Imagining the future... If I had to guess on the next thing coming (and soon), Id think that wearable computing is about to touch us all. And Id bet that the first thing well see is a next generation watch. Ive been thinking about this for a while. The next watch wont have a face. Its band will be a display. The technology is there to do it now. Itll surely have apps and connectivity (WiFi of course, cellular likely). I dont think its a laptop or phone replacement. It will be used for important emails and messages but I think well want it to do more important things - things that will truly assist us. There are numerous ways this can be used for boating and cruising. Here are a few that I like immediately relating to ActiveCaptain: 1. The moment youre approaching an ActiveCaptain hazard and within X miles, it should alert you - vibrate, color, alarm...whatever. The alert needs to be selectable. Itll let you know whats coming up and provide a display of the hazard details and all current comments. 2. As youre approaching a friends boat, youll get another type of alert, again configurable. That alert will let you know who they are, when you saw them last, where theyre going, etc., and provide you with a quick way to message them to say hello. I love the idea of greeting friends up ahead before they are crossing you and you hail them on the VHF while trying to remember their name and scrambling to find their boat card. 3. As youre approaching a boat thats not your friend, itll provide you the name of the boat and whatever information theyve allowed to be public (owners names, boat type, picture, destination, groups belonged to). There are so many social implications with this - I could write a chapter about it. 4. As you approach a marina (X hours out) where you have a reservation, the marina will receive an indication confirming your approximate arrival time (based on your route and speed). They can message back your slip assignment by lat/lon which will show up as a waypoint on your chartplotter (yes, through your watch). That slip will be accurate to within 6 feet so itll show you exactly where youre heading. They can also link you to a fairway layout diagram in case charts dont show the marina configuration well. There are many other boating uses - tide, current, route tracking, dinghy navigation, and more. So what other ideas are there? How else can this be used and what other data should we be collecting to provide the next generation of capabilities? Lastly, heres a concept video showing a pure guess at what an Apple iWatch might look like. This isnt real - its a guess. But its interesting to know that Apple has taken out trademarks on iWatch in a variety of countries already. Of the 50+ iWatch predictions, I think this video is the closest to what Id bet is coming. It should help you imagine... youtu.be/U5z3HuQp_w0
Posted on: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 14:48:24 +0000
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