roel Vertegaal, regards modern smartphones as little more than old technology: “If you look at something like an iPhone, it’s nothing but an improved version of what’s been around since the mid-‘80s. There have been actual advances in terms of user controls, but it’s amazing how little progress has been made.”

Today’s phones are more powerful and they have nifty touch-screens, but it isn’t hard to see their common lineage with the bricks of the late 20th century.