According to a very recent report from Juniper, “in the next five years, technology will transform the entertainment industry, including games and videos, and will have the potential to expand to other industries such as Health Care.”
What We Can Expect in 2016?
- Virtual Reality and Robots
Both innovations will be shared in some homes and will become more frequent to the extent that production costs are lowered and affordable for a majority.
- Virtual Reality
For now, these two devices are available:
- The Oculus virtual reality headset, which works with Galaxy phones. Just enter the phone in the headset to enter the amazing world of virtual reality.
- Google Cardboard, which works with any smartphone. Also, a headset type device to enjoy virtual reality.
According to VB Profiles, there are already more than 200 companies developing hardware and software based on virtual reality technology, whose combined value amounts to $ 13 billion.
One of the uses of this technology is in online shopping. Many of the users who answered the Ericsson ConsumerLab survey (the Ericsson market research wing), are interested in 3-dimensional selfies to try on clothes online, as well as the possibility of seeing the products they are going to purchase, in real size. (No more frustration with the wrong sizes!)
Robots
BUDDY, the Blue Frog Robotics robot, a French venture, will most likely be more accessible in 2016 since it is built on an open-source technology platform, which allows global developers to generate their applications. So far, BUDDY is better to use for home security as a kitchen assistant, alarm clock, and generator for family music and video entertainment.
BUDDY comes to accompany PEPPER, launched to the Japanese market in June of this year. The robot was so successful that the first 1,000 sold out in less than a minute, according to SoftBank Mobile, its creator. The positioning of PEPPER is that of a humanoid robot that can detect aspects of human sensitivity. Pepper is a social robot, which does not clean the kitchen or coordinate its owner’s agenda, but talks to him, as well as recognizes and reacts to the emotions he perceives, through voice and touch.
Robotics success measures by the number of robot options currently available in the market.
It will be fascinating to observe how many and which of the human actions will be provided by robots, from now on.