The internet of me

There is an old gag that on leaving the house a man makes the sign of the cross. He is not religious, it stands for: spectacles, testicles, wallet, watch. A quick check to see they have all the essentials items a man needs to be a man.

Today’s version would have to include the phone. It is far more vital to our daily existence than any of the others. In fact increasingly we are now leaving home with a digital ecosystem which defines what it is to be a digital citizen. Each item no longer exists in isolation. Our smartphones are the key, the hub for all our new devices and has the potential to replace at least one of them, the wallet.  This trend will only continue.

As we adopt wearables we move from having a single digital device to a collection of independent but symbiotic internet devices. Our wristbands and smart watches can act as information conduits but also collect data, and feed it back to our smartphone. They will assess our health and wellbeing. Some of the work in deciding what to do with the data will take place on the device but most will be done on our smartphone apps talking to external health databases and where appropriate to our health providers and insurers.

Smart glasses will augment our experiences, again using the smartphone as the conduit to the external data sources. Image recognition, location services, pricing comparison, social communication will all travel through the smartphone hub to our personal internet of devices.

A lot of the time this will result in automatous actions that do not require input from the owner. Where you are, your schedule, your habits, your diary, your needs will be assessed to make decisions on your behalf. Within your own ecosystem of physical devices and the wider personal information stored in countless cloud services rules will run and instructions will be sent out.

While we are still awaiting the impact of the Internet of Things we are starting to see the Internet of Me. A world where devices are networking and making decisions for my benefit. Based on my very personal needs and state. The internet of me means the power of my network of devices is greater than of them individually.  If a new device comes along or I upgrade my health monitoring device then the other devices in the network could have access to this new data and functionality. The combination of the data from more personal sources makes the decisions which can be made more accurate, wider reaching etc.

Google always have, and recently Apple have been opening out their platforms so that third parties can  build solutions that will easily communicate and co-operate. For the time being we have to be in one or the other camp, but device makers will profit from supporting both. The added capabilities and ease of collaboration will determine what is capable on each platform.

Commercially it will open a whole new market, where tomorrow’s Apples and Facebooks will be born. Certain device combinations will hit the sweet spot and deliver killer apps. A man will not be judged by the cut of his suit but the configuration of his internet.

Socially, The Internet of Me will further widen the digital divide. Already just having access to the internet gives an advantage over those without access. If we extend this to the Internet of Me then the individual with their own ecosystem has a definite advantage over one who does not. They may be able to get access to beter healthcare or lower insurance premiums. They can have immediate access to greater amounts of contextual information. They are more likely to be targeted with promotions and offers and make savings.  How will society and governments deal with these digital inequalities, or will they even try?

So what is the new sign of the cross? Smartphone, smartwatch, ARglasses, biometric earphones, and not forgetting testicles. Somethings never change.

Interacting with wearables - the ring is the thing

Lets face it, the method of interacting with Google Glass via swiping the leg of the glasses is far from ideal.  Voice is also available but very public. What is needed is a small wearable input device that allows gestures, menu selection, cursor movement, mouse clicks etc.

In the wearable PC labs and geek tech corners of the web are gloves, bracelets and ring mice. These all tend to look bulky and not something you would want to be seen wearing away from your desk, or even in public. However a recent Kickstarter project funded a device which shows promise.

Mycestro is a touch sensitive 3d mouse that fits on the finger. It uses low power Bluetooth 4 to pair with your PC, but could be iPad, Glass or Smartwatch. It uses the 3D gestural motion of your finger to control a cursor, and a touch sensitive pad for selection and initiation of the device.

I would not be surprised if Apple did not create a ring input device as an addition to other existing and future devices. It could work with Apple TV, your Mac, iPad or a future glasses project. With their design and engineering flair they could make it usable, discrete and fashionable.

I see a future where we will wear multiple connected wearable devices. Selecting the best of breed for each situation. Just as we can currently pick the mouse and display that fits our needs and budget.

Update:

Another entrant into this area. These are just concept designs form a competition on crowdSpring but even if this device does not eventually appear I have no doubt that rings will be important input and control devices. They are small, personal, unobtrusive and can be used without making large gestures.

"Psst! Want to buy a smart watch?"

Pebble, Google, Samsung, Sony, Qualcomm and soon Apple are all getting into the wearable game. A day does not seem to go by without another candidate for our wrists, belts, or eyes. Some are highly targeted towards specific markets, such as Nike, Garmin or Fitbit's sports devices. Even auto manufacturers are getting in on the game, Nissan today launched the Nismo, which monitors both telemetry such as speed and driver heart rate, all to improve safety and driver abilities. But with so many offering we are sitting at that confusing time when a new technological opportunity throws up many wild and diverse solutions. To take advantage of all these you would need arms like a street corner hustler.  

Unlike traditional wearable accessories where design, fashion and quality of materials play an important part, the decision process for tech wearables is more complex. Top amoungst many is battery life, this may be an area of consumer education. As phones switched from relatively dumb devices into today's smart phones we have become accustomed to the nightly recharging ritual. So maybe we should not think of smart watches in terms or normal watches, but as mini computers. Other considerations are usability, comfort, and a desire to look more or less like a geek. 

The big consideration is about ecosystems and capabilities. As most offerings will not be stand alone devices but paired to your mobile, the choice of OS is important. If you are wedded to either Android or IOS then you require a lot of impetus to switch. Either OS will promise a platform where third parties can develop apps to meet your every need. The Davids entering the market against these Goliath's face an up hill battle. But as we know, in technology the newstart can sometimes cause major disruption.

Individual companies bringing in task specialised watches will have a distinctly hard time. Being an you are established brand within a domain helps.  Or if the device targets an an activity where it is already established that you need to dress appropriately - sports, biking, medical then consumers may be willing to strap on a special it device. But if it is a  more integrated activity, such as driving, the barriers to donning automobile specific wearables is high. 

After years of research in the lab, the world of wearable tech is just starting to enter the mainstream. Many players want a slice of the $8.36 billion pie. As a consumer, my advice would be to hold my fire and give it a year before purchase. By then we will be on mark two or three of devices and the some of the early problems will have been ironed out and the best of a new generation of useful wearable apps should be clear.