The call centre industry works much harder on the realisation of brand dialogue than traditional brands. Simple inquiries will often be handled by an automated system whilst more complex inquiries will be dealt with by the help desk. Call centre employees are ever better trained and more expert, they are helped by all sorts of tools which ensure the inquiry is dealt with as efficiently as possible. Location intelligence provides call centre employees with demographic and geographical information about the caller. The time of day (dependant on the time zone), the local weather, the area in which he lives, economic conditions, important sporting events, public transport strikes, threats of war: all sorts of factors that can influence the conversation. Whether someone is calling from a mobile or a land line can give an indication of the situation that the caller is currently in, as well as indication how much time the caller is likely to have.

Related trends

• Brand-dialogue

Japanese company Ns-elex has developed a new device that will allow people to "speak" through their ear so they can use their mobile telephones in noisy places. The device doubles as an earphone and a microphone by detecting air vibrations inside the ear. (al). In the future the audio part of our virtual world experience will be built in our heads. We will carry invisible audio-devices in our ears, serving as speakers as well as microphones. Outside sounds they will of course allow in, if we choose to permit that. This way we can zoom in to every conversation, even from a far distance. It will be no problem to have a conversation with somebody sitting on the other side of a bar. And even when no vibrations are reaching our ears any more, we transfer to a virtual world, to still be able to talk. Soon we will be helpless without our 'audio boosters', or whatever we will decide to call these devices.

Sony filed a patent for recognizing hand gestures on a mobile phone (mc, Dutch). Brands start reacting to our voice, our facial expressions, and now also to our gestures. This way they can develop brand gestures, to be shared all over the world.

Nokia filed a patent for reading finger prints directly via touchscreen (mc, Dutch). This way screens can be bigger on a mobile phone, as no extra room is needed for a separate reader. Technology disappears, screens are left. So that brands can recognize us, and directly pick up the dialogue again. This patent lays the foundation for that future.

Researchers from the Carnegie Mellon University have discovered that brains of different persons register certain objects in the same way. By measuring how a first set of people register certain objects after observing them, they then can measure what objects are observed by a second set of people. This way it is possible to read thoughts (nm).

Someone managed to exploit the iPhone to open his car, operate the windows, and even start the car (mc, Dutch). This shows how soon all screens will give access to one virtual world, which otherwise is directly connected to the physical world. That means you can do everything through every screen. Like starting your car, uploading music, and even (in the long run) have it drive itself. It is all just a matter of time.

Johnny Chung Lee shows the near future of 3D television and games. With a smart adaption of his Nintendo Wii, he turns a regular television into a 3D display. The video is very interesting, but the real results are shown at the end. There Johnny looks at a television screen showing a soccer stadium, and gets a really different view if he looks from a different angle: the images moves with him, like he is watching through a window (pe).

Thus the 3D world really takes shape. Later we will also be able to watch TV this way, or walk through a virtual world like Second Life. In a next step we won't have to wear special glasses anymore. Our heads then will automatically be recognized and if we say something, that evokes a reaction too. This is how the virtual world takes shape, and this is what brands will have to get ready for.

Related trends

• More 3D

American company Neurosky has developed a technique to drive robots through bio signals: measurable signals from humans, like emotions, tension or relaxation. You can look at a certain object on a screen, and have it move by relaxing or flexing the eye muscles. A comparable principle makes it possible to make a real robot move. The company expects to see the first applications in video games by next year (fc, Dutch).

Google soon will introduce Android, their own system for phones, which also can read bar codes. The system can read several types of codes, among which the QR code (mb, Dutch). That means starting next year, we can aim our mobile phones to all products containing bar codes. Then the dialogue with the brand can start. In a next step we will be able to wireless read the RFID code, and then see the unique product, so that the brand can see directly that you are the owner of the product. To then open up a 3D brand world on all screens around you, initiated by your cell phone. We are getting closer to the future in small steps every day.

