4 New Developments That Could Change The Way We Live & Work

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Some developments hit my feed this week that struck me as having the potential to, not to put too fine a point on it, utterly change the way we live. Not bad for mid-August. Let's get into it.

1) Researchers from both the US and UK have created a new way to depict human skin that makes facial expressions more lifelike. In the short run, this means more realistic computer generated animation... and in the long run, we've just seen a strong step toward escaping the Uncanny Valley, the psychological phenomenon that has kept humans from feeling comfortable around increasingly realistic human simulation.

From a graphic and design standpoint, this is a very big deal indeed, and accelerates all kinds of fields beyond animation. It also creates the possibility of all kinds of unintended consequences, such as, well, an alternative to model photography in any number of usages, enhanced avatar service in smartphones and video games, and a more high-touch level to automated service at ticket kiosks and in stores. Scaling the Uncanny Valley is no small feat, and has been the dream of design pros for decades. Someday soon, you will not be able to tell the difference between a real person and a representation. Clunky polygon images will be one more way for future generations to look back in nostalgia at a bygone era.

2) A Canadian company called Nymi announced a successful credit card payment through biometric authentication... which, in this case, meant the use of wearable technology (a wristband) to use a person's heartbeat to replace the signature, or PIN number. (It turns out to be, like a fingerprint, unique to the individual.)

On the face of it, this seems like an approach fraught with issues. Some will flinch at an apparent lapse in privacy. Others will have health concerns based around the use of near field electronics. But unlike other authenticators that seem dependent on technology that's relatively niche, with little in the way of benefit (I'm looking at you, Apple Pay), this seems like it has more bang for the buck. Faster and more secure transactions, and getting us further away from what comedian Patton Oswalt has rightly dubbed "the magic of squiggly letters"... well, this seems fairly inevitable, assuming you believe in a cashless economy.

3) Microsoft announced a facial recognition breakthrough for Windows 10 that, combined with the Internet of Things and smarthome technology, will allow for doors to unlock though a simple scan.

Again, the initial application seems underwhelming, but with some thought, it grows in importance. Getting groceries in the house just got a lot easier, and since it's presumed that multiple faces can be given clearance, so did the whole insecure business of hide-a-keys and clearance codes to disable alarms. V2 of this technology could easily move into diagnostics for independent senior living, and maybe lead to advanced warning of stroke or a slip and fall. Finally, we also make the whole business of changing the locks in the event of a housing change a lot easier, and the technology would also make its way into businesses, where personnel would be able to open a store without requiring another set of keys or passcodes. Once the technology is in place, it will move from novel to accepted with the same hyperspeed that we now use on things like mapping technology, electronic transfers and automotive diagnostics, and so on.

4) Finally, a good friend of mine, Joe Recchia, has taken up with a great new start-up idea, CImagine. This company enables augmented commerce, in that you can easily see what a purchase might look like in your own home, rather than just rely on web site photography. Check it out.

The first and easiest application here is for furniture and household purchases that always seemed to have a dicey approach in e-commerce -- how were you supposed to choose colors to match your home before this? -- but I think it can easily go into a host of other plays. Apparel is a pretty simple plug and play, along with jewelry, fine art, and maybe even more esoteric plays like personals, electronics and collectibles. CImagine's partner companies could easily see lower return issues to go with higher sales. Like everything else in this week's list, the potential for ubiquitous use is high.

The challenge for marketing and advertising personnel isn't just to think about how to use these advancements with your own brand, but how they may impact how consumers interact with your product. Virtual assistance that's out of the uncanny valley might make you re-think your Web site customer service. Biometric authentication might point to new ways to speed customers through checkout in brick and mortar, especially if your brand is leading edge. Facial recognition and augmented e-commerce could spread like wildfire.

Oh, and there's also this. If your customers want to use these tools, and you aren't able to match a competitor's speed in implementation? Not exactly a great moment -- either for your brand, or your career. Speed isn't just for tech.

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Please like or share this column, connect with me on LinkedIn, email me at davidlmountain at gmail dot com, or hit the RFP boxes at the top right. We offer copywriting, direction and strategy, along with design, illustration, photography, coding and hosting. The RFPs are always free. Hope to hear from you soon.

Search and Find Bias

Target Acquired

On the radar today: how search engines may be the next frontier of political chicanery, because it turns out that (a) search engines are a strong source in helping undecided and young voters make a decision, and (b) if you read search results, your first reaction isn't "Gee, I bet these have been skewed to show the candidate in a favorable light." The results are seen as impartial.

This is not, of course, very surprising news; all you need to do is check on how enterprising pranksters have hijacked Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum's last name. (Do not do this at work, assuming you work in a routine office.) But it does give one pause, if only because of the following points:

1) Someone still has faith in a source of information in 2015, especially when that source of information is a for-profit business? I'm all verklempt here. It's like hearing how your nephew still believes in the Tooth Fairy. Seriously, magical creatures sneak into your room and take something that used to be in your head. Sweet dreams, kids! But I digress.

