The future of digital - So where do we go now?

I was having an "out there" thinking session on my commute back from work the other day, umming and arring about the next developments that are going revolutionise the way we use the internet.

We're all "socialed" up to the hilt now, with our social network accounts, communicating with each other from the moment we wake until the moment we go to sleep at night.

But, what's going to be the next big leap in the way we use technology?

Well I'm not going to pin my career on anything, but what I thought I might do is have a meander through a few areas that I think we'll see some big changes from in the future.

I'll likely return to some of these ideas in the future and explore them in some greater detail.


Search

I think the future of search is vast, way beyond the function that we we currently associate with search. I envisage a future where search is integral to everything we do.

Intelligent searching beyond what we have now. Integrated with other parts of our on-line lives.

The next developments in search will see a greater integration of the more research and intelligent search features which are currently synonymous with start-ups and technology early adopters/ground breakers.

Functionality such as the semantic web offers will grow as content becomes more tagged and meta data improves, offering far better intelligent searching in the future. Social media is helping with this, creating vast quantities of data that is being interrogated and tagged on a more regular basis, by you and I as we all become more tech savy, taking the grunt work away from developers.

Deep search will delve deeper into on-line content providing more access for those needing more complex and research based access to data. I think this will predominantly be driven by users, granting greater access into currently off-line domains as further data is uploaded on to the internet.

I see search integrating, as we are already experiencing, with other technologies such as geo-positioning to provide further functionality.

Household management systems that help you with your food shopping; searching and indexing current cupboard stocks via smart codes, connecting to your local supplier and providing them with a shopping list for delivery.

Search facilities to find objects and possessions around the household, if you're looking for a specific book (yes, I hope they will stand the test of time, there's an aesthetic value that will never be replaced by on-screen content) or your vehicle keys. Imagine searching for object such as these via your mobile device.

I think our current understanding of search is going to be blown out of the water, taking it to a whole new world of functionality. I'm looking forward to seeing the SEM tie in for searching for your car keys!

Search will be one of the most extensive areas of growth I believe outside of our current obsession of integrating advertising with search. Although don't expect advertising to miss out on this game, it's ideally suited to getting involved.


Interface

Interface is an area I think we'll see some massive growth in over the next decade or two. It's already begun to happen with the popularity of mobile devices that have become "smart" allowing users to browse and interact with their social communities on the go.

There's plenty of talk about the growth of Augmented Reality at the moment and whether it will be the hot topic for 2010. Augmented Reality is an odd one really in the context of this post, as it's less to do with our interface with technology and more to do with technology's interface with our world.

I'm sure it will be very popular, but what about beyond that, where are we heading further into the future?

I was interested to read about the development, or developing technology, of visual interfaces on contact lens and this is more along the lines of what I was expecting for future development.

Retinal Scanning Displays are another take on the same idea, using projectors inside an eye piece or helmets to project data on to the pupil, or something else similar are the Virtual Retinal Displays being developed at The University of Washington with funding from MicroVision.

But I don't think we'll see interface changes being restricted to visual interface alone though. Alterations to the way we interact with devices using our hands. The further integration of technology into clothing will be development I think we'll see growing, with power cells being integrated into clothes and interfaces to activate communication devices.

Perhaps further developments on gesture tracking as an interface, with technologies that interpret movements into commands.

Envisage a man who's lost his car keys at home, standing in his kitchen gesticulating oddly with one of his eyeballs rotating as he searches for his car keys via the device embedded in his sleeve, what a future!

Either way I am sure that, like search, interface will be something that will evolve dramatically over the next decade.


Interaction

Not our interaction with the internet or computers, as I think that's covered in the interface section, but instead the internet or computers interaction with our world.

I've touched on this already in the search section, but I see far greater integration with our currently off-line world in the future. With automated tasks that are fired from computer applications either by ourselves remotely or via scheduled tasks.

Suggestive processing that is already part of many on-line social applications, "if you liked this, perhaps you'd also like this" entering into our screen viewing habits and perhaps even other things such as food and recipe suggestions.

As the internet gains a pseudo intelligence I see it entering this realm on more regular basis, trying to assist us with our hectic lives.

Some will see this as intrusive and resist this interaction, others will embrace it, inevitably it will affect us all eventually.


Connectivity

We are all demanding higher speeds and unrestricted access from our Internet Service Providers today, this demand will only continue to grow as we move more content into the on-line environment.

Our current street-to-home connectivity is provided by the ageing copper infrastructure that was installed by the then national telephone network, British Telecom.

Copper, contrary to popular belief is still a very reliable and fast method of transferring data. The Digital Britain report pointed towards the tax payer helping replace this ageing infrastructure with optic fibre cabling.

Personally I believe that while we might initially see the taxpayer starting the process it will be the service industries that will finish the process as they start to realise the commercial benefit to improving data services to their customers.

Changes to wired infrastructure will only be the start of changes to our access to on-line services. With there already being a growing number of people accessing their content via mobile devices, this trend is expected to continue.

Improvements in GSM and local area protocols will see mobile devices being able to handle faster data rates and store more content locally, changing how we see internet connectivity forever.

Access, and quality of access will continue to improve, enabling us to utilise on-line services in a greater number of locations with greater reliability. The key to this equation will be ensuring that the technology improvements move faster than our growing demand for data.


Energy

I don't think I could talk about this many advances in technology without considering how all of these developments are likely to be powered.

The big talk about energy sources of the future has to be hydrogen, the developments in hydrogen cell technology has got to be seen as exciting.

But for me, it's not necessarily where we are going to get our energy from, as so much how we are going to use it. I see energy efficiency as the key to our future energy sourcing, getting far greater value out of the energy that's already available.

Cloud computing should start to reduce the need for as many local data centre requirements, replacing them with larger geo-irrelevant solutions. It's therefore essential that the business owners of these enterprises consider the real costs of on-line services when developing these offerings.

Ensuring what ever happens with technology in the future that it doesn't end up costing the earth.

Powering micro devices is something that will need to be developed further, allowing us to get power to devices that might too small to hold conventional power sources.


What else?

As an aside to these technology changes, there will be other changes such as the social and economic impact that will occur due to these advances. Will we benefit from these changes as a race or will it leave us without that necessary physical community presence?

Whatever happens in the future, it is inevitable that technology is going to be an integral part of our development as a race.

Technology is growing at a faster rate than we've probably experienced before with other revolutions.

Working within a technology focussed industry this all presents an exciting challenge to me. I just hope it just doesn't come at the expense of important human interactions and instead compliments them.


Further reading:

Semantic Searching - Evri - Digital Signals http://www.digital-constructions.com/blog/2009/05/semantic-searching-evri.html

What is the cost of social media - Digital Signals http://www.digital-constructions.com/blog/2009/04/what-is-cost-of-social-media.html

Universal translation- The global communication mashup - Digital Signals http://www.digital-constructions.com/blog/2009/04/universal-translation-global.html

Diving deeper in to deep web searching - Digital Signals http://www.digital-constructions.com/blog/2009/03/diving-deeper-in-to-deep-web-searching.html

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