Revolution in Our Relationship with Technology
Our relationship with technology is going through a revolution.
A week and a half ago my Mother came back from a 5 week trip to Egypt where she was researching for her PhD. Last weekend we used Google Earth to look at the places she had been. The fun thing was we didn’t go off to the study to look at Google Earth on the PC, we weren’t tethered to a desk, we didn’t use a mouse or a keyboard. Instead we looked at Google Earth on my iPod Touch sitting at the dinning room table, engaging directly with the technology through the touchscreen. In other words, the conversation did not have to go to the technology, the technology came to the conversation.
I am seeing a number of new innovations in technology at the moment that I believe will change the way we engage with technology. Here are some examples:
iPad
Okay so the iPad has taken a bit of criticism for lacking in some features. But I once heard Seth Godin say on an interview that successful people and organisations ‘ship’. They don’t wait until the product is perfect, because that time will never come. Apple do this well – they ship product early, capture a market, and then enhance the subsequent generations of the product.
Despite the negative feedback, some commentators such as Mitch Joel in his Six Pixels of Separation post Game Changer – Game Over have heralded the iPad as the next evolution in computing. And I too see the potential – no longer tethered to desk, or a keyboard or a mouse the iPad will change the way we engage with technology.
Gaming Platforms
A couple of years ago Nintendo changed the gaming world with the introduction of their Wii technology. Both Microsoft and Sony are responding with technologies of their own so that game players are no longer tethered to the game station. The Microsoft Xbox Project Natal is bringing out a controller free Xbox – players interact with the game and other applications by using gestures, movement, and voice with no controller. In my opinion, once this technology makes it into gaming consoles, it will quickly move into other technologies and become ubiquitous changing forever our relationship with technology. Check out the demo video of the Project Natal Xbox. If you can’t see this video click here.
Milo
Thank you to my wife for introducing me to Milo. Built on the Microsoft Xbox Project Natal platform, Milo is a virtual boy who you can interact with as though he were real – he recognises emotions and can respond to circumstance. Imagine the future possibilities with this sort of technology. Check out the video of Milo – while the video is a little bit over the top, it does show the potential of this technology. If you can’t see this video click here.
This is just the start. Currently we engage with technology by typing, clicking, selecting, and so forth. This is all going to change. My prediction is in a few years we will only sit at a desk and keyboard when we need to do in-depth writing. For everything else we will use much more interactive means to engage with technology.
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I agree every new technology is coming with new revolutions like iPhone came and then android and now ipad. It’s good.