Mood sensing Ads on Apple’s mind (We always knew that, didn’t we??)

I fell out of love with Apple when they launched iPhone5S. I fell in love back again when i read their iWatch concept.

In an earlier post, i had written about iWatch and the path breaking dimensions it was adding to the whole technology domain by being able to monitor (and possibly measure) the state of being. The state of inner being is key to Apple’s ambitions.

By being able to infer a person’s inner state of being, inferred by changes in Systolic, Diastolic pressures, pulse rates, Apple has an algorithm that estimates the person’s mood and serves him with suitable triggers based upon a variety of other external coordinates such as time, location,visit frequencies, past behavior. Apple has filed a patent application that describes a system that would try to gauge some of the user’s physical and behavioral facets to serve up ads that may better appeal and contextually relevant.

The ad delivery system would start by compiling a “baseline mood profile” against which it can compare your future moods. Information that might be captured would include your heart rate, blood pressure, adrenaline level, perspiration rate, body temperature, vocal expression, and even your facial expression. The time of day and your current location may also be incorporated to associate those factors with your various moods.The system would then select a specific type of ad based on your current mood and other criteria. As one example listed in the patent application, certain ads might be sent to someone with the following characteristics: gender, male; age, 19-24; location, Northern California or New York City; mood, happy.

It may not be exactly music to advocates of privacy – who could be considered to getting creep-ed out, but this is one exiting dimension which could do a new tthing to the world of ads…

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iWatch: Time for Apple Magic (desperately need some)

“I think the wrist is interesting” – Tim Cook

A compelling solution on the wrist is what Apple is focussed about as the next path of evolution in devices. Apple has also filled for a patent for an advanced wearable computer in the form of a bracelet that also doubles up as a watch.Apple’s patent details include:

1) A flexible substrate having a flat state and a curled state.
2) A flexible display disposed upon a first surface of the flexible substrate, where in the curled state the flexible substrate conforms to an appendage of the end-user.
3) The flexible substrate also includes an electronic module in communication with the flexible display, the electronic module providing information to the display, at least a part of which is presented in real time for presentation by the display.
4) The patent also states the use of a solar panel beneath the display of the watch as well as energy from the body movements/kinetics

Source: Patently Apple

In terms of features, one would expect a lot of sensors to go with the iWatch as is evident from the recent hiring trend at Apple (they have been picking up people from AccuVein, C8 MediSensors and Senseonics. Sensors would be key to Apple’s iWatch as it prepares to take the technology game into the “state of being” – Keiros as i had earlier blogged about.

The other definite spot on the Apple iWatch belongs to AMOLED/ OLED screens as light sources to use the light as a probe to collect a variety of biological information backed by a very high fidelity light sensor/ detector.

Apple has a lot of competence in the sensor space which it acquired a series of sport related patents from PhatRat years ago which covered medical sensor strips and a body area network that we reported on back in early 2010.

Apple also has launched the M7 motion coprocessor in the iPhone 5s. The key task of this processor would be to collect motion data (via accelerometer, compass and gyroscope). Apple could bring in a whole new generation of more advanced health and fitness apps based on this processor. The magic about M7 also stems from its “contextual sensitivity”. The processor identifies user movement and can tell apps if the user is stationary, walking, or driving based.

To keep the ball rolling, Apple had a striking message in the WWIDC on creation and focus – and in the order of Apple’s culture – it is telling..

For the sake of the next in technology – let us hope the iWatch be the deliverence of Apple. The Apple that we have missed of late!

Eastern Philosophies and the Future of Wearable technology!

Google Glasses superimposes a layer of information over the field of vision – popping out relevant (ad supported) tidbits of information on the Go. But is that all it is to it?
Whats more to the Apple iWatch apart from all the fancy and possibly a Nike Fuel styled Pedometer and calorie counter?

What we see to Google Glasses and Apple iWatch may be the beginning to something more holistic and internal to the user. Eastern cultures call it Qi/Chi (Chinese), Prana/Chit (Hindu), Lung (Tibetan Buddhism); Western cultures simply call it “Life Force”. Wearable computing in its core could be a powerful complement to this life force – whether it is Pulse/ Systole and Diastole or it is Pupillary response/Miosis and Mydriasis or the greek concept of Kairos (the qualitative aspect of time)

Reaction to external stimulus is much more sure, subtle in measurement of these body functions and thus can be the platform to much more immersive and persuasive experience and engagement. Apple is ideally positioned on the wrist to read Systolic/ Diastolic pressures and the Google Glass with a few changes can be positioned to read and record pupillary movements (or who knows- the pineal gland?). Samsung is already reading movements of the eye basis which they are powering the scrolling functions in its latest range of devices.

