Things ain't what they used to be

Not so long ago, objects were simply objects. They only came alive in Disney cartoons, or after a heavy drinking session. Most of the time, objects were simply there to be used to perform a task the user required. Now that is all about to change,  as we advance into the next phase of Web evolution. We are about to see the emergence of what Kevin Ashton called 'the Internet of Things'. In a recent blog post, Jamillah Knowles wrote that a revolution is about to begin where the objects in our homes and workplaces will become smarter, more context aware, and will be able to interpret data fed to them, before taking action. As physicist Michio Kaku wrote recently, 'now we can say to Siri, move my meeting back an hour from 3 to 4, soon we will be able to say to Siri, mow the lawn.' The difference is, at present we can use our devices to interact directly with virtual space, but with smart context aware objects surrounding us, we will be able to interact through virtual tools into the real world.

Already we have QR codes and RFID embedded into objects. These are very effective, but they are superficial compared to what comes next. The next stage, according to this generation of Internet gurus, is to embed smart chip technology, so that objects can have a conversation with our devices. Not only does that have promising implications for health care, engineering, architecture, business and entertainment, it also makes a bright future for ambient learning. Imagine a group of children going on a visit to a museum. Each is equipped with a smart phone. An app on their phones interacts with all of the exhibits in the museum. If they stand in front of a statue, or a model of a dinosaur and hold their phone up, the object will send information to the phone. The longer they stand in front of the exhibit, the more information it will feed them. When they return to their classrooms or homes later, they have a complete archive of all of the objects they have seen that day. They can use this information for projects, essays, blogs, podcasts. It can then be used in whatever content they create to show what they have learnt in the form of text, images, sounds and video. The real learning happens when the kids begin to integrate their experiences, the information they have captured and their interaction with it into creating, organing and sharing their own content.

All of this has been made possible because of the disaggregation of computer and microchip technology. In 2011, the number of smart objects connected to the Internet surpassed the number of people on the planet. This trend will accelerate exponentially in the next few years to the point where we see ubiquitous computing. No longer do we need to carry computers around with us to be able to interact with digital media. Using the smart device in our pockets, and the ubiquitous computing power that is being embedded in objects all around us, we will soon be able to learn from those objects, invest our memories inside them, and even get them to do our bidding.

Things ain't what they used to be. Things are about to get a whole lot smarter.

Photo by Rod Senna


Things ain't what they used to be by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

You've been hailed

Increasingly, as technology becomes more personalised, it will also become more personalisable. By this I mean that not only will users be able to tailor the technology (apps, backgrounds, appearance, functionality) to their own needs, but it will also be used increasingly to appeal to their senses, and even to adjust their perceptions and behaviour. Watching a re-run of the 2002 sci-fi movie Minority Report, reminded me of this. The central character, a Pre-Crime Officer by the name of John Anderton is walking down the street, and animated advertising images are calling him out by name as he passes by: "John Anderton - you need this product today!" We assume that the embedded technology within the advertising hoardings is detecting some personal feature that identifies him - possibly the irises in his eyes - and can then call him by his name. Such advertising, if it were technically feasible (and some would argue it already is) would be very powerful, because as all advertisers know, it is the personal message that is the most influential.

The Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser had plenty to say about how ideological messages influence the perceptions of individuals. Objects, music, art (and I would add media and technology) can all be used to 'hail' the individual and make them feel as though they are personally being addressed. This process of interpellation could be exemplified in Lord Kitchener's World War One poster 'Your Country Needs You', and all of the subsequent imitations by other governments to encourage young men to enlist in the military to protect and defend their country. His stern expression and the stark message said it all. The eyes of the interpellator followed you wherever you went, and there was apparently no escape from the fact that Lord Kitchener was calling you personally to join him in the struggle against evil.

It is highly likely that such interpellative technologies as those seen in Minority Report will be realised sooner rather than later. But it is the context aware systems and their ability to educate learners that I am most excited about. Such systems will be at the core of the Smart eXtended Web, and equipped with the appropriate handheld or wearable technology, learners will be able to interact with their environments in ways never before achievable. All of this will also be very personal, and will facilitate new and exciting forms of education.

Inspired by a Twitter conversation with Manish Malik @manmalik, Simon Brookes @Pompeysie and Pat Parslow @patparslow.

You've been hailed by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.