10 Key Takeaways from the World’s Greatest Innovation Festival
I traveled to SXSW in Austin and saw the future — this is what I learned:
As a company that prides itself on its innovative spirit, Natural Intelligence just had to send me to check out the latest cutting-edge technology at the world’s largest annual innovation festival, SXSW, in Austin, Texas.
Aside from being just plain fun (it really is the Burning Man for geeks), there were some important insights to be gained. But let’s be honest, the festival wouldn’t attract as much attention as it does without the world’s most innovative companies all trying to outdo each other with their interactive and entertaining exhibits.
So, my top 10 takeaways from SXSW are a healthy mix of actionable insights and nerdy delight at really smart people innovating and having fun.
1. VSO Will Overtake SEO
Professor Amy Webb, a quantitative futurist who serves as the director of the Future Today Institute, unveiled the institute’s technology forecast report for the coming year, Tech Trends 2019, which detailed 315 growing trends in the field of robotics, AI, transportation, data security and more.
One of Webb’s most interesting insights was on VSO — Voice Search Optimization. This was of particular importance to us here at Natural Intelligence, where we pride ourselves as masters of search engines and their use in effective marketing. So, how important is voice search in this mix?
Well, according to Webb, about half of our interactions with computers will be voice interactions by the end of 2020 — less than 2 years from now! You’ll soon talk more to your computer and other devices than you type on them.
Do you think this will have some impact on Google searches? You bet it will, and publishers and marketers better take heed. There’s an entire VSO ecosystem waiting to be born!
2. Virtual Reality Can Actually Convert Users
SXSW was awash with interesting developments in the world of virtual reality, with an abundance of VR headsets at every turn. Intel’s VR display included a next-level dance floor experiment that gave visitors an ultra-realistic party experience with incredible sound quality.
The Accenture Interactive exhibited a number of VR uses, including an experience geared toward fundraising to save the endangered California condor. Accenture teamed up with the Peregrine Fund to show viewers a literal birds-eye view of the condor’s world, through Oculus Go wireless headsets, and inspire them to action. The most innovative part of the experience is that users of this technology have to merely glance at the dollar amount they wish to donate, and it’s done — no clicking at all. It’s literally conversion at a glance. Any brand could use such immersive and compelling storytelling to generate opportunities for consumers to convert. Such 360 VR has potential applications in the fields of health, education and Ecommerce.
3. Technology is Changing the Way We Work Out
SAP showed off its data platform that shows sports analytics stats right on the backboard as you shoot hoops. Everyone at the conference could use the company’s court, shoot baskets and get instant analysis of their technique and performance.
ARX, an exercise machine developer, displayed its weightlifting machines that have computer-controlled, motorized resistance to build muscle, rather than weights. The motor provides what the company calls “adaptive resistance.” This technology responds to your movements, providing exactly the right amount of resistance, something that can’t be achieved with traditional weights, which use gravity resistance. Connecting a computerized motor to the machine allows real-time monitoring of the person working out and shows them how to improve their routine. The company wants to lease these innovative machines to gyms for $25,000 a year. The price tag isn’t cheap, but ARX’s machines have advantages in safety, convenience and efficiency.
4. Even Music Can Adopt AI
SXSW also featured a number of panels and professional sessions, including one titled “Don’t Stop Me Now” on the subject of music, of course. Among the innovations discussed were artificial intelligence applications that could influence the future of how we listen to and create songs.
For example, Humtap showed us how anybody can create a song in a few minutes without any need for a musical background. All you have to do is hum the tune in your head and the app can suggest possibilities of how to turn it into a more complete song based on the musical assets in its database.
We did an interactive experiment with some other participants at the lab, and we made an instrumental track together. A musician from the crowd joined in and played guitar over the tune made with the system. The result was interesting, and a little disturbing: Can computer programs replace musicians? How will the first robotic song that conquers the charts sound?
5. Smart Homes will Take Over — For Better or Worse
Another of Webb’s key insights was in the area of smart homes. As she sees it, the more the Internet of Things becomes prevalent, the more likely it becomes that we move toward the infrastructure for it already being put in place as new homes are being built. In fact, this is already happening. For instance, Amazon has provided backing for Plant Prefab, a California-based construction company that builds smart homes, and top home-building firm Lennar announced earlier this year that all of its new homes will have Alexa-enabled lights, thermostats, doorbells and locks built in.
