The BBC (British Broadcasting Company) has definitely started with broadcasting in High Definition (HDTV) format. Daily listings are already available. All brands, not just broadcasting companies, will start to entertain, inform of involve us in HD format. It's increasingly about images, and high definition sound to touch us more than ever. Right now we think HD is quite something, but later we'll have 3D and holographic projection. It'll start to be really lifelike when images start to respond to us. The text messages of today are nothing compared to that. Currently the BBC is at the front of the line.

Social Network Hyves makes it possible for third parties to read profiles. In the test version of so-called People API, other websites gain access to profiles. This is the same one could see in a real-life visit, without being a Hyves member. The amount of information then is limited. However by granting a brand permission, the brand can get access to someone's friends list (em, Dutch).
TodaysArt then places your friends on a map. So far for the gimmicks. Now it really will be possible for brands to connect their accounts to Social Networks, to Hyves accounts. With that, it will be possible to see what customers know each other. Then 'advice' can go one step further: 'friends who went to this hotel last year absolutely loved it!' Then the most powerful medium, word of mouth advertising, will get an extra injection. It is all about to start now.

It is now possible to online manage your donor registration through DigID, the uniform online identification method of the Dutch government. With this, the government extends the type of services accessible through DigID. In a next step the government can give access to things Dutch citizens are obliged to take care of, like medical insurance or car insurance. After that, I expect the government to start helping third parties. So that for example you can set up your e-mail like 'only mail from identified sender', without a blacklist. Slowly the government then takes on the same role as in the physical world: it gives you a proof of identity to travel the world. This development is a step in that direction.

At McDonald's in Korea you can submit your order through your mobile phone. Sitting at your table, you can connect your phone to a RFID reader. With that, you aim your phone to the menu of your choice, and when your food is ready, you get a text message with the number of the pick-up window. You pay through your phone subscription (kt (Korea Times)). All artifacts in the physical world get a virtual layer around them. In the future we will be able to aim our mobile phones at license plates, people, shoes, animals, plants, restaurants, business cards, TV screens, lamps, air planes, anything you can think of. Everything will be recognized, and brands will be waiting to tell you anything about it. This example is part of that development.

Through Live Search, Microsoft's search engine, you can drag visuals from your search results to a side panel, the so-called 'clipboard'. This clipboard is saved, even after starting a new search. Thus you can easily use different ways to find the best picture. Here you see and example of searching for Santa Claus (dc, Dutch). In this seemingly simple function, we can see some hidden trends: first of all, brands are linking to people's visual thinking, second, brands start remembering what we possibly find interesting (I call that the brand memory), and third, brands share that with us openly. This can totally inspire brands.

Chips in German passports from now on also contain finger prints (fc, Dutch). First all governments, worldwide, will take finger prints. Then they will connect finger prints to identification initiatives like DigID, after which brands always can use the government to check if their client is really the person he says he is. Governments will make sure that consumers can only move through the digital world under a pseudonym. This is a small step in that direction.

Until a couple of years ago, checking in online was the way to get a good seat on an airplane. Nowadays you have to be quick if you want to get a good seat. To assure yourself of extra leg room at the emergency exit, or that seat in the front at the window, Checkmein now can automatically check you in as soon as online check in opens. If your favorite spot is not available any more, Checkmein automatically finds the best alternative. Cost is 7 euros per party, and you get your money back if you're not satisfied (dc, Dutch). Thus the network economy slowly develops too. In the future every airline will have this service, and the most loyal customers, the most paying customers, or the customers who booked first get the best seats. Of maybe the customers who had coffee spilled on them last time, or who participated in a survey. The time of long lines for static offers slowly disappears, and makes place for dynamic routing in which business rules determine what customer gets what seat. Checkmein then will turn out to have been a necessary side step.

