By: Cody Pallo
APPS
Tap — July 14, 2016
This is a ball used for a game that is a cross between pinball and tennis. Tap it, and it floats toward another user over a virtual divide. As the levels progress, more difficult terrane is added. If it hits a surface (virtual or physical) too hard, it explodes.
Brand — July 13, 2016
This is a brand based personal shopping service. Applications like Apple Music let users pick their favorite musicians or groups based on a system of bubbles. The bigger the user chooses to make a specific musician’s bubble, the more they are saying that they like that artist. Apple then uses this information to determine recommendations. In this case, the concept would apply to brands. The user picks brands they want, they make some bubbles larger than others, and they choose from suggestions to emphasize their taste. Once a recommendation system is in place, and they find a specific product or service that they’re interested in, the user will then have the option to talk with a virtual sales associate for that brand. Categories could be divided along a scale of most commercial to least known. This could be incorporated into an operating system or offered as a paid service. For example, one feature could be ad blocking. Once the service is purchased, all ads in the user’s world (such as physical billboards) can be customized and/or removed from their field of vision.
Art — July 13, 2016
In this example, we are in a garage viewing someone’s 3D animated virtual art. In the future, we will be more inclined to go outside, to places like speakeasy galleries and museums. These may be the best locations to find digital contemporary art. Once an item is bought, it can be downloaded and placed anywhere in an allowable area (such as a users home or public space, with permission.) With the use of digital watermarks and DRM, art can be sold in editions. This concept could either be built into an immersive operating system, or there could be an application that allows exclusive viewing.
News — July 6, 2016
This is a virtual news channel with a reporter that tells you about what your friends are up to through room cameras that can view virtual environments in the third person. In this example, the man gives the woman a trip to Italy for Valentine’s day. As she’s sitting on the couch, she opens a travel magazine which projects a map on the wall with an animation of an arrow that turns into a heart with fireworks. The man walks in with flowers and explains the significance. She then posts this news to her network which is broadcast by an animated virtual news reporter.
Voice — July 6, 2016
This example is an astrology app that has palm reading and a virtual astrology assistant. The idea is much like Microsoft’s Actiongram technology. I predict that AI and voice recognition along with technology that analyzes people’s emotions will allow a person to change their character by essentially turning the sound of their voice and mimicking body gestures through a library of known non-verbal communication methods. While some responses can be personal and spoken by another human other response can merely be engineered.
Message — July 4, 2016
This is a program that can blend media into one little self-contained package that can then be text messaged to other people. It can contain Audio, Video, Images, and 3D. Each one can be annotated and collaborated on in real time.
Here are a couple simple use case scenarios:
Someone is moving to a faraway place, and the user wants to make a going away message to send them before they go, they text message all their friends and ask them to post a picture of themselves and a recorded audio farewell. An image (or video) of the group’s favorite location is carefully placed behind all their cutout photos with a button next to each that plays their spoken goodbye. The package is then sent as a gift to the person leaving.
A scientist is working on a project and finds some data which they have downloaded as a 3D file. They text their colleague with questions and their colleague texts back with audio notes so that the scientist can reference them later.
Take for example the “Business” illustration under the “OS” tab, where notes are taken during a meeting. If someone is in the room, they may not be able to just ask a virtual assistant to do what they are thinking. In this case, a silent UI will be necessary.
In the concept graphic I’ve provided, someone wants to share with Mobil their negative experience with their leaky propane. The user asks their friends if they have any graphics that might help them get their point across. The user shows them what they have, (the white Mobil Pegasus.) The person shown on the left responds by essentially saying “try it in red with some flames.” The user then goes on to add other media from their other friends. In the end, the user composes a simple multimedia package that is sent to the company.
OS
Filed — July 19, 2016
This is a top-level overview of a system for storing files in Augmented Reality. The idea is to have a Personal Concierge that indexes and retrieves data for you. This Concierge asks you to describe your file each time you save and search. You may reply by speaking or typing. Every document has a title that you determine. It also has the Universal Decimal Classification (UDC), the same that is used in Public Libraries. When you describe your document, the computer uses AI to guess and list its organizational place based on text in the document, the document’s title, and your description (much like how Google indexes the web.) Each category is listed below the table with its UDC number below that. The hierarchy starts with a top-level box and then gets more granular until the file you are looking for ends up on the Concierge’s platter. “Boxes” are the organizational categories, “Binders” hold more specific subsections, “Tabs” hold subsections of those subsections, “Envelopes” hold project lists, and “Lists” hold specific “Files.” Files that are not saved go in an inbox (not shown). Each organizational method has its own history retrieval method (not shown), to account for error. Whenever you click on any of these organizational methods or edit its category by clicking the close X, you will then be asked more questions by the Concierge to locate what you are looking for. With this system, you don’t need a complex structure of arbitrary folders that you try and invent. This is a proven system that already accounts for all human knowledge. It also avoids duplicate files.
Stage — July 13, 2016
Virtual Reality movies are too neck wrenching to be viewed as feature films. I believe that cinema will be replaced by Immersive Theatre. Virtual sets and actors will be placed on three-dimensional stages. Stage sets will be as ornate as film sets, and there will be new ways of creatively swapping out scenes during the unfolding of a story.
Avatar — July 12, 2016
In this example, a user is picking a new avatar in the mirror. This is inspired by the book “Rainbows End” by Vernor Vinge. I like the concept of being an airplane and flying through the streets of a foreign country or visiting a local restaurant as a cartoon animal or an alien being. In this example, the user is selecting a new hairstyle.
Business — July 12, 2019
In this example, a user is able to silently put together virtual notes during a semi-virtual meeting, either through an assistant or a UI similar to the “Message” example under the “Apps” tab. This technology would allow a user to show someone else a finished document and then have the recipient download it on the spot.
Concert — July 12, 2016
In this example, the user is experiencing a performance from the comfort of home, while others are actually there in person. Although the user is at home others can see them as if they were there in person. The user can also view themselves in the third person and choose to be whichever avatar they wish. In this case, they are a cartoon creature flying around the concert in a bird-shaped airplane.
Payment — July 6, 2016
This is possibly what a future Christmas eCard from somebody’s eccentric Aunt or Grandmother might look like. Once accepted, it takes over the recipient’s environment. This concept also employs a function that allows anyone to send money. This could also apply to pay the price at the door when a user goes to a concert or tourist attraction.
Flip — July 5, 2016
In this example, the button flips like a coin at its crest, in slow motion.
I hope to see great ideas come from this.