(no subject)

[cheshirenoir]

I had one of those "So THAT is how it's all going to work!" moments today where a whole bunch of technologies slotted together in my mind and I could see the future.


It's a bunch of technologies, all of which are here now, at least in breadboard form in labs round the world. All I have done is put them together in a "new" pattern. I am sure strangedave is going to say "Pshaw! That's old news!"

So my assumptions:

1. Wearable computing delivers some serious portable grunt. Equivalent to a current era microPC. At the moment the stuff exists as wearable backpacks but you'd want it to be small enough to be comfortably wearable, possibly as a "personal cluster" over several pockets.


2. Augmented reality displays are available, either as glasses or contact lenses.
   


3. Everyone would have "webcam" grade cameras interfaced with the below


4. Municipal broadband is ubiquitous via something like WiMax


5. GPS + ping based positioning can generate accuracies of 1m or less in urban environments


6. A small RFID query module is available.

As an end user, you'd have a cloud of "friends", people you have interacted and trust the feedback of. Many people would have you as their friend. It's a "cloud of trust".
Now, say you went into a shop and got lousy service. When you got out you could tag the shop spatially with a tag of "rude".
Any of your friends wandering past the shop looking for a similar service would see that one of their friends tagged it negatively.
The next stage up is personal tagging. We all carry an increasing amount of RFID tags on our person, so something that queries tags can be used to build up an instant "fingerprint" of a person. Obviously some sets of RFIDs are going to be less than useful (Such as Walmart tags that they stick on everything) but many (Such as your bus pass) are going to stick with you.
When you meet someone for the first time and query them, your RFID reader will squirt out a generic query and scan the responses. If it can make a positive ID it'll flag that person with the "tags" other people have logged. If it can only make a partial match it'll show you screencaps of who it thinks you are looking at so you can confirm a matchup. If it doesn't know this person you'd be able snap a quick screencap and upload it for further tagging.
Now this simple tagging would be way too easy to abuse so the system needs to be able to understand your relationship to the people doing the tags. Firstly your own tags will show in black as they are assumed to be "true". (As you can edit your own tags if there is an error, you can always correct them). Secondly, if you have marked a fellow user as trustworthy, their tags will show in green. Otherwise unconnected peoples tags will show in grey. Finally if you have marked any fellow user as untrustworthy, theirs will show in red. (this last step is to minimise the effect of trolls tagging indiscriminately. If you see a tag that you know is wrong, you could tag the tagger as untrustworthy.
More importantly, you could set a threshold of how many people have tagged in any category and then see the group consensus, further building lists of trusted taggers and untrusted taggers.

I am only just touching on the possibilities here. This is a brute force Wuffie system right there.

Comments

[buoy-wonder.livejournal.com]

Oddly enough I had pretty much the same idea but linked to GPS for tagging places.

[cheshirenoir.livejournal.com]

GPS is only so accurate. The trick in urban environments is to work out your response time from the local mobile towers and triangulate. Apparently gives you much finer accuracy.

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

I think the geo-tagging stuff is very likely to be in the next generation of mobile devices.
I think wearable computing is interesting, but I'm not sure what its going to be used for - put it in your pocket computing in the form of phones etc seems so well-established and to be going so well.
I am not sure about the future of augmented reality as a consumer technology. Its cool and useful and all, but its just so nerdy. I think about as many people will be wandering about wearing their AR glasses as there are people wearing their bluetooth earpieces - ie the business hardcore, and the geeky.
You don't need tagging of all RFIDs to start this sort of thing, or even RFIDs at all, just UUIDs of some kind - such as network IDs for various wireless networking protocols. Have you seen Imity? Interesting idea of social networking based on bluetooth phone tagging. Kind of sucks due to the limitations of crappy current phone tech (Java ME. *sigh*), but in principle is heading in a similar direction.

Also, have you read that Bruce Sterling book Shaping Things, about the concept of the spime and all that?

[cheshirenoir.livejournal.com]

I think where wearable computing will take off is as external storage to mobile phones. Store 100+Gb in your pocket and have it delivering MP3s to your phone (Which thus becomes lighter as it's the device you HAVE to take out of your pocket) over some sort of UWB or PAN. That's just the start, of course. I have a suspicion it'll be another sow starter, like USB was. (I remember thinking "Why would I need 10 USB ports?" Foolish me!)

Haven't read the book or seen Imity. Will go and look for.

As for Augmented Reality: I wear glasses already. Everyone I know wears sunglasses. When the only way to tell the difference between AR glasses and normal glasses is a faint greenish glow, THEN we'll see people adopt them. This isn't just speculative thinking, by the way. One of the best "hi res" screen ideas being worked on involves a variant of TI's DLPs and a low power laser writing to the retina of the wearer. Just don't ask me to betatest them.

I'd forgotten about UUIDs. Lets sniff both!

[recumbenteer.livejournal.com]

I must be missing something here, what is the benefit to the user from having a wearable version of Facebook when you're cruising the mall?

[cheshirenoir.livejournal.com]

It's a "network of trust" system.

If you see someone with a whole bunch of green tags (ie trusted) of "Poor Impulse Control" you'd know to avoid them.

If you saw a green tag of "Friendly, Trustworthy" you're probably good to chat.

If you saw "Sociopath" or "Liar" you'd know how to react.

As these have been built up over time by people YOU consider trustworthy it can cut through the chaff.

It can also help you consider why YOU have some of the tags.

Can you imagine your dealings with certain Perth based individuals we both know if a tagging system like this had existed?

[buoy-wonder.livejournal.com]

Hmmmmm

This idea makes me want to hide under my blanket and hide from the world. But in a good way. Mostly.

[recumbenteer.livejournal.com]

I get it. It isn't an upgraded version of Facebook, its the technological replacement for the gossip session in the toilet.

[gunslingerelite.livejournal.com]

I wonder how it would interface with our rigorous anti-libel laws.