Today’s Innovation Landscape: Topics to Get Excited About

This year is particularly interesting as on the surface it does not seem like there have been giant leaps in progress with any of the usual acronyms associated with the Fourth Industrial Revolution including AR VR AI IoT and voice amp160It feels like these technologies are on a bit of a treadmill still waiting for their amp8220iPhone momentamp8221 of scale killer app and utility to drive their respective categories to ubiquity amp160Behind the scenes though there has been tremendous development and progress on these technological fronts Pro tip amp160If you havenamp8217t please watch AlphaGo on Netflix amp160Despite these underthehood advancements there has been a lack of evidence that any of the categories will achieve mainstream commercial success any time soon amp160One canamp8217t help but feel disappointed at the stalled momentumSuch a defeatist attitude is myopic however when considering how incredibly early we are in the current tech cycle and how much our already high expectations have been artificially inflated by our own hype amp160We must also be careful not to discredit the innovation narrative as itamp8217s not only about the product pipelines of tech giants amp160To get the full picture it is also important to look at startups and emergent consumer behaviors both places where marketplace dynamism is found in abundanceHere is what Iamp8217m most looking forward to for the rest of 2018 amp160These arenamp8217t predictions or declarations per se but rather observations on what some of the most interesting ideas are suggesting about our techfueled future amp160More often than not this technology conversation sits at the meaningful and consequential intersection of culture policy and wellnessVRamp8217s amp8220Ahaamp8221 MomentThe VR industryamp8217s hangover from an unremarkable holiday season carried over into the New Year where despite fantastic advancements in things like eye tracking haptics and social VR it is generally difficult to find the same enthusiasm as in years past amp160The cost of entry to highend VR experiences is still too high for mainstream consumers and there persists a fundamental design issue in that current headsets are still too heavy bulky and cumbersome amp160This all has a chance to change later this year as Facebookowned Oculus is set to release the Oculus Go which promises highend optics untethered to a computer or smartphone starting at under 200 amp160While this shouldnamp8217t be seen as any sort of panacea it will get the attention of talented developers many of whom have been waiting for a critical amount of scale to justify the redirection of dev resources from smartphone apps to Virtual Reality experiencesWearable Tech Finds Its Killer AppThe knock against wearable technology devices is that despite the categoryamp8217s ability to sell millions of units and in the case of the Apple Watch seriously disrupt the Swiss luxury timepiece market they are solutions looking for problems to solve amp160Everyone knows someone who has discarded a wristbased tracker after just a short amount of time because it just wasnamp8217t that useful amp160Recent research findings suggest that there may finally be a killer app Health and not in the way of step counting and proprietary points systems amp160UCSF has published that AIbased tracking via the Cardiogram app on the Apple Watch can detect things like hypertension sleep apnea atrial fibrillation and diabetes with greater than 80 accuracy amp160The availability of health data from wearable devices can have dramatic effects on preventative health something that is sorely needed considering the state of the healthcare industry in AmericaThe Nascent Blockchain Application LayerNow that crypto fever has subsided for the time being anyway itamp8217s worth looking into the fundamental technology that is allowing for such decentralized currency amp160Blockchain is still in its infancy but already promises to be a General Purpose Technology that will eventually have the ability to displace or disintermediate nearly every category that requires a transaction based on trust amp160The applications that will be built on top of Blockchain could lead to entirely new systems of commerce payment and ownership amp160Itamp8217s difficult to explain what these applications will look like since Bitcoin now exists in a way that the internet once existed prior to the invention of the web browser amp160Adoption of Blockchain solutions may radically change the way to do media buying paywalls and ad verification amp160With all of the attention and enthusiasm for decentralized computing we may see the first consumeraccessible Blockchain applications later this yearThe Drive to DisconnectMy best friend and I are planning a long weekend trip to upstate New York in late spring with the expected food and drink hikes board games and a fire pit but without the distraction of smartphones or any screenbased technologyamp160 All devices are strictly prohibited amp160So unless there is an absolute emergency there will be no checking emails texting and Instagram Story uploads amp160No weamp8217re not crazy amp160Weamp8217re merely following the trend amp160The past year has seen a notable uptick of what are usually FOMOgenerating experiences from Dave Chappelleamp8217s series of shows at Radio City Music Hallamp160to brandsponsored concerts at Art Basel Miami Beach that have forbidden the use of smartphones onpremise amp160This trend has now reached a fever pitch as discussions about the effect of screens on childhood and foreign interference in elections have entered the mainstream amp160The need to disconnect to better appreciate a live experience andor for reasons of mental health may feel contrary to the innovation narrative but it is something to take into serious consideration moving forward as consumers start to question addiction and overdependence on personal devicesThe Return of Context and CreativityFor those of us who came of age in this industry in the preprogrammatic days there is a feeling in the air of possibility and creativity that hasnamp8217t existed since prior to the last major cycle of technological development amp160If the popular theory of technology SCurves is to be believed we are at the special transition period where an established nowcommodity technology smartphones is being replaced or augmented by something entirely new AR VR AI IoT Blockchain etc amp160This intersection allows for those of us who exercise a combination of right and left brain thinking to imagine what the future could look like amp160While engineering and programming talent are no doubt laying the foundation for these new technologies it is context and creativity that will help them scale and become relevant and meaningful to consumers amp160It isnamp8217t overly dramatic to say that as participants in the marketing and advertising industries we all have the unique ability to shape the next decades of our future amp160So despite all of the uncertainty as to which new technology with amp8220be the next iPhoneamp8221 one thing is for sure amp160Itamp8217s going to be an interesting unpredictable and exciting rideClick the social buttons above or below to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writersamp160amp160

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Today’s Innovation Landscape: Topics to Get Excited About

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Michael Miraflor

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Today’s Innovation Landscape: Topics to Get Excited About

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