Just wondering why I have never written about Milo, a virtual agent, conversational avatar, chatbot responding to voice, face and gestures.

He recognises facial expressions and emotions of his interlocutor and re-acts accordingly. The video is a demonstration of a Milo's ground breaking technology created by a computer game designer Peter Molyneux and his team over at Lionhead Studios

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

It’s a gaming thing nowadays, but characters like Milo will soon dominate the brand scape: a brand agents, chatbot representing brands, they will answer questions from consumers about brands, about companies, about government. And eventually (it will take two more decades) we won’t be able to notice the difference between Milo and a real human being. It’s all a matter of time…

Related trends

• 2020-2035: Mediacompletion
• Brand-dialogue

Workshop with Amit Goswami and Uma Krishnamurthy in the Netherlands

There is a paradigm shift going on in science from a matter-based science to a new science based on the primacy of consciousness. In the first half of this workshop, quantum physicist Amit Goswami, a pioneer of the new paradigm, will introduce the idea of quantum consciousness and show how it integrates science and spirituality.

Goswami will also explicate how a new theory of evolution based on the primacy of consciousness resolves the difficulties of Darwinism and leads to the idea of planetary transformation as the next step of evolution.

In the afternoon, yoga psychologist Uma Krishnamurthy, a pioneer of the field, will introduce the basic concepts of yoga psychology as the psychology of transformation. In particular, she will discuss methods of transforming negative emotions into positive emotions. Uma’s presentation will be both intellectual and experiential.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Insights we obtain today seriously influence our future in 2050. Many things we now consider as impossible, will be possible in 40 years from now. In order to understand the future one should leave the world image of today. Cool. Be there if you dare.

Related trends

• 2050-2100: Pamper planet

This video is getting interesting after one minute. It actually 'sucks' objects.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

This has potential for the future. Imagine an artificial hand, a thin ‘sucking’ skin which is controllable through nanotechnology on every square millimeter. Although the hand can make simple movements and behave natural like a human hand would do, it also has some extraordinary skills such as sucking tiny objects. Quite convenient when cleaning stuff, or holding something for you.

Related trends

• 2025-2050: Roboworld

I haven't written a lot lately (very busy with the chatbots.org, but those who have followed me since 2005 and have read my book, will recognize many trends reinforce my predictions of five years ago.

Here's an example: Spotify. A coaching music brand in its early days. For 9,99 a month, you have unlimited access to ad-free music. Connected to your friends through your Facebook account. My 2004 prediction was simple: it would not longer be about possession of music, but people would pay in the future for the right to play music.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

What will happen in the coming five years? Brands like Spotify will respond to our emotional reaction. They will notify how our movements will change, our tone of voice, our facial exppression. We don’t have to rate music any longer, our feedback is fully clear.

And from there, music coaching brands will feed us with music we need: which will change our emotional state. And that’s where the word ‘coaching’ comes in. The decision to select music for a particular person, on a particular moment, or a particular place, is not very simple. It’s not about selecting the persons favorite song. Being happy might not be the best mood to move to about the funeral of a family member or bad news at work. Or maybe, it is. Coaching is about understanding an individual.

So even though people think this is where it’s all heading to, it’s actually just the beginning…

Related trends

• Coaching brands

The future of shopping according to Cisco. It's looks as Science Fiction, but this future is already here (aside from a few minor technology problems such as lighting in the stores).

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

The most important roles of stores is to determine your current measurements. You can order anything you like, from brands, it can be tailored to your wishes, deliverable in every possible color, you can see how it combines with clothes you purchased before and which are still in your wardrobe (i.e. clothes you haven’t thrown away), you can ask what your friends think, and what they bought which will transform shopping to a far more social experience.

Having things on stock is no longer an issue. It will delivered to your home, before you even arrive after traveling back. No more need to carry bags. You can shop from home as easy as shop from any other location in the world. But being with your friends (both physical as virtual), provides a new dimension to the shopping experience.

And obvvously, you’ll be assisted by a brand agent (or a chatbot, dependent on the terminology you prefer), instead of a real human, an artificial character with far more knowledge than a human human could ever possibly have.

This is the future, but only a step into the future.

Related trends

• 2020-2035: Mediacompletion

Again another example that illustrates that the programming of our evening on the couch will be done on an individual basis by a new type of brands, home entertainment coaching brands, instead of traditional TV broadcasters, who are programming for the mass and interrupt our favorite shows with advertising.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Just a matter of time before Google starts to charge us per show. And we’ll love to pay a few cents to avoid the advertising! Home Entertainment Coaching Brands have the future, and traditional broadcasters have to switch their business models. Fast!

Related trends

• 2020-2035: Mediacompletion

How to illustrate the future? How to illustrate the mediacompletion trend which dominates all trends until 2020? Apple shows us the future.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Hard to imagine that also this awesome invention is just a step into the future. We’ll have 3D rendering, we’ll have build-in camera’s which will turn these kind of screens into portable windows to virtual rooms, spaces, worlds.  And the iPad will respond to our gestures in front of the screen (instead of touching it), to our movements, to our expression, to our voices. It’s all just an evolution.

