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Author Archives: admin
Logo Recogniser App for Smart Glasses
We will all wear smart glasses or lenses one day. They will be as necessary as a smart phone, people who opt out will be odd and incovenienced.
A great feature of smart glasses is they see what you see, and can give you information about what you are looking at.
If you look at a logo for more than a second you are probably actively interested in it.
The logo app on your glasses can feed you info provided by that brand, at that time. It could be a the “ta-dum” Netflix sound, a jingle, or a brief announcement regarding a deal or whatever. If it is annoying, you mute that brand. Being annoying will be detrimental to a brand, so being useful/fun/interesting will be self-policed result.
Obviously it will use location data. No need to go “ta-dum” when you are on your sofa using Netflix. Or looking at the clock at a tennis tournament. Or in your car with a logo on the steering wheel.
We might start liking brands more if they “get this right”.
Virtual Schooling is a Massive Shift
Two things caught my attention this week, and they point to a post-Covid shift to online education in the US:
- In Texas online educators are being funded with the same money – per student – as physical schools
- Google told schools (using Chromebooks), you either let kids use Gemini AI, or we will switch off the search engine
Homeschooling is one thing, but lately in the US that can mean an online service, like Stride Inc, can teach your kids over a video link, instead of Mum or Dad being the tutor. So you get “professional” educators without the hassle of getting your kid to school. The downside is massive, far lower socialising in an era of loneliness. At least 650K American high school students are learning virtually. That’s only 1 percent of all students, but it is growing.
AI is the other angle. Before long virtual schools won’t need real teachers as much. They will use AI teachers. They will be trained on real teachers and be effective for general teaching and looking after student needs. And they will be very cheap! That lower cost will be a powerful motivator for governments and/or parents switching to virtual.
By 2035 I would say 10% of students will be virtual. They will be a new type of person, they will interact with the world differently and they will end up being a different sort of adult.
America will do its own thing, because money matters there the most. Hopefully the rest of the world rejects virtual schooling if it means kids never being out in the real world
The Always On Phone
We like visual information. Until smart glasses take off, we will be using our phone – something with a screen.
Meanwhile, we are more often wanting very quick interactions with our phone. Especially AI chatbots. And this involves unlocking the phone. It isn’t too slow or difficult, but it is a hindrance.
Phones are locked for clear reasons – we use them for banking for example. They know our passwords.
The concept:
- Lightweight phone
- Electronic Ink display
- Low power usage = small battery = cheaper, lighter, less recharging
- No NFC
- No financial apps
- No video!
- No games!
- Is a phone with messages and calls
- Connects to headphones if you want
The screen is always on. AI chatbots can always be listening.
No security concerns.
No endless scrolling and playing games.
It can hang on a lanyard for quick access, or be strapped to your forearm.
It is for people who want efficiency, not fun. Pragmatic. It is visible and tells the world you are that type of person. Not a loser addicted to their phone.
And it will be cheap!
Downside – needs its own OS, and own app store. Apps need to be suited to e-ink.
Pervert AR Meta Apple Snap Glasses
The future of this is painfully obvious.
It is guaranteed that a large portion of society will soon wear AR glasses, that will augment our world in so many ways – identifying people and places and birds and things, navigation, offers and discounts nearby… All of these will require a camera that is on, so that has to happen.
99% of the time we will use the camera but not be recording. So the default is the expectation that systems and AI are using the camera input, but nothing is store or shared. That can be set in place legally, with layers of safeguards in place, including trusted 3rd parties.
If the video is being recorded, then a visible indicator light, at the front, is a simple requirement. For single image shots, the light needs to remain on for perhaps 10 seconds.
The final piece of the puzzle is the least likely to succeed, and won’t happen everywhere. It might only happen on a voluntary basis from a major player. Bluetooth broadcasting to indicate to people nearby that you are recording. It will appear on their device, and say who you are and the system you are using. Possibly relative location as well, if the tech can do that.
You will be filmed. We are already filmed all the time anyway. It will be normalised and as safe as we can make it
AI Bust in Late 2026
I’ve been waiting so long for this, which everyone considers inevitable.
Simply put, there is no viable business model to recoup costs for what AI can do today.
Everything revolves around something wonderful that should happen in the future.
The tide has just started turning. Here and there are hints of Big AI starting to try and actually turn a profit.
I just sold most of my share portfolio, with just defensive stocks left (think supermarkets).
To get more sales, there will be two tactics:
- A price-war for top-tier products and mass tokens. Won’t apply to any AI that is uniquely good at something specific, like writing code
- More and more offerings of free compute, to get people in. The plan is charge them one day
These will be public, they will be noted, and the increasing desperation will be seen. Funding will be taken from one pure AI play (not Meta, not SpaceX, not Google, not Microsoft). And one of those who will certainly survive will the one that fails. Repeat until no pure AI players remain.
The financial losses will be severe and global.
