Being a teen in the 90s surely had its perks. Let me name a few: MTV Alternative Nation, Converse All Star, and Super Nintendo. I bet a lot of people who are in their 30s now would agree. Personally, if I may add another name to that list, I would say Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a Trekkie.
It’s simply because during those days, that sci-fi series had me glued to the TV screen for about an hour almost every day. It had the right formula that would hook teen boys like me: spaceships, bizarre aliens, Counselor Deanna Troi (google the name and you’ll understand why), and –last but not least– the futuristic technology and gadgetry.
The USS Enterprise’s “holodeck” (the simulation room that could create all kinds of realistic holographic projections from your wildest dreams), Data, the iconic android hero, warp speed and phaser weapons. For me, all of those things made the experience of watching the TV series like watching a magic show.
Anyway, enough with the nostalgia and let’s fast-forward to the present.
It has been about 20 years since the days of ‘Star Trek: The Next Generations’, and a lot of the (fictional) technologies from the series –like the holodeck– remain far-fetched even in our high-tech world. But what about androids? I don’t mean Google’s operating system, but the humanoid robots. Are they still far beyond our present day realities?
The answer contains four letters: BERO, short for ‘BE’ the ‘ROBOT’.
BERO is a pint-sized robot that can be controlled via Bluetooth-enabled smartphone. If you’re curious enough to search for the image online, you’ll discover that the small bot actually looks similar to Google’s Android mascot. The similarity is intentional, because the manufacturer -Reality Robotics- said they were “inspired” by the Android’s green bot mascot.
Obviously, BERO is not Star Trek’s Data or even Star War’s R2 D2.
BERO is only a simple toy bot. An article from CNET.com described the robot as having features like “…onboard speakers, LED eyes, flashing headphones, and six motors that move its head, arms, and tank-style treads. It can boogie to WAV files on SD cards, and recharge via USB when its juice is low. It also has two infrared sensors that can detect obstacles up to 3.5 inches away to the right, left, and front of the robot.”
The price tag for BERO? $79.
As expected, add more bucks and you’ll get more gimmicks.
Regardless of the robot’s limited abilities (and puppy-like name), ask yourself:
Since when did we start having real programmable robots (with built in sensors) as a toy?
“The future is already here — it’s just not very evenly distributed”, said William Gibson, the American-Canadian sci-fi novelist who coined the word “cyberspace”.
I believe the fact that BERO is already here poses some important lessons.
I think the time has come for us to start considering innovations or extensions –either on the level of product, brand, or communication– with technological feats as main value-added propositions.
I bet the demands for such products and services are real. After all, people –consumers and producers– are already living in the “magical world” of the future where diverse technologies are prevalent in daily life, whether or not they are aware.
Shawn Dubravac, Chief Economist and Director of Research at the Consumer Electronics Association, introduced the term “digital omnivores” to describe how some people are already quickly adopting all sorts of smart, web-connected consumer technologies. In fact, the phenomenon has already triggered a whole new level of “smart technology”, even though those gadgets still exist at the fringe of our world nowadays.
“Smart was a synonym for connecting, and now we are seeing contextual connectivity,” Dubravac said at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Those smart devices will get smarter because they are connected to sensors, such as “accelerometers” made by companies such as Invensense, which produces the motion-sensors in popular game consoles such as the Wii. As devices become more context-aware, the label of “smart” will begin to take on new meaning. In the past, it simply meant that a device, such as a smartphone or Smart TV, was connected to the Internet. Soon, it will mean that the device will know much more about what is relevant to you because it knows your context, location, and tastes.
Now that sounds more ‘Terminator’-ish than magical, doesn’t it?
Well, let’s not over-think things; look at the bright side for now.
Thanks to those techies, cool products like Fitbit Flex exist. The Flex is a wristband that tracks physical activity – the number of steps you take, distance traveled, calories burned, active minutes, and quality of sleep– much like the Nike+ Fuelband, except that this one comes in stylish colors.
Products like BERO, the Wii and Kinect, and the Flex, have made new technology more consumable and less “Terminator-ish” to everyday people. At the same time, they make sure that the demand for “magic” is always high.
So why not embrace the magic?
