I believe in the concept of ubiquitous computing, as advocated by Adam Greenfield and many like-minded thinkers.
I believe that is the direction our future should take.
Honestly, I’ve done a project recently that uses urban and spatial elements and embedded computing to demonstrate a possible future. You touch a wall, and information appears. You move elsewhere, go home, and access that same data from your table surface. It’s all about moving away from the archetype of the desktop computer and disseminating the computer chip into many smaller ones that embed themselves in our clothes, our walls, homes and cities.
So I am partly shooting myself in the foot with this post. I want to rant about the frequent desire we have to project an augmented reality on our environments. Enough already! There has been a lot of talk in recent times about Pranav Mistry’s 6th Sense project. While I marvel at the genius of Pranav, and the sheer goodness of his intention – I politely and humbly refuse to believe that augmented reality is the way ahead. Wearing helmets to project our erstwhile computers onto walls so that our taped fingers can manipulate data on them, is not in my opinion, the dream for the future I had in mind. Pranav Mistry has clearly prototyped a way that could make augmented reality actually feasible – but I would shudder to think of a world where such a concept was commonplace.
So let me state again for the record – AUGMENTED REALITY IS NOT THE WAY AHEAD.
It is a dream for a future that we’ve had for a while now. We need to get over it, and think beyond.
Back at the start of the 14th Century, Giotto’s proof of his masterpiece was his free-hand circle. It was a concise way for him to demonstrate his enormous technical skill. Watching him draw the circle, it probably looked easy, but undoubtedly it took years, if not decades, of practice to get that kind of lazy, deft skill.
Jim Denevan makes freehand drawings in sand. At low tide on wide beaches Jim searches the shore for a wave tossed stick. After finding a good stick and composing himself in the near and far environment Jim draws– laboring up to 7 hours and walking as many as 30 miles. The resulting sand drawing is made entirely freehand w/ no measuring aids whatsoever. From the ground, these drawn environments are experienced as places. Places to explore and be, and to see relation and distance. For a time these tangible specific places exist in the indeterminate environment of ocean shore. From high above the marks are seen as isolated phenomena, much like clouds, rivers or buildings. Soon after Jim’s motions and marks are completed water moves over and through, leaving nothing.
(A project I recently completed at Ergonomidesign, along with some amazing team-mates).
The Future of Health Care is a subject that has been under intense speculation and debate in recent times across different forums. Several interesting prototypes and scenarios have been made by professionals and designers to give the World a glimpse of a fuzzy future.
For the first time ever, Ergonomidesign have made it possible to actually experience the future of Health Care. Following their launch at the Medica/ Compamed trade fair (in Düsseldorf, Germany, Nov. 18-20), Ergonomidesign will present and demonstrate a future life science application that brings together 40 years of design experience for Ergonomidesign in the Life Science industry. This video is one of 2, that give an overview of the entire concept.
Combining a fully functioning prototype with a well resolved service-ecosystem, Ergonomidesign will demonstrate vital segments of their vision “The Future of Integrated Health Care”. The application- “Helping Hands” (a Natural User Interface developed on a MS Surface table) will enable an experience that lets you manage your own health in the future. Their concept combines the benefits of ubiquitous computing with a merger of Health Care services with internet service providers. This merger would give rise to an exciting ‘ecosystem’, one that would bring cure to your doorstep or literally to the palm of your hand. Much like the mobile ‘app-world’, pharmacies would be able to sell a variety of healthcare devices containing embedded software that synchronized with relevant devices and your body automatically.
By the year 2015, vast amounts of personal data will constantly be uploaded in real-time to the “Cloud” – for others to use, share and benefit from. Through embedded sensors in our clothes, wrist watches, necklaces, shoes etc. it will be possible to constantly monitor our biometric data. These vast amounts of data pushed to the Cloud, would be made accessible to a network of ‘smart objects’ e.g. our mobile devices and our ‘smart’ homes, furniture and environments. Our biometric data will be accessible everywhere, constantly – to us and those who we have granted admission to (e.g. our doctors and family and relevant networks). The Cloud would also allow us constant access to contacts and services in a vast directory of doctors, fellow-patients and other daily health-care programs such as diet, exercise and prescription medicine. Your good health would now truly be based on the learning, benefits and experiences of others.