Related trends

• Network economy

Through VideoBoard companies now can promote their job openings in a video (dc, Dutch). Brands more and more communicate in images, in video. Now this is still directly derived from text (in many cases the job opening is literally read from paper - very boring), but in the future we will be able to get a good impression of the company we will be working at, of our future job, and of our future boss. And through an artificial employee who also appears on screen, we can directly ask the most simple questions. To talk to our boss we might have to wait for a little while. This is a small step in that direction.

In the Netherlands, there will be a database of stolen bicycles, to be consulted by consumers themselves (dc, Dutch). Every element in the physical world gets its own space in the virtual world. Every bicycle will get a worldwide unique number, like we will all have a worldwide personal number in the future, and like cars will have their own unique frame number. If we buy something, it will be registered in our name immediately. Has it been stolen, it is registered as 'stolen'. And if we sell it to somebody else, we will change the registration with a swipe of our mobile phones. Stealing thus becomes a little harder, and the world a little more beautiful. As a result however, brands will even have the registration of the fourth owner in their databases, and will have to be able to answer questions for years and years. The dialogue continues until the end of the product's life. This database access perfectly fits in that development.

Interactive broadcasting company KPBS has placed all relevant information about the San Diego County fires on Google Maps. For example huidige fires, evacuation centers, and closed roads (dc, Dutch). All information from the physical world is made available in the virtual world. Consumers and brands will benefit from this, and adapt their plans (or have their plans adapted automatically) to the information they get.

Through Best4c (Best for Chart) people now can draw diagrams directly on websites, without having to download software (c2). The web becomes simpler and simpler. In the future we will just call what we want to do, and we can directly replace and/or enlarge files through our fingers. There is no software installation or a mouse involved any more. At the moment, we see more and more software move to the web. This is an example of that.

In South-Korea it is now possible to scan a product with the mobile phone, and directly get a link or information. You can scan a milk container for example, and see its history (td). Thus brands and consumers get into dialogues, with the product as the topic of conversation. Now still a bit dry, in the future we will see complete brand worlds the moment we aim our mobile phone at a product. And if we have questions about a product, we can ask the brand agent, the artificial employee, who then appears. Just in spoken language. This is the beginning.

Related trends

• Brand worlds

Treinvizier shows trains, metros, and intercity trains real-time on the map (only in firefox now)(mb, Dutch). We imitate the real world as detailed as possible, and make sure that every change is visible. It was already possible to see planes, traffic information, and metro and tram stations, and now the moving trains have been added. Wherever the information comes from, mobility coaching brands will help us to get from A to B as fast, safe, or cheap as possible. For that to happen all information has to be available, and we're getting one step closer to that situation every time.

Viewdl recognizes faces in videos, accurate by the second. The first partner is Reuters, who has provided 600 hours of news video. In this video for example Dutch prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende can be found (mf, Dutch). Searching in video and audio in the future will be as simple as searching in text nowadays. We will be just be able to say 'all vacation videos I'm in with John', or 'all remarks Bush has made about taxes in 2006', or 'all movies in which Lisa has a minor part'. In the future we will only have to say something, and we get it on demand. It will be as simple as that.

Videos of video sharing site YouTube now also can be placed on location in Google Earth. At Maui for example videos can be seen about surfing, snorkeling, and tropical fish, while at the Mont Blanc you see ski videos from the Alps (dc, Dutch). Thus the virtual world comes slowly into being. This way we can always relive an event, taken place at a certain moment in time. We can see it a year later. Fifteen years later. One thousand and five hundred years later. The massive registration of the world makes future reliving possible. Even branded experiences. This development is part of this.

The new Philips TV, the Philips Aurea, makes watching TV in the living room even more impressive. This is the result of the frame of the TV now lighting up too, adapted to the video being watched at that moment. Since the introduction of the TV with the very small, almost round black-and-white tubes, we have constantly been introducing innovations to make the experience more and more intense. To make it look like we are part of the scenery. The developments just keep rolling. The screens will get much bigger, the image will be 3D, the sound will come exactly from the place it is supposed to come from, and - even more important - the screens will react to us. Even at home, in the living room. For now however, this TV is awesome.