codeconstruct

We spent a few days experiencing all CES 2012, the world’s largest consumer technology trade show, had to offer and hoping to find insights and new products that might shape the way things move for our industry in the coming years. The sheer size of the show made it challenging to fully absorb everything, but once we bypassed the huge array of custom smartphone cases and celebrity endorsed headphones there were some useful nuggets that we walked away with.

An overarching theme at CES was ecosystems. Even when a singular piece of technology was being showcased the selling points were often its integration into a larger ecosystem that would have a more profound effect on users lives. To a large degree everyone is playing catch up to Apple but the idea of the ecosystem is being pushed into other areas of peoples lives that, up until now, had been very stand alone.

To us the core driver for this shift is the extent to which smartphones are taking over and playing a key role in everyones lives. It’s the device that we all have on us at all times, with all the information we need access to whenever we need it. Why would we duplicate that information anywhere else? We can look at our smartphones as being a key to other products, and based on the information that your smartphone holds the products will adapt and customize to give you the best experience possible. Why fumble about in your car on your smartphone when you can plug it in the dashboard and make your car one big smartphone? With speech recognition your own familiar contact list can be accessed without taking a hand off the wheel. Navigation systems can use the addresses already assigned to contacts with directions presented on your windscreen to keep your eyes on the road you’re traveling. Slot your smartphone in and have the car adjust the seating, wheel height, temperature settings all based on the identity of the smartphone owner that plugged in. These principals were being applied to almost every task you can think of that people undertake each day, and the products they use to when doing so.

Screens were prevalent at the show, whether they be OLED TV’s or multi-touch screens, with many manufacturers sparring for the crispest screen, brightest colors, thinest lightest screens, and most simultaneous touches detected. 3D was always going be one of the features that would be splashed around CES but our take away was that the technology really isn’t there yet. The 4K 3D OLED Television displays had an incredibly vivid picture and are less than a half an inch thick. Unfortunately we are still stuck with stereovision based 3D technology that uses glasses to create the 3D effect. The glasses-less 3D screens were not as compelling with the quality just not being there yet. Coupled with the fact that 10% of the population cannot see the 3d with current 3d technologies due to their eye problems, we’d question when we see 3D really go mainstream.

Gestural interfaces also had a fairly strong presence but there was some weeding through the examples of gesture for the sake of gesture to find the ones that really made sense. Gestural interfaces have long been touted as the next thing since products like Microsoft Kinect put the ability to recognize motion into peoples living rooms.

However, there are issues associated with how it is being implemented so far. Fatigue is often overlooked. There is a reason this technology has been adopted by fitness games. Waving your arms around and dancing around gives you a workout. To that end do we want the same workout to change the heating in our homes or close the blinds on a window? There’s also the issue of self consciousness when in public spaces. Do we want be the guy jumping around infront of a billboard in times square as hundreds of bystanders stare at you?

In an interesting discussion on the future of user interface the panel tackled a lot of these issues, as well as the variety of gestural languages needed to operated different devices, to the point that the ultimate user interface to them was one you don’t have to interact with. Their point was that devices should move towards being something you have a relationship with rather than a tool you use. As you change it learns, adapts, and anticipates to allow you to take on the tasks you need to do without a thought. Your house will know where you are at certain times of the day and adjust the heat in the house dependent on the rooms that are occupied and conserve energy by switching on just before the times it knows people will be home so it’s warm by the time they get there. It’ll use motion detection to adapt this cycle day by day and it will know your vacation plans to shut off when you leave and start up on your return.

Again, this brings us back to the smartphone as the all knowing gateway to your past, present and future and how it will play into this ever evolving world of personal ecosystems.