A fridge embellished with real time news and weather? A home feature that scans your body and adjusts the surrounding air temperature accordingly? Both are typical examples in explaining the internet of things.
Is this the way of the future? Well...maybe not.
Maybe these existing and soon to be “Smart” products are not so smart after all.
Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino, a renowned interaction designer, product designer, and entrpeneur, believes that advancing the internet of things in this direction may be pointless. These designers are essentially creating products for a market that is both not there and not home.
Recently speaking at the international interaction design conference, Interaction 16, Deschamps-Sonsino believes that today’s generation is creating a greater and greater distanced relationship with their homes. People aren’t necessarily living in their living spaces anymore as they adopt an on-the-go lifestyle. More people travel, own other homes, and have placed greater priorities in work life. Additionally, she acknowledges a world becoming less and less material with a greater willingness to invest else where, such as digital. As furniture sales drop, the sales of the newest devices are always increasing. With both of those concepts in mind, it becomes easier to see a decreasing need in the home as it is becoming a secondary concern.Gone are the days where our lives revolve so much around the kitchen that we need to invest in a refrigerator that informs us of the outside world.
So if not the home, where do we go? What is the future of the internet of things?
Creators of internet of things products need to shift away from those “little things in life” kitchy products to products that actually benefit and advance societies. We need to look at the bigger picture. Products need to take us into a positive and flourishing digital age. Products need to evolve from luxury to necessity.
Gamaya is an Ag Tech company that’s addressing the global issue of feeding a growing population. Through technological and analytical advancements, both farmers and consumers can better understand the development of their land and plants. Aerial drone cameras survey land and transmit the data back to farmers with information ranging from crop and soil characteristics to location of weed presence. Farmers can then not only better locate problems and opportunities within their land, but they can then allocate resources for higher crop yield and increase profits. From a consumer standpoint, access to this kind of information allows us to better understand where are resources are coming from and whether high quality processes were involved.
Its products like this that are positioning our advancing technology in the useful and impact direction. With the integration of technology and design, more meaningful products can not only benefit the market of the internet of things but also have the power to change the evolving definition completely.
See Alexandra's full presentation from Interaction 16 here.