Using Facebook Connect brands can discover whether their customers really know one another. Firstly it's a means for site manages not to do any identification of site visitors, but to let Facebook do it. For example, who registers on video community site HowCast clicks on the 'FConnect' button (or: 'register via Facebook'). Then an extra screen is added in which have to enter your Facebook username/password and then returns you to the main screen. Your name and photo have now appeared and your gender has been entered too. Useful, easy, and quick.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Yet it won’t stop here. Facebook claims ‘real identity’. Of course there’s no sign of that. On Facebook too you can pretend to be whoever you want and you can take that weird identity with you everywhere. Later on you’ll really need to verify your identity on Facebook, using a copy of your passport and Facebook will make a distinction between ‘authenticated users’ and ‘registered users’. And later that won’t be good enough either and you’ll need to identify yourself in a physical office to make a connection to a social networking account. Every social networking account, not just Facebook. And that world-wide. And then we’re not even talking about password security. Actually you should be connected through your webcam, Facebook can look into your eyes, have a small conversation with you (all automated of course) and only then let you join. If we’re talking about ‘real identity’ there are still some steps to take.

But for brands this already offers gigantic opportunities. Finally you can understand what role your customers play in social life. Which consumers are connected? How do they (and exactly they) pass things along? Brands can finally start to think tribally to get access to the customers social life.

Related trends

• Tribal

The terrorists who attacked in various locations in the south of Mumbai used to maps on Google Earth to get acquainted wit the area. So say a number of officials investigating the attack.

"Investigations by the Mumbai police, including the interrogation of one nabbed terrorist, suggest that the terrorists were highly trained and used technologies such as satellite phones and the Global Positioning System".

Google Earth has been in the line of fire in India for a while now. One of those opposing it is former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. In 2005 he already warned that the availability of detailed maps, like amongst others those used in Google Earth, can be used by terrorists.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

We’ve traditionally organised the world in ‘countries’, a concept we came up with to keep the world organisable. Within that, some countries have ‘states’, for the same reason.

The virtual world, however, is borderless, and change of people’s behaviour in all countries, even less well-meaning people (in the eye of most inhabitants of this planet), will be determined especially by the developments in the virtual world in the coming decades. Eventually it will lead to behaviour being more alike worldwide, but we’ll have to go through a few confrontations first.

A nice feature of the iPhone is of course the built-in accelerometer. With this the device's movements can be measured in every 3D dimension and in regard to itself (rotation). A lot of fun applications are made for this at the moment.

I think the ones which are the most fun still have to come, namely when you can transmit the movements through Safari, the iPhone's internet browser. Then a third party can view along from a distance and react automatically. If you also turn on your camera, the image is complete. Then brands can reconstruct 3D images and determine exactly in what kind of environment you are and assist you. But just measuring the location change of the iPhone would be a step forward. Then you can determine the location even better than with just GPS and you can see, for example, how many centimetres you're away from someone else('s iPhone). It shouldn't get any crazies... But it will.

It's now possible to locate brain tumors and monitor their growth as well as tracking nerve-wracking diseases like multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's by studying the eyes (very carefully).

"Our brains are connected to both eyes through optic nerve cells, so damage of the brain can lead to damage of the optic tract and retina," says Helen Danesh-Meyer, eye surgeon and 'neuro-ophthalmologist' of the University of Auckland Medical School in New Zealand.

Facial loss is often one of the first symptoms of people with a nerve condition. Proof of the connection between degeneration of the optical tracts and diseases like Alzheimer have been known since the eighties, but now there are also instruments that can measure it through the iris. An example is the laser-camera technique retina tomography (HRT), and a laser technique (GDx) which are both used to measure the form and thickness of the nerves behind the eye.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

It’s said iridology has been known for the ancient Greeks, the Egyptians and the Chinese. It still exists, but because it’s scientifically very little explained, there’s still a lot of scepticism (Dutch). Now that we’re slowly measuring on very detailed levels, we can also show things we couldn’t before and thus put aside as ‘scientifically unproven’. Now we can measure, better and better, we can get new insights, develop diagnoses to eventually let humans on earth live longer.

Although robots are getting increasingly smaller and more precise they're still completely unsuited to move on a microscopic or even nanoscopic scale. Jan Liphardt, a physicist of the University of California, Berkeley has patented an idea in which bacteria's are stripped until they have only the amount of DNA that allows them to perform a specific task, for example 'swimming' past a chemical path looking for chemicals to take along.

