WHY IT MATTERS: Digital Transformation

WHY IT MATTERS: this list of technology questions for 2022 feels like an answer to the question "what is digital disruption?".

We have reached a moment in time where old technologies - eCommerce or videoconferencing for example - are finally breaking into established industries. And the impact, at scale, cannot be found in technology but rather in every single industry it disrupts.

Very thoughtful piece, very good questions.

WHY IT MATTERS: a long read about tens of new developments in the works at Apple from a long time AR-VR industry watcher (he was very bullish about Google glasses back in the day). Nevertheless, the article is a good rundown of what the future of 3D in AR and VR may be. 

What I find great is that it goes beyond the classic AR-VR use cases and into a more fundamental trend of embedding digital into the real world in 3D. The examples of what is being developed in the labs is eye opening. But remember, this is R&D and will take years to become ubiquitous. 

WHY IT MATTERS: this post is a bit theoretical for someone not bathing in digital transformation all day as I do (mostly). It explores what could come next but more importantly stresses an important fact: we now have a new platform - the mobile phone - in our pockets that has the potential to transform our world. We have started to see this with eCommerce - physical retail stores become irrelevant and we can price compare from anywhere - but we have yet to see the real impact of eCommerce+mobile+cloud+5G. THIS is what I think about most days...

WHY IT MATTERS: 5G telecom network promises to revolutionize many industries including retail. This report from Forrester presents use cases for 5G may bring but also puts those in context of what exists today and how fast the transformation will be.

WHY IT MATTERS: movie production is going digital real fast enabling distributed teams to work collaboratively. Will this mean that the production of hyper realistic fake videos will become easier to produce. One may think so :-(

WHY IT MATTERS: 360 pages of reference material for any strategic planning exercice.

WHY IT MATTERS: always good to look beyond digital transformation into practical applications of the digital technologies. In particular, #2,6,7 in the list. Here an extract from the #7 highlights an application of blockchain which we've been tracking for a while as a disruptive digital technology that has received a lot of bad press with the bitcoin debacle but that has real future...

"Together, a pair of technologies could reduce both food poisoning and food waste. The first, an innovative application of blockchain technology (better known for managing virtual currency) is beginning to solve the traceability problem. Enhanced food packaging, meanwhile, is providing new ways to determine whether foods have been stored at proper temperatures and whether they might have begun to spoil."

WHY IT MATTERS: want to know what augmented reality will look like in 10 or 20 years. Read this. But don't expect it to come together in the short-term, this is a *long* play

WHY IT MATTERS: sales of furniture online is difficult because it is difficult to visualize the product in your environment. At least in the store you can view the product in a fake setting (think IKEA rooms you have to travel through during your shopping trip). Augmented Reality has been tried to enhance paper catalogues in the past but now Amazon is trying to leverage 3D directly within their online store to help you decide if that table and sofa go well together. This is obviously a test and the links below should provide you with additional food for thought on the matter.

Hubstair a startup that helps retailers do a bit what Amazon showroom does: https://www.hubstairs.com/ 

http://fmcs.digital/blog/canadian-tire-enhances-2016-paper-catalogue-via-augmentedreality/ 

http://fmcs.digital/blog/google-project-tango-demonstrates-how-to-buy-wayfair-furniture-in-augmentedreality-ecommerce-googleio/ 

http://fmcs.digital/blog/ikea-2014-catalog-can-view-and-place-furniture-in/ 

http://fmcs.digital/blog/augmented-reality-catalog-places-ikea-furniture-in/

http://fmcs.digital/blog/apple-next-killer-app-may-be-augmentedreality-ikea-demo-and-others-to-come/ 

WHY IT MATTERS: A good summary of potential use cases and applications for key digital technologies that revolutionize business.

WHY IT MATTERS: we all go to stores and seldom notice the technology that surrounds us and tracks our moves.

WHY IT MATTERS: this 20min video is a great demonstration of what is now possible with mixed reality headsets along with possible real-life applications for home and the office. More on the Windows blog: msft.social/b9ULwk 

WHY THIS MATTERS

I find most of my clients struggling to find time and money to implement technologies that have been around for more than 10 years: Internet, Big Data, mobility, cloud computing, etc. When they do make it to implement them in their organizations, it is often too little too late to make a difference with their competition. As Wayne Gretsky famously said, you should "skate to where the puck will be, not where it is". Thus, every company's strategy should have a clear view on AI, blockchain, robots, 3D printing, Internet of Things, etc. Does your strat plan include them?

WHY IT MATTERS

Forrester has recently produced a matrix of disruptive technologies that is worth sharing. More important is the article conclusion where Forrester recommends that cIO act as Venture Capitalists to actively scout new technologies and companies to leverage this innovation for improved competitiveness. This is a radical departure form traditional IT roles and responsibilities which I believe has important benefits in large organizations where All eyes are on the CIO to lead the digital transformation. Unfortunately we are a long way away from this in most organizations.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Much talk about virtual reality these days but looks like the killer app will be AR. Wrote about this in the past and looks like IDC research agrees with me... ;-)

Short video that shows how human anatomy is being put into augmented reality to create lifelike, interactive models to help medical students learn anatomy.

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Right now this is a generic human but in the future we will be able to have our own bodies represented in AR for medical doctors to peer into our corpse, via scans and radiology pictures. 

IF they can do this with a human body, why are not more companies investing in making AR models of their most complex machines (think boats, planes, complex manufacturing machines, etc.) to help training, safe operations and troubleshooting? I would imagine that digital transformation strategies and plans should include elements of AR and VR, don't you?

Bloomberg video interview that provides motivations for the explosion on VR in the coming years:

1- applications are numerous, with opportunities in different space, not only in gaming but in medical, movie, etc.

2- big players are lined up : Google, Facebook, Microsoft, etc.

That being said, there have been multiple false starts for VR and #D (remember 3D TVs and google glasses?), so I remaining cautiously optimistic with both VR and AR. They may not be ready for consumer market but may expand into certain key niche applications and industries.

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT

In that context, it is essential for digital transformation strategies to consider VR and AR in their roadmaps. There must be clear business needs to drive adoption of this relatively immature technology which requires a number of user constraint (least of which is wearing a headset which makes you look like a dork and prevents you from living in the moment). But there are multiple types of industries where professionals can find benefits in viewing things in 3D in a lifelike fashion: those should be prioritized.

5 must read papers to understand where we stand in the area of direct brain communication with machines. In a nutshell; still very early.

Just watch the video and you'll see. We live in the matrix! ;-)

A great article on how this engineer is working on laser tracking device. Having myself been involved with 3D target tracking using a pair of CCD cameras and a PC - with computing done in assembler, as this was circa 1986 (!) - I can relate to the work they are doing and the challenges they face.

Being a microelectronics egineer as well, I am well aware of those silicon based mirrors they are using and their potential. Called micromirrors and invented in 1987, they have been around for a while and I am surprised they have not been put to use in the VR industry yet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_micromirror_device