This past weekend one of my children decided to hide the remote to our televsion. Normally, I’m a pretty mild mannered guy but as the clock was approaching noon and I realized that I was only moments away from missing the opening kick-off of the Minnesota Vikings-Philadelphia Eagles game, my patience reached a limited and I ordered my kids to search the entire house until they found the “God$#@! remote!.” (Luckily, for them, they did … but, in retrospect, I probably would have been better off not watching the game as my Vikings squandered yet another winnable game).
Nevertheless, the whole ugly affair left me thinking that there has to be a better way of identifying lost remotes—as well as the myriad of other assorted household objects that seem to regularly go missing. Well, after reading this article entitled ”Technology, the Stealthy Tattletale,” in today’s New York Times, I am convinced there soon will be. In simple terms, the article explains how the confluence of technological advances in the Internet, cellphone and GPS technology are now conspiring to do everything from help police capture bank robbers to allowing parents to secretly monitor their kids travel itineraries.
As I am wont to do, I’d encourage you to not simply think about what this existing technology implies for your business today, but rather encourage you to ”jump the curve” and think about the types of applications it will enable tomorrow. Earlier today, I wrote a piece explaining the existing state of RFID technology, but like so many other emerging technologies, RFID is only going to get better. So, too, is Internet bandwidth, GPS technology and the Semantic Web. (Here’s an interesting article on that topic.)
Among the easier future applications to envision is that a variety of household objects such as your TV remote, keys and, quite possibly, even your shoes will be able to be quickly located via your cellphone. (And, if you lose your cellphone, you can locate that devise on home computer.) Longer-term, if you look at how companies such as Inrix are using these technologies to match traffic-flow with weather reports, accident reports and even miscelleneous information (such as whether a sporting event has just finished and thousands of people are filing out onto to the roads), it’ll soon be possible to use technology to help you get from point A to B in the quickest amount of time possible. And, of course, once you get home you’ll also be able to find your remote immediately.
Jack Uldrich is a writer, futurist, public speaker and host of jumpthecurve.net. He is the author of seven books, including Jump the Curve and The Next Big Thing is Really Small: How Nanotechnology Will Change the Future of Your Business. He is also a frequent speaker on future trends, innovation, change management and executive leadership to a variety of businesses, industries and non-profit organizations and associations.