The team shows that thousands of these 'biorobots' – or minicells – as a true force for example can be have the characteristics cut in the microprocessors.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

The world is made of energy, from which matter is built up. To control the world, you need to go as small as possible. We’ll utilise these techniques to clean our body, get all the rubbish out, all the chemicals, all the cancer cells, all aged cells, and have it replaced by new, young material. It’s just one example that connects to the ‘surviving human’, the human who wants to be immortal, a wish that has existed since humanity. And we’ll go on until we have a solution, and that solution will come.

At Hive Cooperative you can rent completely furnished office spaces. There are three available plans: $349/Month for the Anchor Plan (About the cost of 3 Starbucks Lattes Per Day), $199/Month for the Hotdesk Plan (About the cost of 2 Starbucks Lattes Per Day), $129/Month for the Nights and Weekends Plan (About the cost of 1 Starbucks Latte Per Day). With the last Hive Cooperative targets new media people, photographers and designers.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

The network economy is given increasingly more shape. In this economy each individual is given all freedom, but still keeps looking for other people. Not just for the facilities (which, by the by, are available at home with increasingly more ease), but especially for the social contacts. You might find yourself in Sydney for a few months and you can quickly look up where your contacts are working now, to go there for a few hours. For a chat, for a focused discussion, or to feel what’s happening in the world with all your senses.

Related trends

• Network economy

Casio's new digital camera, the Exilim, projects a small character in the screen. It concerns a character from Doraemon, a popular Japanese animation show. The face is used to give visual signals on how the photo will look. If the photo isn't focused right, Doraemon won't look happy. But if the photo is focused right (and the people in the picture smile on top of that), Doraemon smiles broadly.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Brands let themselves be represented by characters more and more. Currently on this specific screen, but later you’ll see this characters when you sort your photos on big screens. More examples will follow.

Related trends

• Brand visualization

Netlog, a European social network, is now also available as iPhone application. The application allows you to upload pictures directly to your Netlog profile. Furthermore the application uses GPS and if you indicate what you're doing, your friends will also see where you're doing that. The application is available in English, German, Spanish, Finnish, French and Italian.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Brands are creeping very close to the consumer, namely in their cell phone and in their friends list. Furthermore, they speak your language. Currently only in a few languages, in time all the languages in the world, in all accents, and furthermore social coaching brands, of which Netlog is a primal form, will know exactly those words you and your friends use, and know how to play with those. We might talk about customer intimacy, but in comparison to what’s coming, everything that’s been pales.

Related trends

• Brand-dialogue
• De-nationalizing

During the FPD International Show in Japan, Samsung has shown a prototype of a telephone with a fondable OLED colour display. The phone has a display on the front already, as is usual, but on folding it open a second display with a diameter of 6.5 inch and a resolution of 480 x 272 pixels is revealed.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Big mobile screens too are becoming truly useable now. Banking quickly? Sorting some nice music quickly? Make a comparison of the furniture you’ve just viewed? That all becomes possible with this. Brands will have to be at the consumer’s side on every available screen. That’ll be a great challenge. We’ve just got used to the computer and are still excited about the iPhone.

In Japan, men who consider themselves too fat can be assisted by virtual women (Okusama) through the mobile phone. Subscribers to this free service can choose from four types: a cute waitress, a cool and dominant business woman, a motherly nurse, or a fashionable nail stylist. You can choose her name yourself. Then men enter their length, height and lifestyle habits and the ladies get to it.

Then you get four emails a day from your virtual dietitians which subtly remind you not to fall back into bad eating and drinking habits and suggestions for reaching your ideal weight. All in a tone which fits the character. The service also has a 'meal management tool' in which you can enter a menu yourself and find out how many calories it has.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

This example hides two trends. First brands are taking on the role of coach more and more often, start to stand by our side 24 hours a day and study a specific area, like in this case health. Furthermore brands are letting themselves be represented by virtual characters, brand agents or chatbots more and more often.

The next steps are predictable as a result. The link to our shopping list, recognition of products before we even buy them, and the spoken dialogue. And after that it just goes on. The world is progressing step by step, and you can see it by this kind of ‘gadgets’.

