It began with a minor feature that few people cared about, and became a key player in the digital world. Google Situ un-tethered us from personal devices, and introduced shared devices with interchangeable users.

There are two important factors that led to Situ:

Devices and screens with the minimum acceptable functionality are getting cheaper and cheaper – for example a Chromebook. It doesn’t need to be any better than it is now, for most things it is used for. So as technology improves, it will become cheaper. Likewise any tablet version. We are starting to see such devices used as menus and ordering systems in restaurants. They will become so cheap and ubiquitous that nobody will steal them because everybody already has one or three.

Personalization of devices keeps expanding. When we turn on Netflix it asks which profile to use. That is just the beginning. Soon we will have profiles for the family car, depending on who is using it. The home Spotify stereo system will ask who is using it, so as to access their playlists. The thermostat will adjust according to who is in the house and what their preference is…

Phase 1 – the cross device Chrome experience

For some time it has been easy for a Chrome browser to use multiple profiles, and you can easily switch from one to the other. So far, that has been aimed at people wanting to, say, switch from their business persona to their personal one.

But before long, when people hire an electric car (or use a share car) and of course it has Android Auto, they will want to log in and have it knowing who is driving. And logging in will be cumbersome.

But before that, so as the competition didn’t see it coming, Google started with the browser experience. And adjusted it to suit the new hybrid work models. Millions of people are now suddenly expected to cart a laptop from work and back, because sometimes you work from home. How does that fit with after work drinks, or going to the gym before work?

Google Situ frees you from bringing your laptop with you. It is a dongle with 2FA that carries where you are at, your “situation”, with you. Plug it in to any Chromebook and carry on where you left off. So that means one Chromebook at home, and one at work. It is especially suited to hot desking and pooled computers – just grab any one from the stack at the entrance.

Going overseas? Just use any Chromebook when you arrive, no need to bring it with you. Need to work on the plane? Use the one that comes with your seat.

This will be a hit with people who work in tech and early adopters. It will be known to some degree by most of the public, but not used by them.

Phase 2 – recognizing you

Dongles are OK, but Chromebooks are notoriously short on places to plug in something, so Google will offer multiple ways of letting a device know it is you whose profile/situ they should be using. Each will need some form of bio-identification in case someone steals it. Face scans would be fine.

• Ring
• Wristband
• Watch
• Phone

All do the same job, and some people might own one of each, to use depending on the environment. Going to a rock concert or for a run, you’d probably choose a wearable. Each could have other functions, but they also have Situ functionality, which when brought up close to a Chrome screen (which before long will be a Situ screen), will adjust everything to what your needs are.

I expect such devices would be initially registered by jumping through some hoops, but otherwise, as long as they regularly bio-identify you, nothing more needs to be done. Maybe a pin code needs to be entered onto the device you are using – easy.

Phase 3 – the fun begins

Now you have something as simple as a ring to identify you… use your imagination:

• concert or flight tickets
• smart TV profile
• see your playlists on a stereo at a party
• adjust the driver’s seat of a car
• McDonalds remembers your favorite order when you use the ordering screen
• security access to work

The key is easiness. No need for apps, no need to carry a phone, no logging in.

Screen = monopoly

If the experience is dependent on a Situ screen, a monopoly can occur (security can be an excuse, as Apple does currently). For example, every train and plane will have a screen on the back of the seat in front of you, to login and use In Situ. It won’t have an Apple screen and a Google screen and a Microsoft screen. It will have one screen.

Now keep in mind, this is just hardware, unlike the app and browser wars of the past. You can access anyone’s product within the Chrome experience. For Netflix and Spotify it is simply knowing who you are for convenience, not changing the experience or who you pay.

But because Google is controlling an entire ecosystem, it can milk aspects of it, just as it does now.

I think this is the first time I have predicted a product, and its name 😉

There’s always someone buying treasure from poor folk. In the 1800s it was iron. In recent years there have been stalls in shopping malls buying gold (“best prices”).

When robotics booms, I expect two things:

• Legislated recycling of robot parts
• Many manufacturers going broke and won’t recycle

I foresee a Star Wars scenario where robots are treated like scrap metal. I have decided to be a first mover, and I have registered anyoldrobots.com 🙂

I’m trying to imagine personal communications of the future.

We’ve gone through letters, telegrams, phones, mobile phones, instant messaging, texting, and now social messaging, including ones that disappear, images and videos.

So far, it has all revolved around content. We have discovered we prefer anything but actually talking to each other. Video calls haven’t taken off much, outside of work, which is almost like a proof of work for WFH folk.

Content type might vary as time goes by, but there won’t be any new forms of content that are commonly shared. The next innovation will be context. 

That means where/who/when/why/how all become factors in how the conversation occurs and what it contains. This also means a lot of permission systems in play. Every contact will have levels of they can/cannot know about you, from nothing for a complete stranger to everything (?) for an intimate partner.

