Friday, December 14, 2012

The next big medium of content delivery – Smart Optics


If anyone has seen the 2nd of the most recent batmen, they’ll remember the end portion where Batman puts on a special pair of glasses which shows him video of his surroundings.  He can then use these as virtual reality glasses and see through walls and such instead of having to use his actual eyes.
Arnold Schwarzenegger in the Terminator movies had a similar layout in his viewscreen.  Now you can too.
One of the next generations of content delivery appears to involves the future of optics… transparent glass and close proximity to our eyes.   This is most visibly today in cars windshields, which can reflect speed and other information about your driving, and with a new pair of ski goggles which shows you where you and your friends are. The military has been using such technology for its air force pilots for a long time, whereby it  gains information by where on the screen the pilots eyes are looking.  It would not be hard to imagine these coming to everyday eye glasses or other. 
These items are inherently mobile, inherently personal and offer some new challenges and opportunities for marketers.   One advantage is that in real time the marketer might have access to a viewers line of sight dependent upon what exactly they are looking at.  This could be geography based, if a viewer is looking towards a certain storefront or a car is passing by a certain store with a special deal.  The adds could also be subject matter based (if the viewer is looking at a dog, for example).  The potential to present information directly relevant to what the viewer sees in real time will be a reality.  A challenge is that there will be reduced screen size, as there is less area for marketers to use without blatantly distracting a user. 
Ultimately smart optics will allow for an entirely new medium of content delivery to a user and will have significant implications for marketers in how they are able to gain access to their target segments.  

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