Related trends

• Coaching brands
• Brand-dialogue

The Dutch consumers' organisation (the Consumentenbond) has seen a rise in its amount of members in 2008. With 1,000 new members, the total is now on 540,000. Most new members sign up for the Consumentenbond's website. They're only interested in the results of product comparisons which the Consumentenbond conducts.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Independently comparing products has value for people. Currently only, but later people will consult this research in the store too. Or on vacation. This independence is the basis for coaching brands which will develop in the coming years. Brands with which we get an enormous connection and which we’ll also pay. And that people are slowly getting used to this idea can been seen in this change in behaviour.

Related trends

• Coaching brands

On the Dutch dating site Relatieplanet it's now also possible to chat with employees. This way a question can be answered quickly.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

What we first saw as ‘websites’ or ‘portals’, we’re more and more seeing as complete companies, with a customer service. Those companies add value to people’s lives. People pay for that. And with this you pay, amongst others, for customer service. This is how we see that nothing is really free. But that adding something to people’s lives has value, and which people want to pay for. Relatieplanet has understood this and a million other examples will follow.

Eye Flavor is a column with a large screen and a built-in camera that can be located at, for example, malls, conventions or airports. It's used to get demographic information from the passers-by, but also to show them specific ads. It shows if the public glanced at it, watched it, stopped or ignored it. Passers-by can also print out discount coupons in the form of QR codes which are recognised by cell phones. With all these possibilities, advertisers can see exactly which ads work for which public.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

We’re getting more and more screens around us and brands will try to advertise for a while longer. Currently on the basis of demographic characteristics, but later you can pull up the profile off a social network site, recognise the passer-by and address them by name. Our brains are extremely sensitive to this.

Brands that let themselves be tempted by this kind of practices will become exactly like people that continually interrupt you during a conversation. Brands that build on the the dialogue, on the other hand, those screens we can call ourselves, and then recognition is useful. And it’ll be clear which brands will eventually be the strongest.

Related trends

• 2020-2035: Mediacompletion

There are now 14 masterpieces, 14 quality pieces, from the Del Prado museum in Madrid visible on Google Earth in great detail. The paintings have been photographed with a resolution of 14-gigapixel (1400 times as much as the average consumer digital camera). Anyone who looks up the museum on Google Earth will see an icon. By clicking on it you get to see the masterpieces. Clicking again brings the user to the painting.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

We’re mapping the world in ever more detail. Now the paintings, later we can study the whole museum, every room, every panel, every piece of the floor in the greatest detail. We start with the most important things. But it’s only a beginning.

Related trends

• 2020-2035: Mediacompletion

The incredibly popular, Dutch weather site Buienradar has the Dutch scoop with the first approved Dutch application for new phones equipped with Android, Google's mobile phone operating system. The first phones are now being fitted with this system. The application can be downloaded from Android Market.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

The term ‘multimedia’ is slowly getting a different meaning. Brands will increasingly need to communicate consistently, continue the dialogue consistently, across various screens: big, small, intelligent, stupid, bendable, translucent, waterproof, edible and what not. Where the dialogue stops on screen A, it continues on screen B. Just like with ‘regular’ mobile internet and the iPhone brands will have to react with Android too. Later, when it’s the television’s turn, it’ll be a blast. Because the consumer expects anything to be possible, also on tiny screens. And then with speech. There’s still plenty to do!

Related trends

• Brand-dialogue

Weather Pro is a new weather application for the iPhone that's been unbelievably popular the last weeks. Weather Pro makes complete use of the iPhone's GPS-abilities. For example it shows you the weather forecast for your location, wherever that is. A database with over 300,000 places across the globe are available for this. The forecast is shown in detail for every three-hour period up to seven days in advance, with images and figures. It also has radar-images for the US, the UK, France, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium, and it has satellite-images for Europe. The images can be downloaded and played in movies that allow both zoom and panning (moving the entire displayed image with your fingers).

from mc

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Brands are working increasingly more global. If you’re somewhere else on earth you no longer need to ask which brand can coach you in a specific area. You just always choose the same. So that you can later be warned of a specific kind of weather you don’t know yet. And especially how you can best deal with it at that time. Coaching brands are at your side anywhere in the world. This creates a nice thought-direction.

Related trends

• Coaching brands