The future unveils itself at WIRED NextFest.2007
Last week, I blasted into the future at WIRED Mag’s annual future-fest WIRED NextFest.2007. If you’re not familiar with NextFest, let me bring you up to speed. Over 100 emerging technologies exhibited in pavilions aptly named “The Future of…” including Entertainment, Design, Play, Robots, Communication, Education, Security, Transportation, Green, and Health. It’s a veritable playground for engineers, scientists, artists, educators, designers, technophiles, and futurists of all types to gather and get their hands on some of the best innovations in technology. As a producer of this event last year and the year before, I have first-hand knowledge on the caliber of people they invite to exhibit, and amongst this visionary crowd, Millions of Us was honored to exhibit the Future of Education with our demo on educational applications of virtual worlds.
So what does the future hold? Well, in the future, we won’t be using devices like mice and keyboards to interact with our electronics. Everything’s touch activated, voice activated, breath and even brain activated. In fact, there was a moment where I felt a bit sheepish for not having a fancy multi-touch display when kids began pawing at our 40″ LCD in an attempt to interact more directly with what they were seeing. After explaining to them, “no our screen is not a touch-screen” they seemed perplexed to see that I was driving the demo using a rather antiquated device for NextFest - a mouse. The future ensures we will be nice and close to our technology, interfacing intimately, directly, and with discriminating precision without the need for “external devices.” Hooray for wearable computing, biometrics, multi-touch displays, facial and gestural recognition.
The future is also keen on augmenting our reality. Virtual spaces, experiences, and people were all the rage and if you know what our company does, you know we’re invested. Several applications attempted to extend traditionally 2D environments (like your desktop) into the 3D. If NextFest is an indicator of future trends, there is a clear desire to transition from flat 2D spaces to the more fluid and immersive 3D environments native to real world interactions. I have to admit, interaction in these 3D spaces seemed more cumbersome for certain applications (like scrolling text), however, with good UI design and input methods, it will only be a matter of time before we’re fully immersed in our virtual environments be it your desktop, website, or video game.
Lastly, the future focuses on connectivity. Teleimmersion, telecommunication, just pre-fix it with “tele” and it was exhibited. In the future, telepresence technologies will allow us to seamlessly socialize, do business, and have shared experiences without attention to proximity and geography. Want to give your friend across the Atlantic a hug and have her feel your gentle squeeze? Done.
Walking away from NextFest as an exhibitor, I felt privileged to be working at Millions of Us. Like most of the futurists exhibiting at this event, I believe we are headed in an exciting direction, one in which we will help shape the future of interactivity. All of the technologies exhibited converged on one idea: bridging the gap between humans and their interface, making their digital experiences richer, immersive, dynamic, and immediate. My job is to produce engaging virtual experiences so I understand this desire, but with most passions that become professions, sometimes I forget why I’m doing what I’m doing and what excited me in the first place. Doing the demo at NextFest was invigorating. I was able to rediscover the power of virtual worlds. Everyone who stopped by our modest booth, from children to well versed technologists, was captivated with our presentation on Second Life. (I remember one fairly savvy 6 year old saying ‚ “It’s kinda like the web but you can fly.”) Though they were surrounded by a sea of stimulation - shiny gadgets, larger than life displays, androids that look identical to their human creators and other amazing innovations, their child-like enthusiasm for our work was just the validation I needed to come home and pound away on another intense work week. How can I not? I’m building the future baby! 
