So, we got to enjoy the NSW 2015 elections on the weekend. I don’t know about you but I can think of better ways to spend a beautiful Saturday morning than queuing to cast my vote. It got me wondering why we aren’t doing it electronically, from our preferred device and at a time of our choosing. Yes, the polling booths were only open from 8am to 6pm so I guess that’s an added inconvenience for those working Saturdays.
“If voting made any difference they wouldn’t let us do it.” – Mark Twain
Anticipatory computing – the buzz is growing louder but how much do we need it? Despite the ubiquitous mobile device and it’s plethora of tools for building to-do lists, recording memos, managing our appointments and alerting us about all manner of anniversaries, there still seems to be an emerging market for helping us remember even less ourselves.
Thankfully, in addition to that pressing concern, there are more meaningful ways in which predictive computing is being used in mobile devices. Primarily, these tools tend to focus on helping us manage our ever-complex, time-poor lives by personalizing our information streams and thereby uncluttering the process of finding that most relevant of data morsels. In this article I’ll take a quick poke around to see what’s been happening in this space.
“It is one thing to use computers as a tool, quite another to let them do your thinking for you.” – Tom Clancy
It’s been a while since I commented on emerging technology so this week I thought I’d take a quick look at where we are with augmented reality (AR) and, in particular, iBeacon’s role in this space. There are many opinions out there addressing the benefits of location-based information and/or immersive experiences. However, a recurring theme seems to be the overwhelming reluctance to don a pair of glasses or goggles just to be transported to another world however augmented it may be. That said, there are plenty of people that believe AR will be transformational.
“When you think of any aspect of life or work, augmented reality is going to change how we do it.” – Ori Inbar, Augmented Reality.ORG
Recently, I was fortunate enough to attend the first meeting of IoT Sydney where we enjoyed a couple of excellent presentations and plenty of enriching conversation in the breaks. However, the main take-away for me was how far we still have to go in terms of interoperability, safety assurance and contextual awareness.
One thing that struck me was that there seemed to be a lot of situations where we have a solution looking for a problem.