The experience envisioned by Ergonomidesign comprises lucid scenarios, personas and a working prototype that was developed by interaction designers, design strategists and graphic designers. Their challenge was to envision a complex future and develop user friendly, intuitive solutions for the World to understand and use. They have created an experience that combines intuitive gestural interactions with well-resolved service scenarios for the Health Care industry.
Sci-fi writer William Gibson famously quoted – “The Future is already here, it is just unevenly distributed.”(Neuromancer, 1984.) Most of the technology necessary to make our vision a reality is already here e.g. Nike+, LinkedIn, Facebook and the Apple ‘app-store’.
Ergonomidesign hopes that ‘Helping Hands’ will inspire thought and discussion about a World where staying in great shape and avoiding illness can actually be within reach.
Did you know the first “brain-tweet” was sent out this year? How about that we may someday be customizing windshields with widgets? In the not-to-distant future, we may be interfacing with computers in exciting and innovative new ways.
In the grand scheme of history, it wasn’t long ago that the first telephone conversation took place. Relatively speaking, that makes the personal computer an invention of yesteryear, and social networking only a blink of an eye later. Just imagine what’s coming in the near future…
The future of how we interact with computers is exciting to say the least. What once seemed like nonsense outside of Hollywood and Science Fiction is now starting to find it’s way into reality, and some of the technology is a bit overwhelming.
My personal favorites, or rather the one’s I’m interested in exploring are -
Courier is a real device, and we’ve heard that it’s in the “late prototype” stage of development. It’s not a tablet, it’s a booklet. The dual 7-inch (or so) screens are multitouch, and designed for writing, flicking and drawing with a stylus, in addition to fingers. They’re connected by a hinge that holds a single iPhone-esque home button. Statuses, like wireless signal and battery life, are displayed along the rim of one of the screens. On the back cover is a camera, and it might charge through an inductive pad, like the Palm Touchstone charging dock for Pre.
Not really sure why I’m blogging this, except for random thoughts that sprung up.
Listening to Matt Jones’s presentation at Umeå for the Fall Summit 2009, and reflecting on some things he said. (It’s amazing that when I listen to a speaker of such calibre, even half-baked thoughts leave me enriched.)
“Anything Essential is Invisible – We are sculpting with Data – We need to have a feel for the data we are working with - We dont design anything until we have a feel for what the data will be like – What the Data wants to Do – Making the Invisible, Visible.”
“And if you think of Brick, for instance,
and you say to Brick,
“What do you want Brick?”
And Brick says to you
“I like an Arch.”
And if you say to Brick
“Look, arches are expensive,
and I can use a concrete lentil over you.
What do you think of that?”
“Brick?”
Brick says:
“… I like an Arch””
(Louis Kahn, Architect, talking about conceiving the IIM Ahmedabad building)
—–
Perhaps this was why I left the older understanding of Architecture behind in search of a newer one.
Some of the most inspiring talks given by some personal heroes of mine. Matt Jones, Adam Greenfield, Jack Schulze, Timo Arnall, Matt Cottam, Lennart Andersson, Erica Robles, Mikael Wiburg and the indomitable Camille Moussette presented to us at the first ever Spring Summit 2009 at Umeå earlier this year.
It was a turning point in a lot of ways for me. I had a chance to meet and get to know Matt Jones and Lennart Andersson (who were kind enough to spare time to discuss my degree project) and influence my way of thinking in a way that I’d never been inspired to do before. It was also special to listen to Adam Greenfield, a thinker and visionary who’s work I greatly admire. It was a rare and personal moment for everyone in the audience when he decided to stop his presentation midway and speak from the heart. In many ways, after a day of amazing presentations – it was the most fitting way to end. I personally enjoyed Jack and Timo’s presentations immensely too!
Following the success of the first Spring Summit 2009 at Umeå (organized by a group of my colleagues, mentors and the dynamic Matt Cottam), the Fall Summit 2009 is on it’s way with another day that promises to be memorable.
(poster designed by Pierre-Alexandre Poirier; via www.interactiondesign.se)
I convinced my employers, Ergonomidesign (eternally grateful!) to let me attend this summit, along with the workshop on Fritzing for 2 days. My colleague Magnus Gyllenswärd (formerly a student at Umeå Institute of Design) will also be attending. We are both super excited. Even though I graduated in June and have only been working for about 3 months – school, my friends, the memories – they all seen so far away. I feel almost nervous that this visit will make me both incredibly happy and a bit nostalgic and sad.
I look forward to posting more about the Summit and what happened there!
