In report on tech trends, Ericsson consumer researchers envision a merged reality future with pervasive artificial intelligence
In its latest report, “10 Hot Consumer Trends 2017,” researchers at Ericsson’s ConsumerLab reveal a look at how technology is set reshape our lives based on responses to an international survey.
The highlighted trends were developed largely based on an online survey of 7,138 “advanced internet users” in the major global hubs of Berlin, Chicago, Johannesburg London Mexico City, Moscow, New York, San Francisco, Sao Paulo, Shanghai, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto and Jakarta, Indonesia.
Michael Bjorn, head of Ericsson Research, discussed the new report in an interview with RCR Wireless News, explaining the research is used “companywide for strategy” and detailed the idea of reality time, which is thematically tied to several other key findings in the report.
“Real time is, of course, traditional video viewing in some sort of real time scenario,” Bjorn said. “If you think about what has been happening quite recently … there’s a lot of other kind of live streaming and so on happening. The idea of reality time is that even though we already live in a world where the internet is primarily about video and graphical representations, what is happening now with computer vision and other technologies, video and graphical representation will mean so much more. [Artificial intelligence], [the ‘internet of things’], autonomous cars use video representations to understand the world around them. We will also be using [virtual reality/augmented reality] in order to actually perceive reality. Reality will become a mix of the physical world and the graphical world.”
Reality time applications will be largely enabled by “5G” networks, which will come with ultra-high capacity and incredibly low latency requirements. Merged reality and an augmented personal reality could allow for very interesting mobile UIs that blend VR/AR with AI, changing the way we interact with our devices, perhaps even reimagining what we think of as a device.
Another identified trend is social silos, in which internet users become confined to informational echo chambers as predictive algorithms, meant to support a personalized web experience, serve instead to reinforce pre-existing beliefs through the presentation of information.
Bjorn said, despite the clear tie to current discussion around how social media could have impacted the U.S. presidential election, that the U.S. did not stand out. “The U.S. is not different from other countries. The whole discussion around Brexit was very much similar as the discussion has been in the U.S. after the election. If you’re in a social silo, you don’t see what else is out there.”
Now combine that trend with augmented personalized reality, which could allow a user to see the world based on selected parameters. “Right now you’re customizing your online environments,” Bjorn said. “This personalization has just started.
“We have been asking questions about AI for a couple of years now and we do see there is a slight change from treating AI from a consumer perspective to simple assistance to AI taking a more active role in our everyday lives,” Bjorn added. “This will change our perspective as humans. The other one then is this idea about reality time that connects many of these trends. I’d say, from thinking about merged reality, augmented personal reality … will really make video an integrated part of our view on reality. Today we use TV and video to explore reality, but now it will become a part of our reality.”