Related trends

• Brand worlds

The Swiss city of Basel is experimenting with special glasses for tourists. They can tour the city, while seeing a combination of today's and yesterday's worlds through these special glasses. Sometimes 'extra' people are even crossing their paths (fc, Dutch). Now this is done through a backpack full of technology, extra sensors, and thick glasses; in ten to fifteen years regular glasses will be sufficient. Now there is a big difference between today's and yesterday's images, but as time passes and history becomes more 'recent', there will also be more old material available, and these 'history' images will be of better quality (we have more images of 1990 than of 1950, and that in itself is more than 1920. Of 2010 we will have more images than of 1990, and 2030 will give us even more images than 2010). Now we see people from a certain time, later (and then we have to think 2050) we meet our father in his younger days, and can really have a conversation with him. He then will react about the same way he would have reacted in reality. The basis for this we create in our systems today. The more we register our behavior, the more predictable our behavior gets. The virtual world becomes a layer over the physical world, and it will be harder to see the differences. This development is part of that.

US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) yearly organizes a 100 kilometer race for robot cars. With a lot of extra computer power and big sensors these cars nowadays are pretty well capable of navigating themselves through the course. In theory, we could have this technology in our own cars. However, (unfortunately) it will take a long time before we won't need to get our drivers license any more, and can summon our car (or any other car) to pick us up and drive us home while we are drunk. In the end everything will move itself, so that we can save ourselves the energy, and do what we are better at ourselves. This will not happen until at least 2050.

This Accenture demonstration shows a mobile phone that recognizes newspapers, books, Chinese consumer goods, and even print plates (the green plates in your computer containing the chips). This because the image is sent to a central super computer which recognizes the images, and sends back the result. For the time being, phones won't have the power to do that, let alone the enormous database, but a central service can do this. In a next step we will call for the brand of the product in question, which immediately gives us more information, of course in a personal context as we are recognized as well. A company offering this kind of services, will be tomorrow's 'Google'.

Researchers have created a robot face that is able to imitate the tiniest details of the human face. It is a blank face, which can be completely adapted to the shapes of a real human face, scanned in 3D. It is also possible to project a real face on the robot, to include skin color and hair style. The result is a physical robot face looking quite real, see the video below (rn, fc).

We more and more imitate human life. In the end, robots will help us in our daily chores. They will be amongst us, like real people. And they will be involved with brands, like real people. It will take a while, but it is coming closer, one step at a time.

A research team of the Keio University Biomedical Engineering Laboratory has developed a BCI (brain-computer interface) which makes it possible for users to walk the streets of virtual world Second Life purely based on imagination. Thinking of arms, head or feet, the avatar walks like the user imagines (ab).

People think visually, people think 3D. We have know this for thousands of years: there are all kinds of (oldO meditation techniques using this insight. Through this type of techniques we will now also get a much better scientific insight in the way people think. Not just for the physical orientation of people in a physical space, but also for the orientation of abstract concepts like 'relationships', 'politics', or 'brands'. This will lead to people finding new spirituality. But it will take a while before we will see the first mass products using these insights and possibilities.

Researchers have discovered how computers can recognize objects because they've seen several comparable objects to which people have manually added tags. If the tag 'Eifel Tower' is added to several different pictures, the software can automatically add the tag 'Eifel Tower' to the next picture of this landmark structure. With this technology we'll be able to make brands smarter by teaching them things the way we teach children things. After all, we repeat "This is a cow", "This is a sheep" and "This is granddad" ad nauseam. Eventually brands will, like children, grow up and become smarter than us. Much smarter than us. This technology adds to that.

Wireless networks are very hard to connect for the average consumer. Configuring routers, passwords, codes: this is way too complicated. For the average consumer, connecting the TV is hard enough already. As a result, by far the most appliances in households are still stand-alone.

This is now going to change. A standard has been established: the so-called Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) standard, which will make it extremely easy to connect new appliances. For example a new TV which is also directly connected to the network, and through which you can directly watch a movie, or download it on demand. Or a display on the kitchen cabinet, on the edge of the bath or in the bathroom, which you only have to plug in to be able to do anything you want. This road is now open. And not just to watch: the displays will especially also react to us. So that the TV automatically tunes in to the soccer game you were just watching in the kitchen. This standard makes it all possible for everybody.