Juxtaposing subtle body reactions to the construct of profile, context, time, location, online habits etc – could be a very powerful business driver at a very basic level. It could open up health, wellness, diagnostics and other medical/ wellness segments.Apple and Google are racing ahead of times – to position themselves at the intersection of the external and internal worlds of users. The focus with wearable devices is to seek and study subtle reactions of the body and build the next generation of applications and businesses which is more internal to the user. The ability to create experiences based on the life force of the consumer is possibly the determinant of the future.

Chronos and kairos: What drives Apple’s iWatch ambitions

Apple – the formidable under Steve Jobs has fallen fast from the cutting edge technology leadership under pincer attack from the likes of Google (Car, Glass?) and Samsung (Eye Scroll, Mind Control?). The features listed here are top of mind recalls – and a careful think could provide any and many others. For the sake of the most exciting company of our times, I hope that Tim Cook has what it takes to turn it around.

The iPad Nano watch

So while Apple has been missing in action on the “Glass” kind of immersive augmented reality application – there’s some buzz and heat on the Apple iWatch. Now then, Apple already has a device which is iPod Nano watch thereby bringing Music, e-mail, iTunes, podcasts, pedometer on the wrists. So Apple’s foray into this space has a predecessor which was cool thingie on the wrist.

However, dismissing the iWatch as a watch with features is a mistake. Apple would be inclined to see this as its first foray into wearable technologies – combining the device and apps with physical activity sensors, pulse monitor, blood pressure and possibly glucose monitor. Unlike other wearable technologies like, say, headphones, these devices allow you to monitor and analyze sleep, health, and fitness levels. In short, physical states and well being.

The iWatch Concept

The ancient Greeks often made a distinction between two notions of time, Chronos and Kairos. Chronos is chronological time which flows ineluctably along by seconds, hours and years, unaffected by human interests. Kairos, etymological root of “care,” is time laden with human meaning and activity. “Lunchtime,” “a good night’s sleep,” and a “long and rejuvenating walk,” all convey this sense of Kairos. A Timex is mainly chronological. What Apple could be doing is making a “kairologocial” tool that tracks and monitors the data around the experiences you care about. How much you actually slept, when and how far you walked. Basic questions rooted from everyday experience might now be by settled by data on a “watch” — a “kairometer” — rather than guesswork. Transforming the user’s experience by making impersonal things more personal and intimate has long been at the core of Apple product’s value proposition. For example, Steve Jobs positioned the iPad as a way for customers to “connect with their…content in a more intimate…way than ever before.” The Apple watch would likely build on this logic, aiming to make users’ experience of time more intimate by tying it to who they are and what they care about. That way the Apple iWatch would want too scale its effectiveness over something like the Nike Fuel Band by adding states of well being and not just fitness. Afterall, Lifestyle (iWatch posssibly!) is much bigger than just fitness (Nike Fuel Band).

Now behold the outcome of this technology

1. With iPod, Apple redefined the way people engaged with Media. With iPhone, Apple redefined the way people engaged with Internet. The iWatch experience would be key to the way people engage with their personal hygiene and habits space. Extrapolating it further – Apple disrupted Media, it disrupted Internet and now it could disrupt Lifestyle. Lifestyle is one helluva cake, pie or what ever you want to name it that Apple is after
2. And then there is the space where you connect the dots. Apps for health/lifestyle; an Interface that really goes past platforms – Phone, TV, Media and more; and a presence which is passive over long long periods of time. You wear a wrist watch for atleast 8-14 hrs of your day! And that’s a lot of data collected.
3. Apple experience has mastered the external environment – the iWatch will take it internal ( how a user reacts to a TV program, a stimulus, a news …. (that lists is endless)). Joining the dots internal and external and what a experience continuum you have created.
4. And yes, the cascading effects of a network that goes crazy about you…. Over and over again

Its really the next frontier of technology that Apple is blending with its horizons now.

Is Google ace’ing Apple in the race for tomorrow’s Technology leadership?

If you are not doing something crazy, you are doing the wrong things
Google CEO Larry Page

However what is so interesting in the convergence space is the approach that the two giants – Apple and Google are taking to the leadership of the technology slugfest. While Apple fiddles with its 7 year old Apple TV inching it to perfection and there is some news about Apple delivering an iWatch towards wearable computing – Google seems to be focussing on Project Glass and its Driverless Cars as the prime future projects. From the current state of affairs – it looks like while Apple fiddles over TV and iWatch – Driverless Cars and Project Glass might be the key for Google to Vault and Ace Apple.

Whats emminent in the next 3-5 year horizon is the paassng over of the Smartphone age substituted by more Always on, Real time Computing.