Ian Pearson

Future tech and child helplines

www.futurizon.com

Demographic churn

Immigration

Re-migration

Emigration

Brain drain

Ageing workforce

Inter-generational conflict

Mobility and volatility

So the population makeup will change everywhere

The web is now past critical mass

2000 2005 2010 2015

Web presence

Dot comsPortals

Socialising/dating

Virtualenvironments

Customer based value

Mash sites

Personal sites & blogs

Semantic web

Kick off zone

On-line games

If it won’t work now, it never will!

Social web developmentpeople will solicit adverts when they want them

Improving interfaces & displays

Ease of use

Ubiquity

Now default platform

Cross gadget integration

More social entrepreneurs

High speed mobility & positioning

Social networking

Social networking sites allow children with lower social skills still to find friends

They can keep a large physical distance if they wish

They are ideal for peer-group support networks They can be made relatively safe by

monitoring or mediating them and checking identity before people are allowed in (even if their ID is hidden inside)

Country A

Country B

Country C

Cybercommunity X

Cybercommunity Y

Cybercommunity Z

Real World Cyberspace

Web based communitiesEven if someone is one in a million, that means there are 6500 other just like them out there.

They can find them and link up.

People belong to many different communities at the same time.

Helpline application

Ordinary people will make a range of applications to better their community and provide facilities for young people

Kids will have more options for support, and more networking opportunities in self help peer groups

This might ease direct pressure on helplines and give children more diverse routes to help

Living with virtuality

PhysicalWorld

Mental world

Cyberspace

Most children are very happy to explore cyberspace. It is less alien to them.

Virtual worlds

Future links to the nervous system by 2020 will let touch be recorded and replayed, enabling bio-feedback, visualisation, relaxation and other self care. Helplines can provide such virtual worlds to take pressure off front-line staff. Even in the shorter term, game and social web environments will provide much of the functional potential.

Using virtual environments

Can use virtual environments to try out real world situations

People can interact more easily on web sites, indulging both personal and group creativity

Anonymity can be preserved easily Interactions can be facilitated by pausing or

slowing down the speed of simulation so that a child has time to think

IT progress gives us more for less

And it isn’t over yet!!!

Smart environment

Tiny processors, tags, data stores, sensors and communicators can be all around the environment, and deep inside our bodies.

Configured via self-organisation

Rollout over next decade

Tag

Store

Store

Store

Tag

Tag

Tag

Tag

Store

Processing

Processing

Processing

Sensor

Sensor

Sensor

Sensor

Sensor

Sensor

Comms

Comms

Comms

Smart environment

• Sensors pick up who people are• Beacons can broadcast to them• Smart posters can be interactive• Information can spread organically

among people• Virtual worlds will overlay everywhere• This all presents a smart new outreach

platform that kids will grow up with

Range of signalsfrom person

Signal processor and recorder

AI based signal interpretationand deduction of intent

Natural language processing

Enhanced output to external environment, people and

electronic systems

Alarms,remote

supervision

The human body as a data source

Data may include emotional state, nerve activity, and biomedical data such as breathing, noise, movement. Could be used with active jewellery to make automatic alarm systems. 2012

Sensory translation, 2015

Sensorytranslation

unitInput Output

External sensors

Wearable sensors

Detachable sensors

Implanted sensors

AlarmsTelemetryMonitors

LogsControl systems

Messaging

Audio

Video

Heat or vibration

Pain or pleasure

Magnetic field

Radiation (EM or nuclear)

Magnetic field

Temperature

Location

Proximity

Sound

Chemical or microbiological presence

Data

Pollutants

This could be used as a good form of feedback to teach better coping strategies, recognise problems etc

Electronic jewellery 2012

Identification, security

Social status

Digital image augmentation

Communication, data distribution

Sensing

Medical monitoring, alarms

Anyform

Networking

Decoration

Tribal signalling

Digital bubble

Mobile website

Miniaturisation will bring everyday IT down to lapel-pin size.

Jewellery nets 2012

Direct inter-device networking will become an important alternative internet platform

Wireless LAN link to web and between clusters

Wireless links

Digital bubble / Ego badge

Badges interact electronically before people see each other. Ideal for networking, and for targeting messages at the right people. This can help children find appropriate friends and care services.

Display evolution

Will also see lots of very large wall displays, coffee table displays, digital windows, recipe tablets etc. All context aware.

80 inch display, £180

Active contact lens(Pearson 1991)

laser

focusing

micromirror

retina

lasers

Gaze direction sensor

Micromirror Inductive power supply

Processing

Comms & ctrl

LaserLaser

Laser

Gaze direction sensor

Diamond substrate Resolution limited by the eye

Allows natural distance perception Tiny environmental footprint

3D interfacing: Stick 2.0(Pearson 1991)

Stick

Reflector

LED

Detector

IR raster scan with coordinates written on beam

Stick variant Angular coordinates written onto LED signal as it the beam is raster scanned, so that detector can triangulate the location of the ends of the stick

Total cost: 50c

A stripy reflector conveys rotational information too

Physical Activity

Computer games

Nintendo Wii wand

Section summary

New electronic platforms based on tiny devices and sensors will make even more child-friendly ways to reach children, with potential for automatic alarms, support environments and ways of making new friends

Helplines should make use of these opportunities to provide blanket coverage while reducing pressure on frontline staff

Games

Games are a good way of blending interactive services, people and AI into a child-friendly, supportive and empowering environment.

