Imagine this scenario.
You wake up; head to work with your cell phone around your wrist. While on the train, you remove the phone from your wrist and open it up as if it were a mini newspaper. You read in real-time about the latest financial news, check the weather for the next few hours and catch the end of your favorite television show you missed when you dozed off the night before. All before arriving at work. Once at work, instead of your whole team sitting at the conference room table beside you, only half of them are physically present. The other half are half way around the world, but in many ways, they are just as involved with the meeting that is about to start as they would be if they were sitting next to you. You can thank telepresence for that.
Ok, ok, before I go on, I should provide some background. Today in class we watched some amazing videos and discussed some fascinating topics relating to technology. Only half of the aforementioned technology is currently available to consumers. Can you guess which one? As much as I would like a wearable cell phone, there is still a way to go before you or I will be toting our own around. The Nokia Morph is the example I am referring to here. It is wild stuff. It is a phone prototype that is wearable, bendable and really defines what is meant by the term multidimensional. Click here to demonstrate my point.
The technology that is currently available is referred to as telepresence. It is expensive; therefore, it is available only to a limited number of large commercial entities that have the kind of dough necessary to construct such a system. Basically, it is a series of interconnected cameras, large, flat panel television screens and audio equipment. When fully set up, you can communicate live with others even though there may be thousands of miles physically between you and your subject. Furthermore, hyper-real technology is coming on fast, meaning that the image you see of your coworkers will appear better than in real life. It really is amazing to think how realistic this current technology is making interpersonal communications across vast distances. I could go on and on forever tossing around ideas relating to this fledgling technology! As my parting words, I ask you to do one thing. Just imagine ways you could use these two technologies I mentioned in your life.
iProgress 