The future of broadband routers is currently being investigated by a group of industry experts and mobile provider TalkTalk in an effort to find how, in the years to come, these devices will evolve into something beyond their current design.

The current design of these devices usually finds most internet users putting them in a location that is out of the way and hidden from sight in a normal household according to the findings of the experts.

The way that users currently look at this “ubiquitous chunk of plastic and wires” is something that TalkTalk, now the single biggest broadband service provider in the UK following its recent acquisition of the service provider Tiscali, hopes to change.

From this new project TalkTalk has now unveiled what it calls the Routers of the Future, which it created with the help of design experts from Goldsmiths at the University of London, and has said that it can see no reason why these types of devices can’t be both functional and aesthetically pleasing at the same time.

The Route’O’Clock is the first of the new router designs with a representation of signal strength generated throughout the day, which should allow users to decide when to access services like online gaming, IPTV and video content, with TalkTalk advising that allowing users to know when to use bandwidth intensive services would be the main function of the design.

The Hybrid Router is the second of the new designs with the style inspired by the 1960’s and is described by the providers as being “sexy”. This design was created to look good anywhere in the house and is noted as being “elegant and practical addition to users’ homes.”

The third model to be designed by Goldsmith was the energy-saving router, which was created to turn itself off whenever the device was not being used, and would prove an ideal addition to any green household looking to reduce its carbon footprint.

The final device is, according to a spokesperson for the group, the strangest of all the devices it has designed and is called the Jellyfish Router.

The spokesperson advised “The inspiration for this unit grew out of the study of fluorescent properties in jellyfish anatomy and their smooth movements through water. We have embodied this notion into a glowing breathing sequence, which indicates bandwidth strength.”

Source – www.broadband-finder.co.uk