Differing technologies get different amounts of column inches, but the ones wihch seem to continually rear their head at the moment are discussed below to see if there is more to it than just hype.
Wearables
When the Apple Watch was launched just under a year ago, wearable hype was at it’s highest. Almost a year on it has done ok, but not really captured mass market appeal. Among my running and cycling friends athletic smart watches and heart rate monitors are popular so I wonder what the value is to the average person. Two things could help wearables, firstly, better and more health sensors e.g. H2, and secondly, something other than a watch or clip on tracker that offers new utility, this article summarises smart clothes quite well.
Drones
Often when reading about drones it’s usually about delivery of products or how fleets of drones will be used by the military. There certainly will be a lot of military use (peace keeping and otherwise) for cheap drones, but there are countless other applications in use today. Two areas of interest are personal drones, for example, Lily which follows and records you engaging in your favourite sport, and also remote monitoring, for example for precision agriculture or supporting humanitarian relief.
Internet of Things (IoT)
Connecting and monitoring remotely is not new, but the low cost of hardware and ability to process data efficiently is starting to accelerate where this makes sense. However, when reading about internet connected toilets it seems as if IoT is perhaps on the slide into the Trough of Disillusionment, there are some interesting successes. On a personal level, Nest , Canary and netatmo and on a broader level experiments such as Bristol Is Open suggests it is starting to be real.
Self Driving Vehicles
There is a lot of hype about self driving vehicles, from Google’s highly publicised vehicles and Apple’s secretive plans, to traditional car manufacturers such as Audi and Ford. The recent news thatGoogle’s car will be considered the driver is a hint and how this will change our world, and it will change our world. Car ownership will be unnecessary, logistics and supply chain will be transformed, and if you have young children they may never need to learn to drive. The question is, how long will all this take?
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
This is a subject that has fascinated me since I started coding on a BBC micro in the 80s, and AI’s roots go back much further than that. It could therefore be said that it is the most hyped and over promised technology of all time. That said Deep Blue winning Jeopardy and Google’s Deep Mind winning at Go show it is real. It is and will continue to play a key role in all of the technologies above. I for one think it’s benefits will transform lives more than we can imagine (see DeepMind and the NHS), but some great minds warn us of caution.
Should you believe the hype?
Looking at hype related to some of these technologies it would seem that the length of the ‘hype phase’ may correlate to the eventual impact, assuming the technology is ultimately delivered and has tangible benefits and use cases.
