Catvertising (by johnst172)

Mark Alvarez via Rebellionlab

Here’s where I see technology changing the store in the next 15-20 years.

1. The cash register will cease to be an organizing principle. You’ll be able to pay from anywhere in the store. Right now, the current is working in both directions — tablet apps that allow salespeople to complete sales from anywhere in the store, and phone-based apps that let the customer scan a bar code and buy.

2. Corporate stores will resemble local venues. They’ll all have your data, tablet-equipped salespeople will have access to your entire history with the store. Yeah, a lot of us don’t like talking to salespeople, but they could come in handy if they know our purchase history.

3. Stores will be able to better predict and control traffic flow. Everyone by now knows about geo-fencing and location-based services. But stores will soon have geo-fencing within them, making any area that a customer is in more interactive but also, more interestingly, giving more control over where people circulate and when. Got a bunch of grumpy customers in a customer-service line? Flash sale, aisle five.

Other technologies will allow retailers to better predict traffic flow. Space is at a premium, so retailers will need to maximize its effectiveness.

4. New sales spaces. Right now, brands that are using smart-display tech are mainly doing so for marketing. Nordstrom set up a Kinect-powered virtual window that allows customers to “write” on store windows. That’s fascinating — and the possibilities are infinite. But the big idea is to use digital technology to create a store in previously inaccessible space. Tesco’s subway virtual store is the most well-known example of this, and it’s brilliant — you’re basically setting up another retail location, without any of the overhead.

5. 24 hour access. The other thing that surface-display technology will lead to is the 24-hour store. Smart windows will allow passersby to look at and purchase store inventory from smart posters attached to their windows or walls. Yes, this is already done, and yes, even more people are designing for it. Especially in areas with high levels of night-life traffic, allowing passers-by to immediately purchase that coat displayed in the window. The ultimate impulse buy.

6. And that will make holiday displays awesome. Not that anything can really beat toy trains or a window full of kittens, though.

Keep in mind that not all of this is 100% tech dependent, so it’s going to take architects and designers getting into the act — and from what I’m seeing, they’re coming up with some huge ideas in integrating physical and internet architectures. But, like in fashion, this is a new generation, and a lot of these people are still in school.

videodroner:

Zaha Hadid & Suprematism 

smarterplanet:

I pulled some data from a presentation from the K5 Learning Blog. Kids today are amazingly connected, but less involved in the physical world:

1. More US kids aged 2-5 can play a computer game than ride a bike.
2. 19% of kids aged 2-5 know how to play a smartphone app; 9% know how to tie their shoelaces.
3. More kids aged 2-5 can open a browser than swim unaided.
4. Kids aged 0-8 spend an average of 1 hour 44 minutes watching TV or video daily, 29 minutes reading, 29 minutes listening to music, 25 minutes playing computer or video games, and 5 minutes using new mobile devices.
5. Kids aged 8-18 spend 7 hours 38 minutes using entertainment media daily: more than 53 hours per week. That’s an hour more than 2004 (6 hours 30 minutes). Because they multitask [non-rivalrous media] they pack 10 hours 45 minutes into those 7 hours and 38 minutes.
6. 65% of kids aged 0-8 watch TV at least once per day. That’s 37% of kids aged 0-1, 73% of kids aged 2-4, and 72% of kids aged 5-8.
7. Kids under 2 spend twice as much time watching TV and videos than being read to (1 hour 54 minutes versus 53 minutes per day).
8. For kids aged 8-18, live TV consumption declined by 25 minutes from 2004 to 2009, but total TV consumption went up thanks to the Internet, cell phones, and iPods. 59% (2 hours 39 minutes) consisted of watching live TV, and 41% (1 hour 50 minutes) consisted of time-shifted TV, DVDs, online, or mobile.
9. 53% of kids aged 2-4 have used a computer, 90% of kids aged 5-8 have.
10. 25% of kids are going online daily by age 3, 50% by age 5.
11. Cell ownership among kids 8-18 rose from 39% in 2004 to 65% in 2009.
12. 7-12th graders spend an average 1 hour 35 minutes per day sending and receiving texts.
13. 51% of kids aged 0-8 have played a console game, 81% of kids aged 5-8. 17% of kids aged 5-8 play console games at least once a day, 36% play then at least once per week.
14. 27% of kids aged 2-5 screen time is used with new digital devices.
15. 29% of parents have downloaded apps for their kids aged 2-5 to use.
16. iPod ownership for kids aged 8-18 rose from 18% in 2004 to 76% in 2009.
17. 23% of kids aged 0-8 watch educational TV shows, 8% use educational programs on the computer, 7% play education games on new mobile devices.

via stoweboyd:

futuramb:

Buy Your Own Robot Swarm | Co.Exist: World changing ideas and innovation

At $14 a pop (in construction costs), the Kilobots are actually cheap enough to create a swarm, if you’re so inclined. Unlike other robot swarm prototypes, they can be programmed en masse with an infrared controller and charged simply by moving in between a pair of conductive surfaces.

When price as falling under a certain point things will be available and even attractive to the masses. In this case the masses might be nerds trying to understand swarm behavior or maybe even develop swarm algorithms that might solve difficult problems. One step closer to engineering swarm behavior in a scale never seen before…

iPhone = 3.564 oz. of meat [estimated]