The tools of technology are here sooner rather than later

In January of 2016, I attended a conference hosted by the Agency Management Institute to learn about advancements in technology in the realm of advertising and public relations. I was also given a brief overview of what we’d be seeing “sooner rather than later.” While I am usually skeptical about that phrase, it turned out to be prophetic.

I’d heard of virtual reality, also known as VR. I’d actually started hearing about it when I was in college. Science fiction became science fact, though probably not in the way that was envisioned while the authors wrote the fiction on their word processors. I was not as familiar with augmented reality (AR) which is where the virtual reality world and the real world meet. The example I was shown was from a real estate agency in New York. By use of the agency’s app, the smartphone owner could look at the New York streetscape and be notified by graphics on the phone where properties were located. No, this wasn’t a map. This was like taking a video on the smartphone while graphics popped up with information and addresses of the properties. So the virtual world of the properties on the screen and the actual picture on the screen merged into an augmented reality. So I had some ideas how real estate agencies and retail stores could use this technology as an interactive catalog, and I had good examples of how to explain it.

The shock for me was that I’d been in a conversation about this technology called augmented reality only months before and through a game it had worldwide status almost instantaneously.

While it still may not be a household term, Pokémon Go is. It was only a few short months after returning that Pokémon Go became extremely popular. It wasn’t unusual to see people playing the game at night in Fairpark in front of city hall. Museums in Washington, D.C., were posting signs requesting players to be respectful as they traipsed through. There were interesting reports of bizarre trespassing incidences.

The Internet of Things, or IoT, was discussed at this conference too. If you’re controlling devices in your home by a computer, tablet or smartphone, then you’re using the Internet of Things. These devices have sensors in them that allow you to monitor them, and some allow you to control them remotely through a wireless connection. Your Fitbit that tells you how many steps you’ve taken, what your heart rate is, and tells you how well you’re sleeping; the air-conditioning unit that you can control by phone; and when you voice-command the gadget in your house to turn the sprinklers on to ward off your daughter’s serenading suitor, that’s the Internet of Things. Like the internet you’re familiar with, it is growing too.

Have you thought to yourself “These things are great for large cities, but we won’t see them in North Mississippi for a while”? They’re here.

Most advances in technology are gradual. Like watching a child grow, the changes are difficult to spot because they happen slowly. When a grandmother says, “My how you’ve grown,” it is because she recognizes the changes since she doesn’t see her grandchild every day. If that doesn’t strike home, do this. Think about doing all of the things that you do on your smartphone now with the one you had two phones ago. Gotcha! Technology is steadily coming into our lives.

Printed in the June 2017 issue of the Northeast Mississippi Business Journal.