The quest for self-realisation has always been a mystical business, punctuated by yogis, spiritualists and paths to enlightenment. But the digital generation's search for inner knowledge has a more statistical slant, as seen in the steady rise of the so-called self-tracker.
These data junkies use smartphone apps to monitor variables like food intake, sleep, mood, and fatigue to help them make better choices about their health and behaviour. So a keen runner could pull on her Nike+ shoes in the morning and at the end of her run compare her performance and even receive motivational messages upon hitting a personal milestone. Or someone with a heart problem could hook up to the Withings blood pressure monitor, plug it into their iPhone, and deliver the readings to their personal health records.
While the idea of self-quantification has been floating around for years, one executive at global innovation firm frog believes it could be the trend to watch this year.
“The concept of quantified self refers to a range of self-reflective behaviours, including measuring, recording, and reflecting upon one or more parameters related to the body, mind, or behaviour,” says Thomas Sutton, creative director at the frog studio in Milan.
“The reasons for doing this are incredibly diverse: from survival, in the case of type one diabetics, or self-engineering, as exemplified by the self-styled 'bullet-proof exec' Dave Asprey, to simple curiosity, fitness, or the amazing data-driven artworks of Laurie Frick.”
These developments are positioning the human body as the API of the future. Several data-tracking devices were unveiled at CES last month, including the BodyMedia arm band, which keeps track of metrics like calories burned; the First Person Vision eye-tracking concept system, which provides users like drivers and the physically disabled with guidance, training and information; and even a device that will sequence your entire genome in less than a day.
As highlighted in frog's 2012 trends roundup, Sutton predicts the self-quantification field will soon see platforms that integrate data from third-party sensors, front-end applications, and analysis engines.
“A self-tracking enthusiast will be able to merge Fitbit, Jawbone, Zeo, Nike+, and Withings data to see a comprehensive overview of her health and lifestyle.
“The long-term power of this trend will be the ability to construct ever-greater value and insight on top of the data,” he notes. “The smarter the services get, the simpler and more valuable their insights will become.”
It will take a while before these devices catch on, with Sutton noting the most notable consumer products have been glorified step-counters in the sports category.
“A much-awaited second generation of these tools, exemplified by the Basis band, will integrate more parameters, like heart rate, skin inductance, and pulse oxygen. It remains to be seen who will adopt these tools, and why, but experience suggests it will not be the target groups their designers were expecting.”
Sutton explains that 'personal' data will need to be displayed and delivered so it acts as a tool for guiding individual action, as only a handful of people are interested in studying graphs and tables of data - even if it's about themselves.
“For data to be valuable, we need to deliver services based on it that are meaningful and valuable for the person using it.” Frog, for example, is working on systems to help people learn healthier behaviours through reminders, rewards, and public recognition channelled through their mobile phone and social network, says Sutton.
“It is my deep-held belief that data cannot replace culture. But in today's utilitarian society, where ideas must be supported by data to be credible in the public discourse, we may need data to bring us back home to some simple truths.”
Sutton points to other examples such as the impacts of food culture on nations' chronic disease levels and transport constraints where we can't do anything without getting in a car, making us more sedentary. “Perhaps the greatest value one can bring out of data will be at a population level, providing evidence that forces us as societies to rethink our way of life.”
The reductive social network
With a user base equal to the entire African continent, an estimated value of $100 billion, and an IPO in the offing, Facebook seems to be king of the social networking castle. But the next evolution of digital interaction may knock the ubiquitous socialite off its throne, unless Facebook embraces the trend itself: welcome the reductive social network.
According to frog VP of business development, Nathan Weyer, Facebook is social, not personal.
“Today's technologies, products, and services do not adequately serve the human need for intimacy and personal connections. The early days of Facebook and Flickr felt this way, but now our social networks and hard drives are swamped with a deluge of digital data that we can't process.”
Weyer argues that people's online personalities have evolved into amplified personas that aren't truly us. “People are just not themselves in the Facebook world. Posts are boasts, plain and simple.” Weyer adds that the true inner circle - the small group of people users confide in and share meaningful content with, is far different.