BONUS PREDICTION – the second half of 2026 will be the first time a rogue AI agent does meaningful harm, to the stock market, to a business, or to a service. And/or done on purpose by hackers. Because once you have AI agents, with various permissions, then hackers will want to play with that so much
The TV Ad Stack
Coming soon, the “TV ad stack” will be something we are all aware of. The native TV OS will have ads. Any 3rd party device (Amazon, Google, Apple) will have its own ads. And the apps themselves will have ads, and within the shows there might be ads.
All balanced out by higher prices and subscription costs.
Someone who controls the whole stack can make it better and less messy. That means Apple making televisions?
Fab-Trad Communities
This is one of my more bonkers predictions – more of a “knowing” or psychic feeling than educated guess.
We will in the future have some towns / suburbs / communities who embrace two worlds equally, that of the “trad wife” (Handmaid’s Tale) and that of queer folk.
Towns will have shopping experiences from over a century ago – woman wearing aprons, products made from wool and wood, slow + personal service. They will also have energy drink bars and drag night discos. The fabulous people might take on French pomp (of the 17th and 18th centuries) where men wear makeup and wigs.
They sound like two extremes, but often the odd and ostracised find alliances. A common denominator could be various things from apothecaries to cock fights. From organic food to obscure religious sects.
Keep in mind, the Samoans have do problem with having a deeply religious Christian culture that also has Faʻafāfine men who play female roles in society. Or the ancient Romans and Greeks who had traditional families and men who had sex with teen boys.
Fab-trad – coming your way after the apocalypse, in a dystopian future.
Getting the Home Robot Just Right
Just some thoughts, from imagining my ideal at home intelligent robotic assistant.
- It will be on wheels, with enough tech to help it get out of being stuck (or ask for help)
- Height is between coffee table and dinner table
- The top is essentially a tray, for example serving drinks
- The “face” is a large screen, sufficient for watching videos on
- Very loud speaker system, for parties but also security
- Patrols the home
- Is reachable by app and intercom
- Has a personality
- You will talk to it instead of a AI chatbot. Making it seem more real
- Thin arms with 3 joints and a very sensitive hand
- Cameras all over it, and integrates with security cameras throughout the home, if you want
- Lidar?
- Arms are very dexterous but not strong. They exist to grab and deliver
- Arms can put food in and out of microwaves
- Arms can water plants
- Arms can feed pets
- It can be customised with clothing
It is primarily an AI chatbot companion on wheels. It hangs out with you, it is available to chat, and give answers and advice. The LLM is trained on your own data as well as having separate external AI info.
But also, it can do minor household tasks, with a strong focus on dealing with things when you are not there. Answering the door and accepting a package (placed on the top tray). Feeding pets and plants. AND looking after your kids. It is your proxy when you are not there.
And of course it will do daft random things, the Furby Factor.
But ultimately it is your buddy for watching sport at home. It brings you snacks and drinks without you needing to get off the couch. You can ask it who will win. You can make bets just by telling it. It will vibrate and sing when your team scores. It will screen calls from your girlfriend during the game.
Oh yeah, it is your at home Personal Assistant. Reminds you to put the bins out, or pay bills. Tells you to wake up, gives advice on how to dress, tells you off if you have eaten the wrong thing too much (you set the parameters), screens calls, books restaurants, operates the smart home. Next to you, with you, transparent.
Hey, show me the back yard.
Call work and tell them I am sick today
Go out the front door and see how windy it is
Throw a ball for the puppy
Yell out if my toddler goes near the kitchen
Food Court – My Restaurant Rules meets Shark Tank
This is a reality TV concept that ticks a lot of boxes!
- Find a struggling food court, one that has at least two vacancies. Buy it. Buy the property.
- But only if you manage to buy out the leases of existing tenants. Stagger their exits.
- Contestants can have experience, even in food courts, but their brand and menu must be substantially new
- The free rent is genuine and will continue after the show has ended, after a winner is found
You can imagine the TV part – see their stories, watch their problems, have some clock ticking, have mentors. That part is easy.
The mentors though are industry business folk, with money. They (and the show, lines could be blurred about percentages) front up money for fit-out. A strong focus will be on repeatable standardised components. For example, everyone has the same till and ordering system (so sales can be tracked). Equipment like fryers, griddles, bain maries, microwaves and whatever will be the same for each contestant, and remain the property of the food court. The contestants get to spend money on uniforms, menus, initial ingredient stock and so on.
The reality aspect alone will have the food court bursting with customers. So every player will make money, you’d think.
At the end (of the show), the food court continues. The players can carry on and keep running their business, if they choose, or sell it, or shut up shop.
Oh yeah, the mentors and the TV show get a percentage of ongoing turnover during and after the show, and a percentage of the business, should it ever expand or franchise.
From then on, on a two-year cycle, the group with the least turnover in the food court lose their spot, and get no compensation for it. They lose any food court owned equipment. A new group is chosen to replace them and the clock starts again.
Here’s the cool part – after the show ends the food court is gifted to a trust that manages it. Each business keeps on being rent free (but pays their share of overheads), meaning they will always have a price advantage that should keep the food court flourishing.