The Connected Congress

For those of you thinking that connected products are just the latest fad … think again. Connected products are here to stay, and the exciting tech and smart thinking on display at this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is a testimony to what’s going to be appearing in your car, living room – and on your person – over the next few years.

The Mobile World Congress is the mobile industry showcase where the next trends in mobile are unveiled. Unsurprisingly, The Internet of Things is playing a big part at the show as the mobile industry evolves from smart black slabs of glass to wearable and shareable products.

I’ll be sending a few updates on what catches my eye out here. First, here are a few trends I’ve noticed that I thought you may be interested in.

1. Our everyday products are about to talk back to us.
Electronics firm NXP is showing off a number of connected products including the connected trainer, below. The Adidas product on show comes equipped with two bits of kit in it. On the laces is a Near-Field-Communication (NFC) tag. It means that if you tap your phone on the tag, information about the product will appear on your screen. You can save it, or share it with friends. And if you buy the trainer, the GPS tracker in the heel will send you jogging routes depending on the city you happen to be in. Embedded technology like this will appear more and more in our lives as the things around us become more and more connected.

2. The fitness market has embraced the Internet of Things like no other industry.

I’m a keen jogger and swimmer, so simple enhancing products like the Fitbit bracelet interest me. The new Fitbit model connects to your smartphone and logs how far you’ve run or how much you’ve swam. But the clever part is how the Fitbit team have created an easy-to-use Smartphone app to help you log not only your output, but also your intake. You can enter what you’ve eaten and the app instantly converts that into calories which are then measured against your fitness regime. Okay, the idea is not revolutionary and there are many similar products on the market. However, Fitbit is successfully managing to broaden its appeal beyond fitness fanatics, and into a wider lifestyle category to help measure diet and wellbeing. And importantly, it’s also leading the charge in getting consumers more comfortable with using wearable and connected products.

3. Very soon, your face may be the only security ID you need
The Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits is showcasing a revolutionary technology that could change the way we think about security, retailing and ourselves.

Their 3D facial recognition technology uses smart cameras to map a person’s face and feedback information on the individual. Gender, age range – even how that person is feeling (happy, angry, sad, surprised) is logged in real-time. It is then fed into a computer programme that can collate and adapt the data for a myriad of uses.

For instance, imagine a store that uses this technology to dynamically change how it markets a product depending on the age, gender and mood of the individual. It could spark a revolution in retailing and the personal ID market.

But however innovative the technology is, concerns over privacy, how the data is held and what is done with it is surely going to be the Fraunhofer team’s most challenging obstacle.

I’ll be posting more about the companies catching my eye at the Mobile World Congress later.