But it’s great anyway! 😊

Related trends

• 2020-2035: Mediacompletion

This 22” monitor of Philips, Brilliance 225P1ES, has an integrated PowerSensor which basically takes the form of a infrared sensor that detect when you’re seated before the Brilliance 225P1ES or you just have walked away. As soon as you are away, it will step in to reduce the display’s brightness which will see up to a 50% reduction in power usage.

Future vision by Erwin van Lun

Although evevything seems to about energy saving these days, the underlying trend is much more fundamental: screens are now being equipped with sensors which will allow them to know whether there is sitting someone in front of them. Next, they’ll distinguish humans from dogs and cats and soon after they’ll recognize individuals and give only certain persons access to certain areas. The textual password codes of today, are evolving into ‘gesturing in the air’ tomorrow.

It’s not about our planet, it’s about our experience and the dialogue between brands and individuals. And a dialogue starts with recognition.

Related trends

• 2020-2035: Mediacompletion

Fujitsu announced the start of consumer sales in Japan of the world’s first color e-paper mobile terminal, FLEPia, through Fujitsu Frontech’s online store “FrontechDirect”. FLEPia is the first ever mobile information terminal to feature color electronic paper (color e-paper). In addition to being lightweight and thin, the color e-paper mobile terminal features an easy-to-view 8-inch display screen capable of showing up to 260,000 colors in high-definition, in addition to being equipped with Bluetooth and high-speed wireless LAN.

Related trends

• 2020-2035: Mediacompletion

Rocket Taxi: This App checks your location with GPS and lists nearby taxi companies with distances. Just select one, press on it and a call will be initiated to the cab company.

Related trends

• Coaching brands

Chatbots.org, the worldwide business community of chatbot developers, and this website, ErwinVanLun.com, are looking
for a freelance English editor (4 hours per week).

As we have quite ambitious plans with Chatbots.org, we need an enthusiastic native English editor who can grow with us to facilitate the fast growing
community of chatbot developers, affiliate industry and users. We could also use some assistance with ErwinVanLun.com.

It's not a 'sit-back and relax' kind of job; we'll certainly value your input!

This would be our ideal partner in crime:

• Native English speaker with a strong personal interest in writing stylish English.


• background in AI, marketing or communications


• Smart: you're probably working on your Masters.


• Flexible yet precise: You'll need to find a quality balance between
  correcting news items, articles (with a due-by date of a few weeks), thorough research and static texts that will be
  read by thousands of readers.


• Fast: Normally we'll need your correction within a few days.


• Tech savvy: You'll be making your changes directly in the content management system, so you
  shouldn't be afraid of a few HTML hyperlinks.

A revolutionary interactive 3DTV system is being created by De Montfort University Leicester (DMU), England, researchers. The €4.2 million (approx £3.7 million) project aims to develop a television that can recognise where somebody is sitting in a room and what they wish to view and interact with on their television.

Researchers believe it is a step towards truly interactive 3D video games where gamers use their bodies to control the action without the need for a controller. It could be the next step for Microsoft's Project Natal.

The project, called HELIUM3D (high efficiency, laser-based, multi-user, multi-modal 3D display) is also exploring ways of allowing viewers who are watching the same television to each view a different channel at the same time and could even let them choose different viewing positions within the image.

For example, groups of people watching a football match in the same room could each pick the part of the stadium from which they would like to experience the action.

Related trends

• 2020-2035: Mediacompletion

SPRXmobile has launched the world’s first augmented reality browser for mobile phones names Layar. Layar adds realtime digital information on top of the real world seen through a mobile device’s camera. It does not need any use of recognition through images or other objects. Instead it locates it’s position through a combination of camera, compass and GPS.

Related trends

• 2020-2035: Mediacompletion

Google has implemented semi-3D “Smart Navigation,” which makes your virtual walking a lot easier. Your cursor is mapped on a rough 3D model of the scene, with a convincing sense of depth. Just click where you want to go, and Street View takes you there, making the transition with an unexpectedly convincing pseudo-3D effect.

It also works for off-road sights, like storefronts or distant scenery. These items are mapped as well, so if you lead your cursor to, say, the front door of your house, Street View will automatically take you to the best possible viewpoint. The above video explains it all pretty well.

Related trends

• 2020-2035: Mediacompletion
• More 3D

German researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems have embedded a head-mounted microdisplay into a pair of glasses—allowing the user to access and manipulate data with simple eye movements.

The [CMOS] chip measuring 19.3 by 17 millimeters is fitted on the prototype eyeglasses behind the hinge on the temple. From the temple the image on the microdisplay is projected onto the retina of the user so that it appears to be viewed from a distance of about one meter. The image has to outshine the ambient light to ensure that it can be seen clearly against changing and highly contrasting backgrounds. For this reason the research scientists use OLEDs, organic light-emitting diodes, to produce microdisplays of particularly high luminance.

Wearers could scroll through menus, shift elements and pull up new info by simply focusing on a particular area or moving their eyes in a specific way.