Remember that scene in "The Fifth Element" where they 3D-print an entire human body? Released just short of 20 years ago, that blew our collective movie-going minds. Nowadays, 3D printing is about to go mainstream and with that, tech just got a whole lot scarier.
Yesterday, Google Glass went on sale for a limited time. Selected users such as app developers were allowed to fork out $1 500 for a pair of the wearable devices as part of Google's "Glass Explorer" programme. Analysts estimate the market for wearable tech will reach anywhere from $1 billion to $3 billion this year alone.
Most of the tech world fully expects these kinds of wearable devices to break into the mainstream in 2014, by extending smartphone and tablet capabilities to gadgets worn on the body, from watches to headsets, and even braces.
Have you ever noticed how people will subtly alter their behaviour and put up their guard when a recording device is trained on them? We are heading for a world where that feeling becomes normal.
Wearable tech opens up the possibility of surreptitious recording along with a massive data explosion.
Forget privacy
These devices have serious privacy implications in the real world. Who owns the data being collected? Where is that data being stored? Wearable devices are going to capture and store massive volumes of 'always on' data, and we are now faced with the possibility of a life-changing occurrence; an event that will fundamentally alter and shape how humans will behave, and interact with each other, in the future.
Privacy is our right to control how, when and to whom we want to express ourselves. As well as which self we choose to present. Once we live in a world where at any given time we are possibly being recorded without our consent, we will begin to tailor the nature of our expressions and eventually, our very human nature.
Most of all though, and most importantly, I care about all that delicious data being generated and made available to business.
For a moment, set aside the implications to our privacy and human nature. Wearable tech is going to generate a whole new form of marketing and marketability. Every day we create 2.5 quintillion (1 018) bytes of data. It is estimated that 90% of the world's data today has been created in the last two years alone. This massive explosion of data will only get bigger once wearable tech becomes part of our human existence. All the data added by these kinds of gadgets is going to make life very interesting for those of us who analyse data.
Completely bypassing the well-documented difficulty in analysing and finding meaningful information in vast volumes of data, I feel the need to focus more on the real world possibilities that will be created once companies and organisations lock into these kinds of technological devices. It completely boggles the mind.
Healthy applications
Imagine an integrated health app that automatically informs a medical aid when medication is not being taken properly? Or automatically lets your doctor know your calcium levels are low? Or an app that ascertains that you are pregnant, and suddenly you start getting all sorts of baby-related mail and your doctor's receptionist phones you to make an appointment? A fitness app that monitors your calorie intake ? and the diet companies that can, and probably will, tap into that? Or what if a fireman was wearing a device that lets someone know when his oxygen levels have dropped?
Tapping into data generated by wearable devices is the next big step in marketing.
Imagine tracking the information generated by thousands of fitness devices, over time, and using it to customise medical schemes and life insurance policies? Marketing departments suddenly knowing, in very real-time, who is wearing what brand, what energy drink is being consumed, what sporting event is the most popular, what product is being bought over another? Having access to and being able to analyse how people shop? What draws them to one particular brand or aisle? What a particular person's favourite colour jean is and sending them coupons for a pair of jeans in those exact colours?
Further to this, imagine analysing the driving patterns and habits of millions of users and revolutionising the way we travel? Locking into a grid that can tell you exactly which road to take to minimise traffic? An interactive grid that will tell you exactly how to drive to preserve petrol? A traffic officer monitoring traffic offences from a remote location via that very grid? Municipalities designing roads and circles and robots based on the analysis of that very data, collected over time?
Tapping into the data that is going to be generated by augmented tech is the next big step in marketing. Tailor-made marketing that is fundamentally based on real life.
We are heading for some interesting times. Times when the futuristic scenes in movies like "The Fifth Element" become the norm, and something that we utilise and deal with every day. Times where humanity morphs into something better? Or just different?
Share