Dr Theo Lynn kick-started the 2nd of the mini conferences with charisma and enthusiasm and set the tone for the remainder of the event. He began his talk with some interesting statistics that certainly grabbed my attention from the get-go! For example, did you know, 95% of irish 18-35 year olds own a smartphone? And that a futher 60% of smartphone users own an IPhone?
Lynns anecdotes generated laughter among the students, faculty and other esteemed guest speakers gathered in Mahony Hall. He spoke briefly of ‘Cortana‘- Windows new personal assistant and he gave an adept example of how useful ‘Cortana‘ can be; he can ask the electronic assistant to remind him when he’s in proximity of a flower shop to buy a present for his wife. ‘Cortana‘ will remember this and with the clever use of GPS technology she’ll follow the command through. This is just fascinating, I find, how quickly technology is moving us forward. What’s next for us? One can only imagine the possibilities! The next five speakers shared with us some insight into what they think is down the road for us in the not so distant future.
To hear the voice of the future. Click on the image to hear Cortana speak.
Second up was CEO of Digifeye, Dr. Mark Hughes. Hughes began where Lynn left off and continued with a thought-provoking speech that didn’t bore us with overwhelming statistics and figures. He talked to us all about his newly developed company ‘Digifeye‘. As a lover of fashion and constantly searching the web to find clothes I see on people, I’m happy to announce that this company’s website is every fashionistas dream come true! What would you say, if you thought it possible to simply find dresses, boots, bags and skirts all within a click of a button? You’d probably tell I’m crazy, that’s the kind of thing you see in movies! Well not anymore folks, welcome to future! It’s easy, take a photo of the item of clothing you want and Digifeye does the work searching the web for you! And even if it can’t find the exact copy they’ll find you simlier products that could possibly be cheaper. Nothing to lose!
As simplistic as the idea may seem, Hughes identified that there is work involved. What i found interesting was what Hughes had to say about the algorithms. Now, before I lose you attention, hang on just a minute, I promise it’s worth your while! When we see an image we tend to know imediately what it’s for, for example if we see a table, we know that it is, in fact a table. We learn from the first time we’re told of what an object it, yet (and this is where it gets interesting- I swear!) for a computer it’s completely different, it stores a number of algorithms and these remind it that what it’s seeing is something it’s seen before, like a table. But what we know is that there are an array of tables to chose from yet a computer doesn’t know this. It’s held back by the limited knowledge it knows. If i was to show you these images, how many of you would see a young woman? and how many of you would see an old lady?
It’s hard to distinguish whether the two people are present in the picture and this is what it’s like for a computer! Cool, right?!
for more information click on the logo to read an insightful article.
Next up was Dr. Cathal Gurrin, Director of the Human Media Archives research group and one of DCUs school of computing lecturers. Gurrin focused his attention on wearables, such as Google Glass, and the method of Lifelogging. For those of you who are as bewildered as I was about either of these concepts let me shed some light on what I learned. We all remember Marty McFly and the Doc taking a trip to 2015 in style, roaming the streets in the DeLorean and coming across new and wacky inventions they’d never imagined before, but for us many of those gadgets are reality! Okay, so there’s no flying cars and hover boards…..yet, but I find it truly remarkable the number of creations developed that we had once thought were mere fantasy. This movie not only got wearable computing right, they even managed to make the devices look somewhat like Google Glass! It just goes to show anything is possible when you put your mind to it!
Gurrin moved on to the exciting albeit a bit intrusive phenomenon of Lifelogging. This amazed me more than a little and I have to admit I was little awestruck and on edge when Gurrin explained this idea. He explained that Lifelogging enables the concept of a ‘surrogate memory’. You can wear these small devices (or there are now apps you can purchase for your smart phone) that capture photos which becomes a sort of digital biography, Saga is one of such apps that aims to do this. Then, there are others such as OptimizeMe that captures data and analyzes it for correlations between say activity levels and stress.
