The technology to copy humans with animations is going ever further. In this movie you can see that movements are built up from the bone and onwards. This makes animation far more realistic.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

The virtual world will become so real that we won’t be able to tell the difference. We’ll look at movies that have been completely animated, see friends perform who aren’t aware of any evil or we’ll have a video conference with granddad, exactly how he looked 50 years ago. It’s becoming more and more real. And in this world we’ll soon enter the dialogue with brand agents, artificial employees that speak in the name of the brand.

Marek Michalowski of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, US, and Hideki Kozima of the National Institute of Communications Technology (NICT) in Kyoto, Japan, programmed the squishy, yellow robot, called "Keepon", to pick out the beat in a piece of music and move along in time. It can also track the rhythmic motion of a person or another object and move in time to that. Inside the hollow robot's silicone body are motors, wires and a mechanical device called a gimbal that tugs it like a reversed marionette. Keepon responds by nodding, bobbing, twisting and shaking in time to audio or visual stimulation.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Robots are the next step after the media context has grown up. That’ll take at least a year or ten, but then robots will slowly begin to enter our lives. They’ll also seem more and more natural. We might not be able to imagine it, but eventually robots will replace many dancing instructors. Human teachers will only take the best to a higher level. And then in hindsight this movie will only be a sweet, cute beginning.

Google launches its own 3d world under the name Lively. In this world users can create avatars, communicate with others and build their own spaces and objects.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

All brands are building on their own 3D brand worlds. The most fortunate and online oriented brands are at the forefront, but soon every brandsite will be a 3D world, instead of the 2D websites we encounter at the moment. And eventually this will also go for the smallest brands. And in those 3D worlds we won’t need to create our own avatars, we usually come as ourselves, just like entering a store. And sometimes we dress up, give ourselves a different name, like in the theatre, playing sports or at the carnival.

Related trends

• Brand worlds
• More 3D

Dutch popfestival Lowlands is now also available on the iPhone. Not just the map, but also the program can be seen. What's playing now on which field? It happens in the blink of an eye.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

We’re getting more and more information about the world around us. Now we see that the application optimalizes the program for the current time. Soon the iPhone will recognize which field we’re on, what band is playing, which number is being played and which song text goes with it. So that we can sing along immediately. In meantime our camera is running and we can watch other fields through the cameras of our friends.. And then, it seems to never end, all camera images will be joined live which allows us to fly over the field in 3D, like we’re standing everywhere at once. And that also works from home. This is how the virtual world becomes a screen over the physical world. This is very nice, we should certain enjoy it, but it’s still just a beginning.

Dutch housing site Jaap now also shows homes that have been placed for free on second-hand site 2dehands.nl by individuals. This allows consumers to sell their home without the use of a broker through a big housing site. 2dehands.nl is currently the only Dutch demand and answer site that offers this service for free. Currently around 1,000 of the individual homes are transferred to Jaap.nl.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

It’s becoming ever more clear that new brands are formed that prioritize the concern of the consumer. Based on being free of charge, freedom, happiness, these brands search for how to add more value. Currently you can place your house for free, soon Jaap can help you select people to get more for your house. With ratings, with other people’s experiences. Because eventually a home broker does have added value, but then seen from the consumer. Currently brokers are often focused on what’s on offer. This situation is changing quickly, but is far from stable. Jaap’s step now prioritizes consumers a little more.

Related trends

• Experiences

Supercook puts together a recipe based on the ingredients in your home. You look at what's in your fridge, pantry or kitchen cupboards, add your ingredients and the search engine will find recipes that allow you to make a meal immediately. Useful when you want something quickly and don't have time to go to the supermarket (or when it's closed).

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Brands will assist us with everything. Currently with what’s in our home, soon these groceries, recipe databases and our preferences will be combined. In your car on your way home from work you can consult with your food coaching brand to go out, have something delivered, pick up a meal or ingredients yourself or making something based on what you’ve got at home. Because soon your food coaching brand will have access to your kitchen cupboards and will read your supply through small (rfid) chips that will be in every product sooner or later. Then food coaching brands can grow into a complete brand. We’re truly at the beginning of what’s about to come.

The Telefoongids.nl (The Dutch white pages) has launched a new mobile website.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

The most important thing in this development is that the telephone number we see can also be called directly by clicking on it (like a Skype address in our browser). That means that we don’t need to see the numbers we’re looking up anything, we can just press a button ‘call’ and in a later (though not too much later) stage simply say ‘call’. That means that we switch in a dialogue with the word ‘call’ to a spoken dialogue (or from asynchronic, like visiting a website, to synchronic, like calling). Telephone numbers will disappear to the databases they belong in, next generations won’t even know the principle of a number and the white pages can grow out into a social coaching brand. This is a step.

