{"id":4250176,"date":"2016-12-15T16:32:00","date_gmt":"2016-12-15T16:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deptagency.com\/insight\/the-future-of-interaction-according-to-the-web-summit-2\/"},"modified":"2016-12-15T16:32:00","modified_gmt":"2016-12-15T16:32:00","slug":"the-future-of-interaction-according-to-the-web-summit-2","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.deptagency.com\/en-nl\/insight\/the-future-of-interaction-according-to-the-web-summit-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The future of interaction (according to the Web Summit)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\n\t<\/svg>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tBack to all articles\t\t<\/span>\n\t\n<\/button>\n\t\tThe future of interaction (according to the Web Summit)\t<\/h1>
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\n\t\tJonathan Whiteside\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t15 December 2016\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\t\tAt this year\u2019s Web Summit, there was no shortage of great speakers, each sharing their own unique experiences and knowledge across a wide range of topics. There were a few distinct themes that ran through the summit with the most interesting, in my opinion, being the \u2018future of interaction\u2019.\t<\/h2>\n\n\n\t\tVirtual and augmented reality\t<\/h2>\n\n\n\t\tWhat is the \u2018future of interaction\u2019, I hear you ask?\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\tOkay, so let\u2019s get the obvious one out of the way first. \u00a0Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality is a thing \u2013 it\u2019s happening, and is already well established with early adopters.

This was best shown in the \u2018Playstation VR & The Future of Entertainment\u2019 talk, hosted on the Content Makers stage and featuring Shawn Layden, President of Sony Interactive Entertainment.

For the games industry, 2016 was the year of VR but for it to really take off, the film industry needs to get on board, and Sony see themselves as the gateway to VR for the masses.

Shawn described how the Playstation 4 has an install base of 50 million devices, and how the Playstation is the most popular device for streaming Netflix globally. This, coupled with the fact that Sony owns Universal Studios, means that they have found themselves in a unique ecosystem where they can deliver VR experiences to 50 million users across gaming and films.

You can expect the first VR cinematic experiences to hit the mainstream over the next 3-5 years, at which point you, the user, will be at the centre of a digital experience, interacting with a virtual world around you. Prepare to have your mind blown.
\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\tAn interactive world\t<\/h2>\n\n\n\t\tVR is essentially smoke and mirrors, creating an artificial world that responds to you as a user. But what if you could actually interact with the world around you? Well, it\u2019s not as far away as you\u2019d think; enter Dr Ivan Poupyrev, Technical Lead of Google ATAP. Ivan was easily the highlight of the Web Summit for me.

Where many speakers told us what the future could hold, Ivan\u00a0showed<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>us. He works at Google ATAP on Project Soli and Project Jacquard, which aim to take interactions beyond an interface to create the foundation of an \u2018Interactive World\u2019.\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\tProject Soli\t<\/h2>\n\n\n\t\tProject Soli<\/a>\u00a0intends to create a new language of interactions for everyday products (such as mobile phones, televisions or light switches), that don\u2019t require screens based on gesture controls \u2013 your hand becomes a universal remote for the world around you.

Ivan and his team have already developed the technology \u2013 a radar sensor the size of a coin. They have already partnered with LG to create a watch concept, and JBL for a speaker concept using gesture controls to interact with the devices \u2013\u00a0watch Ivan demo them here<\/a>.

But here\u2019s the killer bit, Ivan knows Google simply cannot remanufacture every product in existence to use the tech, so it\u2019s completely agnostic and manufacturers can use it in any of their products.\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\tProject Jacquard\t<\/h2>\n\n\n\t\tProject Jacquard<\/a>\u00a0is a great example of how Google is\u00a0empowering manufacturers with technology.With the textile industry picked as the guinea pig, Ivan took the radar technology built as part of Project Soli and used it to develop an interactive fabric. The ambition? That all clothes become wearables!

They worked with Saville Row tailors to weave the technology into fabrics, and then took a denim fabric with the technology to Levi\u2019s. Together they built the\u00a0Commuter Jacket<\/a>, that interacts with your phone using gesture controls on the sleeve.
But, as always with Ivan, there\u2019s a clever twist. Commuter is made using no special manufacturing techniques or specially trained staff. It is manufactured entirely from existing processes, with the same staff as any other denim jacket they produce.

In summary, Ivan and Google ATAP are reimagining the world around us as an interactive and intuitive place. They aren\u2019t just building interactive experiences such as VR, but redesigning interaction itself. If VR is the near future, Ivan and his team at Google ATAP are the long-term future of interaction.\t<\/p>\n\n\n\t\tWhat’s the point?\t<\/h2>\n\n\n\t\tTen years from now, I\u2019m sat in the DEPT\u00ae Office with my keyboard laid out in front of me (unique to my setup using VR tech), and I\u2019m typing an email on my virtual keyboard, using gesture controls from Project Soli. But what\u2019s the point? Tristan Harris, a former design philosopher at Google, believes he has the answer\u2026

The point, according the Tristan, is to develop\u00a0meaningful interactions<\/em>. Think about if your interactions weren\u2019t just an interface with a particular device or software, but an input for a connected world that delivers real value to you as an end user.

Tristan explains that tools such as Facebook, Tinder and Google compete in the attention economy. They provide functionality that grabs your attention for long enough to either put an advert in front of you, or capture data. Facebook uses your \u2018likes\u2019 to target adverts at you, Tinder provides you an endless stream of potential matches based on nothing more than guesswork, and Google provides you with results from a search term whilst capturing huge amounts of information.

But what if your interaction with one of these tools informed an interaction with the next? Then we shift from the attention economy to providing real value.
Imagine you open Tinder and instead of an endless stream of \u2018potentials\u2019, you get a smaller set of intelligent matchups based on \u2018friends\u2019 or connections you have on Facebook. Not\u00a0only are these individuals a better match (as they\u2019re based on your social connections), but Google enhances these matches with people of similar interests who are based nearby. It then suggests a restaurant close to a match\u2019s location for date (which they liked on Facebook, by the way).

This is just an example of how Tristan suggests your interactions could become a cumulative profile of who you are, to inform and develop more meaningful interactions.

So, what\u2019s the point? To me, it\u2019s clear \u2013 among the digital white noise that surrounds us and as with any human interaction we have, aren\u2019t we all seeking something more personal and, well, more meaningful? As the digital world becomes interwoven with the physical world, surely meaningful interactions are the key to keeping this world human, as opposed to a\u00a0plot line to a futuristic, dystopian film.\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t