The media context slowly matures: a media world in which every individual can send the highest quality text, audio or video. A media world which evolves into a virtual world, a real, made-up or mixed world experienced from a distance. Part I of the book describes the maturing of the media context in detail. Below you’ll read about the small steps in the evolution we already see today.
The Dutch television guide Veronica Magazine is now available for the iPhone.
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.
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.
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.
Through the Dutch site Startpagina Verkeer (Startpage Traffic) it's now also possible to obtain real time detailed information regarding traffic jams. The information originates from the TomTom.
This is how real time information is unlocked on all possible screens. In this case not only through navigational systems, but also on all other screens, like the computer screen. A new type of brand can be created that will guide us through the world based on our preferences, availability and our budget.
While the Dutch broadcasting company NET5 shows Wimbledon's most important matches on television, the others can be watched on Wimbledon2008 (Dutch). You can also watch old broadcastings, view the results and send in your own questions.
Live TV will become Live Internet and with that the country borders will disappear: we’ll be able to follow anything from anywhere in the world. When this has progressed far enough we can expect live broadcasts that are aimed at other countries from anywhere in the world. Virtual experiences in which we’re involved en masse in real time, and in which brands can play a part. The era of national television and national broadcasting models will disappear into the history books forever.
This water beam follows the hands of a washing person.
What’s this doing on this site? The essence in these developments is that technology starts to adapt to the human being. We’re ever better able to spot people, to recognize them and start a dialogue with them. But in this case even the mechanical parts respond to humans. That’s something we don’t yet see every day. In the far future, when we think robots are the most normal thing in existence, we’ll look back on this type of development as earlier states of the technological ‘sensing’ of people.
This video shows the making of a photo where automatically through the use of a flash image, without you seeing it, an image is added. That image is seen in the picture itself, mind. It seems to be similar to photo fraud in cars. Here a flash that detects and bounces back the original flash.
The virtual world forms a shell around the physical world. That offers a lot of added value, but at the same time its reliability is in question. This time it’s about photo manipulation, but soon you’ll be able to call someone under a different name and even sound the same as the person you’re pretending to be. A few years later this will also happen with the corresponding video images. What’ll be real? Thankfully our brains are excellent at dealing with uncertainty and they’ll start to guess when certain sources are reliable and when they’re not. And if you have doubts, you can test it. That also goes for the contact with brands.
You can now attach avatars to your browser. Your virtual identity (or one of them) 'walks' along with you across the internet at the bottom of your page. You can then meet and interact with other avatars. E-coaches too can walk with their 'client' along webshops, social networks or other websites.
We’ll encounter each other more and more real on the internet. Right now as a character, in a few years a natural image of ourselves, including our own specific walk, our current hairdo and our current clothing. We’ll see ourselves walking along life-sized, our ‘character’ will do what we want. If we raise our hand our avatar will do the same (but then in the language or dialect needed at that moment). If we observe something our avatar will have spotted it just a touch sooner. And of course we won’t be walking across the ‘flat’ internet websites (such as Google, eBay or Amazon of today), but in full 3D worlds where we don’t just have something in front of us, but also behind us, above us and beside us. That’s the world we’re build and the trend this development fits into seamlessly.
With SearchTogether people can search the internet together from different locations. A separate application ensures that you can see the search results of your partner, which you can then visit, hold etc.
The virtual world is growing up. Just like in the physical world we can go off together. For now we’re still busy with texts, but soon the world will be projected around us, we can point at what we like with our finger and yell ‘look over there!’. The virtual world will be an enormous replica of the physical world. But then without limits. Limitless. For brands too.
With iCall consumers can seamlessly switch between their own wireless home network or that of others (VoIP through WiFi) and the regular cell phone network (GSM) on their iPhone.
In a next step that means that we can take a telephone conversations from inside the car into the house, switch to our broadband home network and continue in a video conversation. A conversation we’re holding with a brand will be able to switch between these different screens and interfaces as well. It’ll again create a wholly new dynamic in communication between brands and people.
YouTube is making all its videos interactive. Uploaders can add another 'layer' to which the creator of the video can add interactivity. You can also add, for example, text balloons. This allows people to select a gaming-form, for example with cards. Depending on your choice, a different movie will start up (demo video). In this sense, the interactivity is limited and it exists, in fact, of a script.