This obviously brings with it the convenience that we’ve come to love in smart products. However, it will also increase the risk that the technology companies that run the smart products can monitor us within our homes. Not to mention the possibility that bugs in these smart products could cause big headaches.
6. The Robots Are Coming…To Be our Friends
The festival’s exhibitors showed off robots with more human ability than any we’ve ever seen. For example, a robot was presented that knows how to make coffee with the skill of a barista, as well as a range of other drinks, alongside robotic systems for commercial construction.
Sony’s booth at the festival asked the fascinating question, “Will technology enrich human creativity?” Visitors to the booth were greeted warmly by the latest version of AIBO, a cute robot puppy, who will give you his paw when you ask for it and wags his tail when you smile at him — but with a price tag of $2,600, it’s not right for every budget.
Not to be outdone by AIBO was Groove X’s LOVOT, a lovable, huggable robot developed for a growing demographic in Japan: lonely people who don’t have the time to raise families, but nonetheless need some companionship. This little guy has endless unconditional love to give. Add to that the robot’s potential to contribute to the social and emotional development of preschoolers, and Groove X thinks it has a winner on its hands.
7. Innovate, and the Market Will Come
The Japanese conceptual design studio Open Meals showed off its 3D printer that prints… sushi — from the seaweed to the fish. It was presented ahead of the opening of Sushi Singularity, the first restaurant in the world that will serve food in this way, next year in Tokyo.
The company ALE grabbed attention with its unique concept: it plans to offer artificial meteor showers for sale, through miniature satellites. According to the company, these falling stars will provide a serious upgrade to any event, show or party. Are there any buyers out there for meteor showers on demand?
8. Media Experiences Are Becoming Increasingly Customized
Dell exhibited a creative system for watching video: a portal plastered with screens that follows the viewer’s eye movements and adjusts the audio accordingly. This allows you to hear the relevant sounds according to where you’re looking. It’s sound that really follows you wherever you go.
Disney’s booth showed off another innovation: the ability to fit content to the users’ emotional state. The company set up a camera that knows how to identify feelings by monitoring facial expressions, and to show each person video that will fit his mood. It can be the same part of the same movie (Dumbo, in this case), but each user will get a different version, to fit his taste and current state of mind.
As of now they’ve defined 5 moods and you need to make a very exact face depicting each mood for the system to identify how you’re feeling. Presumably, in the future the user won’t require advanced theatrical skills to trigger the system, and the content will be more varied. This innovation could be useful to content creators and marketers looking for ways to personalize their offerings.
Along these same lines, Musicmap exhibited another creative product: the company mapped hundreds of thousands of songs and analyzed the target audience of each genre in order to be able to recommend to advertisers what type of music to use on ads, depending on who they’re intended for. The result, according to Musicmap, is ad campaigns targeted to the user’s specific mood and feeling through the use of music.
9. The Big 9 Own the Future of Artificial Intelligence
Another important finding from the Tech Trends 2019 forecast that was presented at SXSW was that the future of AI largely lies in the hands of just 9 companies. These are the “G-MAFIA,” the US companies Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, IBM & Apple, and the “BAT,” the Chinese companies Baidu, Alibaba & Tencent.
These companies are behind most of the world’s research into and funding of AI initiatives. Most every company will require the services of the AI frameworks and cloud servicers controlled by these companies. That’s a tremendous amount of power. And once you choose to partner with one of these giants, it will be very difficult to reverse course, so choose wisely.
10. You Can’t Hide Your Data
As exciting as the innovations at SXSW were, there was also something a bit worrying in the future tech trends presented at the festival. Chief among these concerns is that we create data in almost everything we do today, and this endangers any chance we have of enjoying privacy like we did in the past.
The companies that are collecting our data, and relying on it to make business decisions, have a big responsibility to store the massive quantities of data being generated and to safeguard it.
Data as we know it will be completely different, according to this forecast. Each person will have a personal data record (PDR) in the future, which is essentially a book that compiles every bit of data collected throughout our lives all in one place — from our internet and mobile history to our legal, financial and shopping history.
The previously-mentioned Big 9 companies will be able to access your data book and learn from it to tailor services and offers to you.
Are you ready for the PDR era, and all of the other crazy innovations that SXSW promised?
Those who fail to innovate are doomed to be left behind.