“Those who have been using social networks and sharing digital media for the past few years are now seeking a more intimate connection with the people they care about most,” he explains.
Today's technologies, products, and services do not adequately serve the human need for intimacy and personal connections.
Nathan Weyer, frog VP of business development
Weyer believes this move presents a new, inner sphere for services to target. “2012 is about culling from the terabytes and sharing with the single digits. Smart established players and new entrants can create products which enable the quick creation of a small circle of private sharing without compromising their broader social 'agenda'.”
He points to Google+ with its circles, 'personal network' Path, which limits users to 150 friends, and Facebook's privacy controls. “But somehow they still miss the point.
“There is an opportunity to create a constrained environment that says 'I want to talk with this person and share this intimate piece of information just for this moment in time',” notes Weyer.
Forecast, for example, is an app that allows people to check where their friends will be later that day, or share their own plans.
“Companies are definitely starting to tap into the trend, with new services like Storytree, Path, even Facebook Timeline (although it is wide open),” says Weyer. “Others are like time hop: doing interesting things in tapping into your online social memory which when turned inward can make intimate connections.”
Interaction choreography
For those impressed by the motion-sensing capabilities of Microsoft's Kinect, take a look at Russian company DisplAir, which makes it possible to create and move things in mid-air. The company uses an infrared camera, projector, and cold fog to project 3D images and then capture hand movements as users move them around.
Senior principal design technologist at frog, Jared Ficklin, says with the ability of technology to see users' movements in space, gestures are being added to traditional methods in new layers of interaction. He refers to the process of breaking “above the glass”, whereby users have begun to interact with computers beyond the scope of digitised surfaces like touch-screens.
“On a surface, movements are like using a pen or finger painting. Gestures were a correct word. However, when you move into space and lose any surface, you are asking users to make specific three-dimensional movements. It felt very much like dance.”
After they had moved 'above the glass', Ficklin coined the term “interaction choreography” to describe the designing of fluid movements that communicate intention to digital systems. “A whole new set of design consideration come to the fore. A mouse does not really care how tall you are, or how long your fingers are, but a 3D camera and algorithms to detect movements do.”
This comes with opportunities - and challenges - of its own. “The ergonomics change as do the psychology and dexterity requirements of the user. Not everyone will be able to have the body control to use a Virtuoso UI like shown in something like the very famous Minority Report.”
We want to read individual fingers and pupils.
Jared Ficklin, frog senior principal design technologist
Ficklin says designing in this space requires taking several elements into account, including ergonomics, dexterity and the dynamics of non-verbal communication.
“It is that last one where you need to be mindful of social acceptability. Movement of arms and head are a deep part of our human system of communication. Non-verbal communication is what you are dealing with here. It can be limiting.”
Individual variance when it comes to accuracy, speed and dexterity are common design dilemmas.
“The hardware needs to be about three orders better to really be effective for the masses. We want to read individual fingers and pupils.”
There are also software refinements needed, he adds, particularly in recognition algorithms. “A lot of the software thinking in computer vision seems to have come from using computers to see for steering vehicles or a lot of 2D work with cameras.” But that is changing rapidly, says Ficklin, with groups like the Kinect Hack community making advances in creating clever algorithms for interpreting human movement in 3D.
What Ficklin is really excited about, however, is enabling conversational computing. “People think of SIRI as talking to computers. But that is caveman speak and just scratching the surface here.
“In the near future we will communicate with our technology naturally. Natural user interfaces will advance greatly when voice user interface is layered with gestural interaction. Even the Star Trek version of computer control will seem archaic once computers can read co-verbal interaction.
“Then we will have the full power of human communication - the verbal and the non-verbal. [Users] can say play 'Minority Report' while pointing at their 50-inch plasma and the technology by reading voice and non-verbal communication will better fulfil their request. It will make SIRI seem like the wife of Hal 9000.”
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