At Kaap Hoorn, a restaurant in the Dutch city Haren, visitors can now order and pay through their cell phones. A visitor can look up the menu on their cell phone and place an order. It's paid up front by RaboMobiel. The receipts are printed after payment is received.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Step by step we’re saying goodbye to paper. Not just customer passes, not just magazines, but we’ll also see less of all small paper, such as menu cards, flyers or doctor’s receipts. With as most important reason that brands want to communicate and communication happens per definition in a dialogue not a monologue as we were forced to by paper.

Ask.com shows itself in an Olympic look for the Olympics in Beijing.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

This is how brands show their involvement with society. New brands, not just suffering from such rules as ‘thou shallt not touch the logo’ know exactly how to do this. Sometimes it surprises me how slowly these design elements penetrate the traditional brand landscape. This form of brand visualization is definitely something that’s waiting for us in the coming years. It charges brands with warm emotions, exactly what brands want, but apparently don’t quite grasp yet.

Related trends

• Brand visualization

The biggest world wide job search engine CareerJet is now also available for the Russian job market. Careerjet searches for all vacancies at Dutch interim offices, newspapers, companies and other job websites. The list of vacancies is then shown based on the criteria of the person looking for a job. This list refers a person to the original job offer where one can apply for the job immediately.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

This is how brands will start to work more and more globally. Not because they’re globalizing themselves, but because consumers are de-nationalizing: they too can get a job internationally. Not just by moving, or by being there every now and again, but more and more jobs can be done remotely. Career coaching brands facilitate this new budding form of working by showing all the jobs available in the world. This is a step in that direction.

Related trends

• De-nationalizing

The Dutch television guide Veronica Magazine is now available for the iPhone.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Each brand will enter the dialogue with the consumer through each screen. Even magazines, like Veronica. Cell phones will in a relatively short time replace remote controls. That future is brought a step closer here. Soon we’ll see the missed broadcasts and magic them onto our television with a push on the button.

Dutch movie theatre chain Pathé has launched a new cell phone application that allows you to see which movies are on in which theatre, to download a movie trailer or watch it streamed. If you want to install the application, all you have to do is send a text message with 'film' to 4443. You'll receive a text message with the link on where to download the application.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

This is how the virtual world and the physical world integrate. Wherever you are, you can always be kept up to date on what’s happening near you. Whether it’s a new product, a specific service, or an experience (like the movie theatre is), you’ll know all about it. This developments fits seamlessly in this.

With Nintendo WII- Speak it's possible to have contact with other players in another physical location and to communicate through speech. A separate microphone is needed for this.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

And so the virtual world is shaped more and more. We’ll be in the same spot together with thousands of others, think of a popconcert for example. That’s something other than being with thousands in a game at the same time, that’s just like being with thousands in the same city, it doesn’t have the same effect of being somewhere ‘at the same time’. That effect is slowly being created and will lead to some very intensive experiences. It started with typed text, it’s now following with voice, but soon we’ll have people around us everywhere, like it’s all real. We just won’t be able to touch them.

Game-publisher Ubisoft has announced that it has taken over the Canadian special effects-studio Hybride Technologies. Together they'll work on movie versions of game series.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Films are (almost for free) becoming trailers for games, that’s been my prediction for some years now. With this acquisition Ubisoft is taking a step in this direction.

Through Wakoopa consumers can show others the software they use often, for example on their hyves profile, their blog or their website.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Brands facilitate, allow consumers to share. By watching consumers closely they can advice, because they’ve been watching. Wakoopa could grow into a software store where you can buy the software that’s used a lot by your friends. That’s a next step that Wakoopa can make.

On the Dutch site SlechteDekking.nl consumers share the coverage of their telecom providers. If they find that a certain area has no coverage then can select and place a balloon on a Google Map. This creates a map that shows at a glance which provider has the worst coverage in a certain area.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

And so more and more brands that operate from the interest of the consumer are created. Currently from a negative approach (no coverage), but soon such a site will be able to give advice to consumers about which provider is best-suited for their area (and traveling habits). Add price and a preference for a device. Everything will be connected to everything to give the best possible advice. This type of brand will become far more valuable to the consumer than any provider individually has ever been. This is another step that contributes to this.