Tag: Device Diversification

Lifelogs Log Long Lovely Life

Peter LinderLeave a comment
© Peter Linder 2014 – All rights reserved
© Peter Linder 2014 – All rights reserved

Lessons from life logging – my first months with photographic memory – The Networked Society Blog

According to design consultancy Fjord, there are 27 different types of wearables you can be wearing right now. One type of these wearables – a life-log – equips you with a photographic memory – one separate from your smartphone and that works without pushing a button.

Life-logs are used for a new phenomenon called life-logging. A small wearable camera captures your activities during the whole day. Pictures are taken automatically; the one I use takes one every 30 seconds, or around 2000 in a day. Geo-tagging of all the pictures gives you memory about what you saw where. Cloud-based storage of all the pictures helps to merge them into different “contexts” to reflect the activities you were doing. Access to the pictures from a mobile app allows you to post the desired ones to your social media channels. 2014 is the year when Autographer, Lifelogger, Narrative, Parashoot and Sony are introducing their first variants of life-logging cameras, and we can expect variations on the concept outlined above.

Here are some experiences from my first few months with a life-log in my daily life. The overall concept of life logging also includes a variety of parameters captured by fitness trackers and smart watches. This post was deliberately focused on the photography aspect of life logging.

We are still in the early stage of exploring how life-logging will be used for private and professional purposes. I have not yet figured out all the applications for a life log, and I am not even close. But wearing a life log triggers questions from people around you. What is that device? Which privacy rule applies? Will you use it mostly for vacation or in daily life situations? What type of pictures will be easier to take with a life log device than a smartphone or a dedicated digital camera? One clear application area is to capture memories when you’re traveling and exploring either a city or nature, as the collection in this blog picture (all taken with a life log)

During the first week and months, you will learn a few lessons. Life-logs work best outside, since the camera does not come with a flash or adjustments of the ISO levels. It provides the best picture angles when attached to a dress shirt or polo. When using T-shirts, it tends to shoot too much downward. Substantial volumes of pictures are generated daily. Turn it off when when doing the same thing for a long time. Enjoy the movie scroll features that allow you to scan through material quickly, as a library of interesting moments to share or remember.

My predictions for the future of picture life-logging are:
· Life logging has broad private and professional application potential, most of them still to develop as we put the devices in use.
· The cloud synchronization could be simplified greatly when done via Bluetooth through a smartphone on the go. This will be a natural evolution for next generation devices.
· The picture volumes are substantial, and life logs could easily become a substantial driver of traffic from you towards the network/cloud.

Ring Revolution Reduce Reactions

Peter LinderLeave a comment
©Peter Linder 2014 – All rights reserved
©Peter Linder 2014 – All rights reserved

Networked rings represent a new type of technology wearable, emerging as part of the smartphone ecosystem. At Fashion Week 2014 in New York City, Ringblingzintroduced their first ring connected to a smartphone. So what role do we see fashion accessories such as rings playing in the Networked Society?

As I outlined in my blog post on networked watches, most wearables that are connected to a smartphone and are accompanied by an app. A networked ring is a smaller notification device than the phone-watch combination and further exploits the technology miniaturization potential. The screen size takes us back to the early mobile phone days, when 20 characters were visible to the user. Vibration is a vital trigger for the user and short range radios connect the ring to your phone.

These first networked rings are targeting younger user segments. The design of the ring is a key buying criteria since it is as much a fashion statement as it is a communication device. Networked rings belong to one of the 4-5 wearable tech product categories (together with watches, activity bracelets, health monitors and life-logs) with mass market potential.

The primary applications for networked rings are social media notifications and lifestyle trackers. The differentiation in relation to watches and bracelets will be its small size and stylish look. Aggregating data from a variety of sources and screening out the most relevant is an attractive tool for reducing information overload. New smartphone generations, with larger screens, can remain the pocket or purse for basic information tracking.

My predictions for the near-term future of wearable tech are:

* All wearables will be designed as slaves to smartphones, with short haul radio, dedicated smartphone apps and motion sensors as basic ingredients.
* Wearable design will continue to grow in importance and rings are born into a fashion category from start.
* 1-2 wearable devices will gain mass market appeal in 2014, opening up for a breakthrough for networked rings.
* Use will be reactive and triggered by light buzzes, prior to watching the micro screen.

Finding Fitness Foresight Formula

Peter LinderLeave a comment
© Peter Linder 2014 – All rights reserved
© Peter Linder 2014 – All rights reserved

The wellbeing of ‘cityzens’ is dependent on individuals taking a greater responsibility for being active. Running in the parks or workout sessions at the gym are common in urban areas but what will we demand in the form of measurement when these activities move beyond the fitness freaks and become mainstream in the city?

The ability to measure and track physical exercise is widespread among the most fitness-aware parts of the population. These practitioners track their workouts and running sessions with dedicated devices. They upload results and compare with friends with defined goals and targets. They move in to the exercise, get the job done and move out to their next mission.

There is a potential to leverage our daily movements and open up for the broader population to embrace measuring fitness and their personal lifestyle. By measuring our daily walks we might step off the bus one stop earlier on a good day and add a healthy 5-minute walk. We might select the stairs instead of elevators as we move around in the office. And we might choose restaurants further away to get in a healthy micro-lunch walk. Smart wearables with applications in our smartphones might support this development.

In many physically intensive professions, it is not so much about adding movement as it is about preventing unnecessary ones, or rather to track the intensity of the really hard ones. Location information and connectivity for instant access to employee’s wellbeing is emerging across many sectors. All of these factors is enabling a more health-aware lifestyle where we can measure and improve all areas where we would like to drive personal change.

My predictions for the future of preventive healthcare in cities are:
– Measuring and monitoring physical activities will move from fitness freaks to mainstream for all ‘cityzens’
– Dedicated devices will be complemented by wearables and applications coupled to smartphones
– Data will be stored in the cloud and automatically uploaded without manual intervention.

Daily Device Dependency Drive Digital Detox Demand

Peter LinderLeave a comment
©Peter Linder 2013 – All rights reserved
© Peter Linder 2013 – All rights reserved

Are you among the users dependent on four or five networked devices on a daily basis? These devices provide endless opportunities and can also create addictive behaviors. Nevertheless, some of us might benefit from a bit of “digital detox” during our vacation as we recharge for the fall.

A survival question for application developers is to offer their applications on a variety of platforms, such as smartphones, tablets, laptops, PCs and TVs. It is also about the seamless transition between them and to allow for dual-screen use cases. This creates an application availability opportunity for users to take advantage of or to use excessively.

Many users have adopted a multiscreen and multi-social media lifestyle without putting boundaries for when their URL life should stand back for their IRL experiences. Both business communications and excessive social media use could become a stress factor to wind down from during the vacation.

The digital detox industry is growing quickly and offers everything from initial seminars to advanced programs. All with the purpose of finding your own well-being during a period without or with reduced device access. It is not about dropping the devices but finding the right balance between your networked and your physical/mental life. Both are an essential part of life in the Networked Society in the same way as a great meal requires both food and drinks in order to be well-balanced.

My suggestions for vacations this summer:

– Reflect on your personal usage patterns and decide which screen and app combination makes you relax and enjoy life, without causing stress.
– If you are a heavy user of both business communication and social media, consider dropping one of them during your vacation this year.
– Elaborate with shifting content consumption patterns to a new media/device combination allowing you to free up time. For example, stop reading full books and shift to audio summaries of the same book.
– Determine which stimuli reactions, for example, responding, pinning, liking, re-tweeting you see as adding value to your important life accomplishments.