People have always responded to video. Just look at their faces when they’re watching. They feel, think and do all sorts of things. Except that the screen doesn’t respond to that. That’s changing slowly. Now the creator is able to add a layer. Soon this will be a 3D world in which something happens by default (call it a movie), but if we want to participate we can do this too. Because YouTube is picking up on this, this development is clearly a step closer.
Based on where you currently are and who's in your contact list, Apple's new iPhone looks for nearby contacts. This is possible through the built-in GPS module and the contact list if it has addresses added.
All information will become increasingly more available in real time. Most people have to change addresses etc themselves when they get an email of someone who moved. Soon this will be automatic. With your social network in your pocket you’ll be walking through a strange city, past the door of an old acquaintance who’s moved five times by now. Quite something to be able to just ring the doorbell…
Scott Hobbs is a student at Dundee University, UK, who designed an interactive turning table, operated by touch-screens, for his graduation project. Instead of turntables, records or cds the DJ gets to use two large touchscreens. Hobbs calls it the ATTIGO TT.
As it stands, this is only a small step towards a bigger virtual whole that cooperates with the physical world. More interactive, more intense and far more physically present than ever. These kinds of applications will be developed as a supplementary and, where possible, replacing product. Where a DJ used to rely solely on his hearing and sense of rhythm, he can now dissect the music files completely and visually see what the audience will be hearing. It should make the life of a consumer simpler and more efficient while increasing the interaction immensely. For now such applications are subjugated to the laws of the physical world and it’ll have to be carried wherever the DJ is going. It’s only a matter of time before the first virtual DJ performs as a hologram.
Texas Instruments expects that cell phones with a built-in projector can be presented as early as this year. Mobile projectors are now so compact that they can be built into cell phones or other electronic devices. This means any surface can be used as a personal screen which gives sharing your photos a whole new meaning and intensity.
The cell phone’s screen will become even more practical than it is currently. This means consumers can communicate more easily and interactively with one another and with brands. Through, for example, bar codes, rfid or Bluetooth products can be read onto your cell phone and projected onto a surface or even into the air. This can then be saved on the cell phone and the consumer can watch it at leisure back home. Dressing rooms and clothing stores get a new dimension because of this. You don’t even need them anymore. Just let the cell phone project the clothing article onto yourself. Brands and companies on the other hand can monitor which products are uploaded to cell phones the most and adapt their range of products accordingly. It all becomes a lot easier and above all more interactive.
This German movie features mirrors in a German shop window that react to passers-by. A form of augmented reality.
The virtual world is increasingly becoming a shell over the physical world. Now our reflection is changing, but later we’ll be able to participate in a meeting wearing our pajamas because a shirt, tie and suit can be added without problems and invisibly. We’ll also be able to address customers like this. This is a step in that direction.
From now on, movies in America can be bought both as a direct download and on DVD. To start with, all the movies of the bigger companies (20th Century Fox, Walt Disney, Warner Bros., Paramount, Universal Studios, Sony Pictures and the slightly smaller Lionsgate, Image Entertainment and First Look Studios) will be made available on iTunes.
The media-evolution in this development is that the physical carriers are slowly disappearing and all the content ever made anywhere in the world is made instantly available. The brand-evolution is that iTunes will develop itself further as a home entertainment coaching brand, a brand that has all the content available for us, but above all it recognizes us, remembers our preferences and always knows how to entertain us.
Vodafone customers can view a live Madonna concert via their mobiles. The concert is to be broadcast from New York via a 'live stream'. This broadcast is offered exclusively to Vodafone customers.
Now we still look forward to our favorite artists playing in our own country and make sure we get tickets in plenty of time. With the fast moving improvements in broadband internet you are no longer limited to concerts in your own county. Telephone providers make exclusive contracts with famous artists to be able to provide live streaming from their concerts. This allows you to see concerts in New York, London or Sydney. Telephone providers are increasingly presenting themselves as mobile broadcasters who offer a service for your mobile. First concerts and later personal interviews and finally the daily life of an artist live on your mobile.
An Intelligent Equivalent of the 3d world
Intelligent Autonomous Robots doing incredible jobs
Nature & technology perfectly blended