Could you imagine monitoring your life constantly? The prospect scares me a bit. Would we become too reliant on this technology to remind us of everyday mundane experiences? And what about the privacy aspect of Lifelogging? How would you feel if you’re constantly being photographed? Maybe I’m too much of a traditionalist or maybe Lifelogging just isn’t for me. But, don’t let me put you off! You could the future Lifelogger of your generation. For those of you out there who are intrigued and want to learn more click on the link.
Eoin Cruise, Market Lead for Microsoft Mobile Devices, made his way to the stage with an air of sophistication and business experience (you could tell by the suit). He had told us from the outset that this was a sales pitch, in which he tried to convince us that the Microsoft phones are the future, that we need look no further! Although there were a few blank expressions and some skeptical faces around the room what Cruise had to say was really insightful and I learned a valuable business lesson. He had been with Nokia for over 10 years and he admits that they let themselves be by-passed because they didn’t react to the changing times in the mobile industry. But 2014 was their year for growth and consolidation with Microsoft. Honestly, I found it truly inspiring that they said to themselves that things are going to change!
Cruise shared some more interesting goals Microsoft hopes to obtain in the not so distant future. They want to put on sale affordable smart phones, drawing in the consumer. He advocated new and improved technologies such as Cortana, Office, X-box and Skype which will be available on all Windows devices!
One thing that really struck me in his speech was his undying motivation and optimism for their future endeavors. They’re not out of the picture yet, far from it! I think what they’re doing is truly impressive and I wish them all the luck. ( I even think he was successful in converting a few smartphone users to the dark side….!)
Paul Davey was the next speaker to bring his experiences to the stage with IBM– a multi-national technology and consulting organisation. I had heard of IBM and remembered seeing its logo everywhere but wasn’t actually aware of what it did until that day. Upon further research I discovered some of their famous inventions we see in our lives! Such inventions include the ATM, the floppy disk, magnetic strip card and many more! Who would have known?
Davey spoke of the utmost importance of applications in our world today. He went further by saying it wasn’t merely enough to just have an app, it had to be a brilliant one. He strategically compared the Nationwide app (made by IBM) vs the Aer Lingus app, saying that the Nationwide app was far more successful with its consumers. Laughter enveloped Mahony Hall when he swore- hand on heart- that it was merely a pleasant coincidence. 
Davey surprised us all by IBMs new business venture ‘Watson’– a super computer that processes information more like a human than a computer! It honestly blew me away what this machine can do and how it can make a real difference in medical situations. This is going to change the world as we know it, it’s going to save lives! (Watch the video below to see the ultimate power of Watson)
Finally, Alex Meisl chair of Wiforia came on stage. He was just what was needed. He was energetic, humorous and grabbed everyone’s attention through his bubbly manner. Like the others, he shared some interesting facts:
- ‘2 in 3 adults would rather give up alcohol than their smartphones’
- ‘There are more mobile phones than toothbrushes’
These crazy statistics are something I think we can all relate too and it’s definitely something I took away with me after the day. Meisl introduced different organisations and their inventive incentives that they use to expand their clientele. His examples blew us away and we were hooked. All of the videos were very good and cleverly put together but i guess my favourite would have to be the E-mart sunny sale advert, which creatively used the positioning of the sun and a 3-D sculpture to make a QR (quick response) code to encourage consumers to shop in their stores during lunch time! It reminds me of how effective interactive advertising can be, but also shows the effects of good advertising!
As the 2nd of our mini conferences was drawing to an end, yawns were stifled and concentrations were waning yet Meisl sucked us back in with more captivating and albeit some peculiars innovations such as ‘the wake up and smell the bacon’ app or the slightly more absurd ‘Tweetpee’ app. The overused phrase ‘there’s an app for that’ has never seem more apt!
Like I’ve said before Meisl is well capable of entertaining his audience, and time seemed to fly by with his amusing anecdotes and charismatic nature.I certainly learned a lot of valuable business knowledge and I think I’m more aware of the importance of mobile phones in our lives. I’ll leave you with some of the QR code fails that Meisl showed us. Enjoy!
Thought you could get away that easy? I’m almost done I promise, scouts honour! Don’t forget to check out some of the photos from this event and I hope to see you guys back here on February 17th 2015!
The Para-DICE! 