For the Next Wave of Mainstream Innovation, Look to the Human Extreme

By Jesse Robbins, Co-Founder & CEO of Orion Labs

Innovation has shepherded technology’s integration across industries, from military-grade to first-aid, with impressive speed. Thanks to the rapid pace of this innovation, exceptional technology is commonly used by consumers to do everyday activities. For instance, satellites, once reserved for top secret military communication, are enabling people-centric technology like smartphones to play a vital role in our daily lives. Similarly, adaptive radar systems in cars that enable cruise control and accident prevention capabilities are also derivatives of military-grade technology and fall into this category. Extremes are being taken and adopted for the everyday consumer, ultimately changing how we go about our daily lives.

Bridging this gap between “extreme” and “consumer” opens up new doors to life-changing technology. When these ground-breaking technologies can communicate with other systems commonly used by people, their benefit and value proposition grows exponentially. It also enables people to do what was previously unthinkable and empowers business-minded leaders to guide the next wave of innovation. When that once-niche technology expands beyond the extreme into the everyday life, a path to commercial success appears and enterprising people have the opportunity to change the world in a new way.

As an entrepreneur, trained EMT and disaster relief specialist, I’ve seen this transition take many forms over the past decade and literally save lives. Here are a few examples of industries that have successfully made the transition and one that’s poised to shake things up with the right approach, execution and follow-through.

Disaster Relief

When I was a task force leader after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, communication was extremely vital to coordinating people in the midst of a disaster. A central part of my job was figuring out how my team would talk to each other in order to better serve others in the field — not an easy task when phone lines were down. Still, establishing open lines of communication was an essential first step to determining who got a bed to sleep in, how fast we could transport drinking water and how often medical supplies could be delivered. There were few methods available — technology-driven or otherwise — to produce a centralized list and spread the real-time information needed to carry out our work and help people get their lives back.

Now, we take those kinds of technologies for granted. You can solve a distribution problem in a second by uploading documents to cloud-based platforms like Dropbox, instantly making them accessible by everyone with a smartphone or laptop. All you need to do is share the link or access code. You can also send a mass text message. We now have access to real-time mapping that can provide detailed instructions to guide you from a gas station in Biloxi to a drop site in New Orleans in the blink of an eye. You might even be able to deploy drones that provide immediate imagery taken from new angles in disaster-stricken areas.

Business

Technology drives business and even life in many cases today. Square is one example of enterprise technology enabling a large community of small business owners and innovators to exist and flourish. Each transaction using Square’s platform is a human-to-human interaction that leverages a relatively simple piece of hardware to securely transfer payment information and allow these businesses to grow with minimal overhead. It’s enabling people to take control of their payment experience, connecting businesses with customers and taking the complexity out of commerce.

Mapping

Digital mapping technology is critical for professional drivers, travelers hoping to take an efficient route to their destinations and disruptive companies like Uber to thrive. People and the companies they work for rely heavily on the Global Positioning System (GPS). Initially, GPS technology was an expensive and exclusive solution designed solely for the military, using space-based satellite hardware and select transmitters secured to expensive and sensitive equipment. Now, it’s an integral addition to every smart device and embedded in virtually every automobile dashboard.

Healthcare

We’ve also seen huge strides in the consumerization of healthcare technology recently. When I started as an EMT in 2000, pulse oximeters, which measure the percentage of blood saturated with oxygen, were $1,000. Now, they’re about $40 and integrated in some smart technologies like the forthcoming Apple Watch — along with heart rate, sleep cycle and cardio activity monitors. Pulse oximetry, once exclusive to experts in the medical field, is now readily available, extremely accessible and very easy for people to use — whether it’s an urgent medical matter, the topic of discussion among running club friends or just a regular visit to your doctor’s office.

What’s Next?

Technology that enables seamless, non-disruptive and efficient group communication on a grand scale is ripe for this transition from extreme to mainstream. The accessible, real-time collaboration technology available today, from Google Hangouts to Cisco WebEx, is incomplete because it’s still focused on the planning stage. You can look at a smartwatch or phone to access information while you drive to deliver water to disaster victims, healthcare to people in need or packages to customers, but it takes your focus out of the moment and can put others at risk. The devices that will lead the next wave of innovation in group communication will allow people to connect in real-time without impacting their workflow or ability to fully tackle the tasks at hand.

Today’s omnipresent and affordable smart devices were yesterday’s rare and expensive problem-solvers. Innovation served as the vehicle for change and entrepreneurs as the change agents. But there’s still plenty of ground to cover in the perpetual search for the world’s next pivotal innovation trend. That’s what wakes me up in the morning and what should inspire entrepreneurs to innovate more ways to take the extreme out of technology.

Jesse Robbins is the Co-Founder & CEO of San Francisco-based Orion Labs.