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We are constantly hearing about what the future will bring us, forecasts of how technology will transform our lives and when we look around and see the ubiquity of smartphones, we are starting to see a glimmer of this. The question for many, however, is where is all the amazing technology that is going to transform our lives? Where, for example, is our hoverboard (according to the writers of “Back to the Future 2”, we should have had them 3 years ago!)?
It is first worthwhile trying to understand what the future will look like. Eighteen months ago, Microsoft constructed a video based on three key themes that are transforming the way we adopt technology; Computing will be ‘Everywhere’, ‘Context Matters’ and technology will be ‘Working on our Behalf’.
In the future, computing will be everywhere – and nowhere – as it disappears and blends in to the environment. Technology will become more discreet – only there when you need it, and always in the right form/context when you do. Technology will be embedded and enable cars, buildings, roads and our homes to communicate with each other seamlessly. A current example of this is www.nest.com, a great example of an intelligent computing device that is integrated and learns from our behaviour.
The video demonstrates the importance of context brilliantly, translating languages, giving information about future events and checking in to the hotel. This is a great segue in to the final theme about technology working on our behalf.
The video demonstrates how we will not need to think about how to use technology; the technology will understand what we need, by the context of the environment that we are in. Think about the device that virtually everyone now would not leave home without, your mobile phone. If you have your email, your calendar, maybe your Facebook connected as well, think about the power of this device. It knows where you are (GPS), where you should be (your calendar), what you like (Facebook) and the majority of devices now have some sort of financial mechanism embedded in them. When you understand that there is more computing power in one mobile device than there was in the entire world when we first put humans in to space, it starts to give you an idea on how much technology really has advanced.
System/360 Model 91 was taken by NASA sometime in the late 60s. Photo/Wikimedia Commons
The key enablers of this change will come from big data and machine learning, this being the need for many thousands of machines to be able to process information (big data) and apply models and frameworks to help us make sense of it (machine learning). Think about the previous point of computing power, and when you couple that with the knowledge that more data will be created in the next 3 years, than has been created in the entire rest of human history (equivalent to 350 million smartphones every day!) and it is possible to understand why machine learning will be so important. If you look around, you can see data is being captured everywhere, traffic systems, CCTV, weather, oceanographic information; without the technology enabling us to make sense of this, however, there is very little value.
Craig Mundie TechForum Insights: Episode Big Data and Machine Learning
Blending physical and digital worlds is a trend that many people may have first come across with the concept of augmented reality (AR), normally in an entertaining way. A video was created for Xbox 2 years ago that, at the time, was a visionary depiction of how we might blend the physical and digital worlds, incorporating elements of what is available and what might be.
Kinect effect
Since this video, this technology is being used in hospitals to project x-rays without touch and also to encourage children in their physiotherapy by taking the physical and overlaying in the digital world. Currently Kinect is also being adapted to be able to remote eye-surgery, so high is the degree of accuracy that is being achieved. Natural interaction is the final area that is bringing some of the biggest advances in the adoption of technology. This is sometimes confused with being purely gesture based, with the plethora of touchscreen devices available, it is easy to understand why this would happen.
Natural interaction is also about speech, as demonstrated by Rick Rashid in China only 6 months ago. The Head of Microsoft research did a demonstration where his speech was converted from English in to Chinese with a simulation of his voice used. If you have read Douglas Adams’ “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” you will have come across the Babelfish; a creature that converts languages directly in your brain. Rick’s demo shows us that the future will not involve some creature, merely very clever technology.
What is hopefully becoming apparent is that what we actually think about as “the future” is actually already here. These are just a few examples of how people are already starting to transform the world that we live in. The great news as well is that Ireland is very much at the forefront of these trends.
Von Bismark are blending our physical and digital worlds; Trustev are making our transactions safer by using massive compute power to validate our identity through social media; Scaboodle will start connecting us with activities that we love. Three companies that are less than 3 years old and are being recognized on the international stage. With the amount of technology that we now have available, the only thing that is stopping us is really our own imagination as evidenced by the start-ups that are proliferating in Ireland. In the words of Alan Kay “the best way to predict the future, is to invent it”.
Andrew Macadam is Technology Evangelist for Microsoft, an experienced Digital marketer and business strategist. Follow him on Twitter @andrew73
This article originally appeared in Newstalk Magazine for iPad in August for more details go here.
