As a society, we’ve always been fascinated about gazing into the future through the lens of sci-fi filmmakers and writers. I’ve certainly wondered from an early age when some of these ideas could become reality. I can remember watching 80s films like Star Wars which were packed with robots, augmented reality, cybernetic implants, laser technology, and then eagerly watching 80s TV shows like Tomorrow’s World to see whether someone had done it yet.
Nowadays, thanks to the power of the internet, vastly superior computing power, collective information gathering and a lower cost of experimentation, a lot of those imaginary concepts are coming to life, at least in the form of prototypes, and at a startling rate. In the same way that we’ve seen an 80s revival in fashion of late, I am sure that the next decade will see the revival of 80s “future” technologies.
Back to the future
In fact there’s so much that’s already here. Here are a few great sci-fi technology moments, and some corresponding recent technologies in the fields of digital advertising and communications, you’ve probably seen many of them before, but it goes to show how far we’ve come.
Holographic games – Microsoft surface – AR interactive avatar webcam battle – neurosonics
Augmented reality – Layar Mobile
Virtual Reality – Photosynth+Flickr+Video
Laser technology – Laser Graffiti
Talking cars –TomTom iPhone
Gestural interaction – Multitouch surfaces
Now whilst there is a fair splash of optimism in this next thought, after seeing what has already been done, it definitely feels as though there is little holding us back from a lot of those seemingly far-fetched 80s ideas.
It was acceptable in the 80s
Of course, some of those ideas should stay in the 80s, being absolute usability nightmares (think giant dashboards of hundreds of flashing buttons), visual clichés (again, flashing boards of lights, fancy flash intro-style animations of CIA satellite surveillance or star trek visualisations), and some might still be a little costly to create (not sure the death star is a viable alternative to WMD or advertising yet either), but nonetheless, this shouldn’t stop creative folk harking back to this era and its goldmine of ideas.
See, Hear, Smell, Touch, Feel
The creative possibilities are huge for these technologies, not least because they escape from the confines of the various screen devices that we’re all hooked on, but also because the engagement levels could surely be much higher because the context for interaction can surely be more relevant. We operate on so many different levels to take in information – visually, aurally, via touch, smell, emotion – and each of these levels work on thousands and thousands of different cues. We’re only working on a few of each of these in any medium.
These types of technology could take not only digital campaigns but also integrated campaigns to a whole new level. What’s great is that many of these ideas are already ingrained into the psyche of the western world. Everyone from kids to grown-ups are expecting these kinds of technologies to be available anyway, because the TV told them so, and they can probably work out how to interact with them more easily than something like Photoshop.
Contextually relevant technology
One of the reasons we started WEIR+WONG was to take full advantage of this explosion of technologies, and place more focus on providing relevant experiences for consumers and users in different contexts. The future’s not just going to be a series of windows on Kevin Kelly’s machine, it’s going to be a whole series of sensory devices and experiences giving access to the machine. The more people understand their brands and the ways that people use and enjoy interacting with them now, the better they’ll understand this context, and the better they’ll be at using technology to enhance that experience and give new meaning and value to consumers.
The Technological Horoscope
What Chinese Star Sign are you?
I’m a Snake, specifically a Fire Snake (1977).
That’s down to the 60 year cycle of the Chinese lunar calendar, which passes through 5 elemental states (Metal, Wood, Fire, Wind and Earth), and 12 creatures (Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Ram, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and the Pig).
The soothsayers of our modern age have been proclaiming that this year is finally the “Year of the Mobile” for quite some time now. And I for one feel like this has now arrived and is officially here to stay. Perhaps that’s because I’ve been living not in the “the year of the mobile”, but rather “the Decade of the mobile”.
With any technology, by the time it hits the peak point, its value as a marketing medium for innovators and advertisers diminishes. No longer will be people be so wowed and turn their attention to this technology, because it’s plateauing out and the market has hit saturation point.
And what makes something the leading technology of that year? It’s reach? It’s percentage growth? It’s wow factor? The Marketing spend? The amount of noise people make about it? Well, surely all those things and more.
But what about last year, or next year. If one was to chart what has actually happened and see what people have said, what would each year be called in terms of the Technology that’s captured the imaginations of the most people? is 2010 the year of the Tablet? was 2009 the year of the App? that’s a whole post in itself that I’m going to have to come back to.
Now based purely on supposition, inspired somewhat by this post about the future from Mr Russ Tucker, and where we are with devices like smartphones, iPads, and the rate of increase of broadband speed etc., I’m going to throw out some ideas about what future years might be called.
The year of the networked earth – broadband and wifi technology becomes so pervasive that even giant squid at the bottom of the sea and eagles above Everest could log into their gmail if they needed to. The cost of broadband drops through the floor, and the industry becomes state-run whilst some governments try to cling onto the thought that they can control information. This “Dataflow” raises the possibility of every single object on earthbeing able to talk to each other, providing a record of every living and inanimate object in time and space.
The year of the uncomputer – further advances in nanotechnology, superconductors, quantum computing, and micro-kinetic power sources will see high powered computers woven literally into the fabric of daily life. Always on, always plumbed straight into the internet, always working harder to change the way we live. Your socks will recognise when one of their thread’s circuits breaks when they wear out, and send a signal to your watch, which in turn will tell you that it’s time to get some new ones, and order them for you, in the right size, in time for the next time you need to put some socks on (your socks know your daily movements after all).
The year of the HUD (aka the year of the iGlasses, and then the year of the iBall). Apple will invest heavily in Head-Up Display technology and eyeglass nanotechnology, aiming to miniaturise the display device for their now ubiquitous app platform, and beam their products straight onto the lenses of their legion of fanboys. Augmented Reality will become an actual reality, and brands will fight to become the person controlling yours. Location awareness on the micrometre scale means that people will be able to see in the dark, and overlay all the data of the internet on the world around them. Apple dub their first prototype iSee. This is all just a diversionary tactic though, as the real surprise is that Apple’s been investing even more money via a shell company in visual cortex biotechnology, and whilst their competitors have been trying to build rivals to iSee, Steve has had his retinas fitted with a nanochip in an operation akin to laser eye surgery, so that with the blink of the eye, he can switch on his HUD and truly be the first layer between the brain and reality.
The year of the voice – A new generation of oxbridge and MIT students raised on the appalling voice recognition technology used in call centers enhances the existing technology by tapping into the research that’s been carried out on alpha waves and brain patterns during communication. Combining the two by capturing alpha wave radiofrequencies in a new kind of earpiece receiver designed to capture a much wider band of the aural and radiomagnetic spectrum, the voice recognition technology combines the information to capture not just words, but intent as well. A whole new dictionary of emotions is searched alongside the databases of words and sounds giving rise to a whole new industry, “Communication recogniton”.