Examples:

From 10pm to 6am only calls from certain people will get through. The rest get a message that you are unavailable. It could also be tied into your health app that knows when you are actually asleep.

If your phone knows you are in a cinema, it automatically goes into silent mode, and only accepts calls from certain people.

If you are in close proximity to your wife, the call from your lover won’t get through.

Certain people can check what is happening in your world before calling. On a run, at a rock concert, having a meeting with the big boss. They know not to call you, and why, and have an estimate of when it will end.

When you have an arranged meeting with someone, for 15 minutes before and until you arrive, they can see your location. If you allow it. Seeing a dot on a map (like the approaching Uber driver) simply works.

There are likely dozens of other scenarios. We will still call them calls and messages, but context will be a feature. It will come from a trusted entity first, and could give Apple a big boost. It might be integrated with their Augmented Reality glasses.

When people are wandering around with AR glasses, there will be an app, a system, that serves up the AR content. But the content will necessarily mostly be supplied.

AR is by definition location based. So who gets to supply information about a particular place? There will be three models:

Ownership – as used by Google now for Google Maps / Google My Business, you can claim a business by having a postcard with a code sent to the address. This works well, and the best systems will use this, and/or something more comprehensive. Still, it only works for locations that are owned… doesn’t work for beach

Frequency – typically a person who is in a location the most, is the resident, the worker, or the person who is there the most (like a spot on the beach). This can be done more quickly and cheaper than ownership.

Who Pays Wins – in Google search, advertisers can bid on keywords that are the brand name of a competitor. Typically it doesn’t work well, because that searcher wants the competitor, not you.

Likewise, a location can be made available to the highest bidder. Not for factual info, but for promotional purposes. Yes, there will be an app that puts a billboard on the side of your house.

I think most futurists expect this to happen, and my only contribution is that I think it will happen very soon.

• We will have transitioned from smart speakers to smart speakers with little screens
• We have transitioned from cable and free-to-air TV / online videos to watching all of our video content on TV, operated by a separate device
• Operating out home via a hub
• Voice control

We all know what we want: a wall that is a giant TV, that is voice operated, and connects to everything. The wall can show any video from any service, play music, display our calendar, show the news and weather, look like wallpaper or show our photos, and operate our home.

All the components already exist, and are reasonably mature. And the winner in this space will either be by Google/Apple/Amazon or will license their technology.

All the components already exist, with the exception of the screen. A wall of screens isn’t the perfect look (so Apple won’t do it), and what we are waiting for is an affordable wall that can be custom ordered to fit all of any wall.

But wait!

The Mini Wall is where we will start. It does everything described above, but it comes in three versions:

1. Bathroom mirror, non-misting
2. Full-length mirror
3. Wide-screen TV

One of those will catch the imagination of the public. What is great about the full-length mirror, suddenly now, is being able to do group exercise from home. You can see the other people exercising, and your mirror image, on the screen.

Home Gym / Telemedicine

The pandemic has led to greater adoption of home gym classes, and telemedicine. Both can be provided via a full length mirror, especially if it can be a conduit for biometric data. For telemedicine a high resolution directional camera would be very important. For example, if I have a rash on my back and I want the doctor to see it.

Many services are already here that could utilise such a mirror. These could be partners with, or duplicated by, or bought out by, the mirror maker if it is a Big Tech company.

Examples:

From quick check-ins to group sessions, Krew provides a platform for PTs, physiotherapists and nutritionists to offer all of their services online. We complement the main livestream with motion tracking, heart rate detection from video, and exercise/meal plans – but is it browser based and uses laptop/phone cameras

Lululemon announced  last month it would spend $500 million to acquire Mirror, which sells a $1,495 reflective display so subscribers can exercise while simultaneously streaming workouts and watching themselves. And your biometric data appears on the screen. So much more can be done with this screen!

Meanwhile the OYO Nova Gym is a very small replacement for numerous resistance machines found in gyms.

Combine the three above products with telemedicine, and that is all of health covered.

The Winner

It’s a tough call, but I think Google will win this one. Apple is too cautious, Amazon doesn’t have tools like calendars, and Google is willing to work with other brands, already have a screen-based OS with Android, and are buying Fitbit.

Bonus TikTok Feature!

We will tend to do our workouts in a different part of our home to where we relax and watch TV, and to combine the two would require the screen to rotate.

I don’t see this product being a replacement for TVs. I do see a complementary TV product that uses the same OS but has different primary functions.

But the vertical orientation does suit watching phone-based apps like TikTok, and given that dancing is a huge part of TikTok… Imagine kids in the garage doing their favorite TikTok dances with friends live on the screen… Google probably wouldn’t even need TikTok’s permission to embed the videos in the mirror.