It's easy to be jaded, to feel like we live in a cynical age, where everyone always thinks the worst of everyone. But then you hear how search engine results are swaying the opinions of undecided voters, because some just trust these entities so implicitly. We will look back on these days fondly, we will.

2) Just how soon will it be until some enterprising candidate, with a need to fill the news hole with something they don't have to pay for, comes out as Anti Google? (I know, I know, Google's popular and Doesn't Do Evil. Doesn't matter; they still have scads of money, are from easy to bash California, and have some nefarious agenda to deny votes to Candidate X. It'll play.)

Finally, this. Just in time for this to finally reach a level of visibility, it's time for the world to change, with lightning speed, really, from a display method (desktop and laptop) that worked for deep search results and high keystrokes, for one that, well, doesn't. So keep in mind when you see this story hit the mainstream, how it has already jumped the shark. Especially among the young'uns who 

But on the plus side, Google will have plenty of practice in working out the bugs in that Right To Be Forgotten rigamarole...

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Please like or share this column, connect with me on LinkedIn, email me at davidlmountain at gmail dot com, or hit the RFP boxes at the top right. We offer copywriting, direction and strategy, along with design, illustration, photography, coding and hosting. The RFPs are always free. Hope to hear from you soon.

The Art Of The Sandbag

Scottish Sandbag

From an episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” (S6, E4, "Relics")…

Scotty: Do you mind a little advice? Starfleet captains are like children. They want everything right now and they want it their way. But the secret is to give them only what they need, not what they want.

Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge: Yeah, well, I told the Captain I'd have this analysis done in an hour.

Scotty: How long will it really take?

Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge: An hour!

Scotty: Oh, you didn't tell him how long it would *really* take, did ya?

Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge: Well, of course I did.

Scotty: Oh, laddie. You've got a lot to learn if you want people to think of you as a miracle worker.

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I own a 2011 hybrid as my routine ride, which, like most modern cars, gives you all kinds of alerts and reminders when you run into maintenance milestones. I’m OCDish about dashboard reminders, so when the oil change at 15% warning came up, I took the car into the dealership the next morning. It helped that summer Fridays at my gig are work from home, and the wi-fi at the dealership is good. Besides, oil changes are free, since I bought the car there.

When I checked in, there was a strong line for service – obviously, summer Fridays are a busy time – and my schedule was also up for a transmission fluid change. I gave the green light for the service, got a 60-minute or less time quote for the work, and set myself up in a quiet corner of the waiting room to work.

Now, I did not need to get out of there after 60 minutes. Realistically, I could have been there most of the day without any real issue, since I had everything I needed to work. But I had been quoted 60 minutes, and when that time came and gone, my antennae went up.

Had something gone wrong? Was the repair not properly booked, and was something more dire and expensive being done? Was the cellular service not working, and my phone not firing, which would keep the call that the car was ready from getting through? If that was the case, was I also missing other calls, maybe from co-workers?

All of those points seemed unlikely, but still, it has been more than the time quoted. Just sitting still and continuing to work was not working; a distraction was brewing. After 15 minutes of sub-optimal performance on the task I was trying to complete, I shut down my screens, packed up my gear, and walked back over to the repair bay.

Once I got there, I saw my car being worked on as the technician was just finishing up. Nothing more untoward than that. I waited at the counter for another 10 to 15 minutes, handed over my credit card for payment as soon as the keys were back with the desk, and was back at the home office with no incident.

A day later, the usual customer survey came in my email.

Now, I had received fine service. The facility was flawless on the wifi, and downright comfortable. I was fine with the price paid for the service. I will be back the next time, and I am likely to make my next purchase from this dealership as well. We’ve been going there routinely for over five years now.

But they didn’t get the full high marks, simply because they quoted me 60 minutes, when it took 90. If they had quoted 120 – totally understandable, given the amount of traffic they were dealing with, and the mild trickiness involved in getting into the transmission on a hybrid – and cleared it in 90, I’d have given them the 10 without a second thought.

Bringing this back to marketing and advertising, which is the point of the column.

It’s a fine art, managing client expectations. If you always beat your metrics and deadlines, you run the risk of having these estimates disregarded, and being trampled as having too much air in every estimate. But if you are always behind, that’s even worse from a job satisfaction standpoint.

My personal way around this is, whenever possible, to give two estimates – the best-case and the median, or maybe even the worst, if the task is particularly tricky. Especially when it comes to fast-turn needs for live campaigns, you might need to drop everything and deal with a fire drill, at which point any sand in the bags is just going to cost the company money.

Not everything can be a fire drill, but not every job can turn on the slowest move. And the best customer service is not a best-case scenario quote, especially if it's not likely to come true.

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Please like or share this column, connect with me on LinkedIn, email me at davidlmountain at gmail dot com, or hit the RFP boxes at the top right, We offer copywriting, direction and strategy, along with design, illustration, photography, coding and hosting. The RFPs are always free. Hope to hear from you soon.