Children might ‘open up’ to games characters more than they would feel comfortable doing with a human carer.

24

Permanent layerMid-term layerTransfer layer

Detachable layerWearable layer

Active skin

SkinEpidermis

Dermis

Skin-based electronics can link blood chemistry and nerve signals to external computers and systems

Even thought recognition is starting to appear now

Emotiv Epoc headset for computer games

Positioning

Positioning is useful to carers to track the child and make sure they are safe

It is useful to the child for navigation, socialisation, security, alarms and keeping in touch

Future positioning will be accurate to 10cm by 2013 when the Galileo system comes online

Cyberspace time travelFull sensory virtual environments allow even more possibilities than real life, and will transform therapy, allowing children to safely try out life scenarios and how they might respond.

Helplines can use these to offer training for children, or just as a fun escape route from stress

Duality

People and buildings can emit an interactive digital ‘aura’ over wireless LANs

This gives a dual appearance– Real world - same for

everyone– Virtual world - depends on

who is looking at you, dynamic– Can overlay help layers

specific to each child’s needs– Can even have AI

companions or real people’s avatars with them

Duality

Duality allows a cyberspace layer to be superimposed into the child’s field of view everywhere they go. This allows convergence of computer games, TV, networking and other web services.

It also enables a carer effectively to be with the child 24/7, making the helpline a much more distributed facility

Using duality

People’s and buildings’ appearances can vary The whole town can be ‘painted’ to taste ‘Invisible’ is the new black Digital creatures and virtual characters can

populate the streets and spread the word Convergence of computer games, TV, web

and the street

Physical world Virtual worlds

Duality

Augmented reality interfaces

Physical world content Virtual content

Context and position dependent data

Business, social, government and personal apps

Personalised overlay

Avatars

Avatars allow helplines to provide a consistent appearance across multiple carers

This means that the child might see a single avatar that is actually the front end for a group of people and other support services, even AI

They allow both carer and child to retain anonymity if they wish

They allow children to bring out certain aspects of their personality without necessarily disclosing others

Digital mirror, active make-up

Can see yourself as you want to be, not as you are

Can tweak your video image for use on-line

Can indulge particular aspects of your personality

Can experiment

Duality uses

Again, this gives helplines the potential for ubiquity so that children need never feel alone, and can have support 24/7 in familiar ways that they will be skilled at using

Helplines need to make use of these layers as well as just phones and chat rooms

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

Physiological

Safety/Security

Social

Esteem

Selfactualisation

Positive feedback

loop

Some stress arises because of increasing choice. Children don’t know which to pick and are frightened of missing out on the best options.

Physiological

Safety/Security

Social

Esteem

Self actualisation

Market size

AI & Roboticsnot all your friends will be human!

Human

MachineHuman

Machine

Today

Tomorrow

The information economy will move into the machine world.

Far future

Revaluation of human skills

Today, many people work as smart machines

Machines will become much smarter

Tomorrow, people will have to work as people

Care economy

Value ofphysical/intellectualwork

Value of community &social wellbeing

time

More need for face to face interaction

Skills for the job – the feminisation of work

Agricultural Age

Strength

Dexterity

Hunting

Fighting

Navigation

Team Working

Industrial AgeStrengthDexterityEngineeringFightingPoliticalIntellectManagementLeadership

Information AgeEngineeringGlobal politicsPeacekeepingIntellectCreativityDesignManagementAdministrationLeadershipMarketing & salesNetworkingHR

Care AgeCaringNetworkingHuman interfacingCommunityEmpathyCounsellingPeacekeepingLeadershipMotivationMarketing & salesCreativity

Future fund raising

Lots of sorts of funds– Air miles, loyalty points, babysitting, promises,

donations in kind…. All just bits in a spreadsheet!

Electronic cash can come with bells and whistles, such as celebrity cash, multimedia cash, interactive cash

Cash can be hyperlinked to any web stuff It may be more difficult to do street collections as

coins are phased out. Electronic transactions require much more trust

Electronic money 2020Today’s Oyster Card is just the beginning

Conditional cash

Vouchers

Loyalty points

Time based value cash

IOUs

Assigned cash

Play money

Playground economy

Safe pocket money

Family token systems

Favours

LETS

Babysitting tokens

Club/society currency

Neighbourhood currency

Information brokerage

Agent/robot economy

Analog payments

Tax free/tax paid

Volatile cash

Corporate cash

Micro/nanopayments

Negotiable cash

Single Global Currency

Credit

Guaranteed/qualified cash

Algorithmic cash

Internal currency

Intranet cash

Forward dated cash

Celebrity cash

Collectable cash

Hyperlinked cash

Multimedia cash

Personalised cash

Aesthetic cash

Ethical cash

So, for example, spare penny

Persuade shops to let the penny change go to the children’s charity. A lot of pennies add up. Most people don’t want pennies because they are more trouble than they are worth.

Micropayments on-line can also be made easily, so rounding up prices by just a penny or two can provide a significant income.

So where do you go from here?

New technology will bring many new ways of reaching kids, ways they will find much easier and more natural. They will be enable 24/7 blanket support coverage.

Used well, they will greatly improve child care and can be largely self-financing.

But they need a highly proactive attitude from helplines if they are to achieve their full potential

How willing are you to adapt?

idpearson@gmail.com

www.futurizon.com

Thank you