“You can take any core human technology and kind of understand it as an extension of the human body. So in some sense, cars are an extension of our legs, television extends our eyesight, telephones extend our voice, and a house and clothing extend our skin and our body. Computers really do a lot of these things, but really, I think the most important thing that computers do for us…is that they extend our imagination.”

- Will Wright, co-founder of Maxis

I like this quote because it really captures the essence of technology, in relation to how we, as people, interact with it – we are using technology to extend our senses. Humans have always developed tools to enhance their physical and mental abilities, but as technology progresses, we are experiencing an increasingly sophisticated level of sensory feedback that changes the way we entertain ourselves.

Consider the different senses that a human uses to interact with the real world: visuals, hearing and voice, touch, smell and taste.

Now consider how aspects of these senses are being integrated with technology to create an entertainment experience that far surpasses anything seen before now, and which will eventually lead to the convergence of physical and virtual spaces and rich new possibilities.

Let’s start with visuals. One the one hand, we have increasingly sophisticated TVs that are getting larger and larger, and which are able to display HD quality video to create a more lifelike representation (although some argue its too much info). On the other hand we have devices that are shrinking displays down to the point where they can cover our entire range of vision and which eventually promise a totally different viewing experience.

Now this is where it gets cool, because companies are increasingly embracing the idea that you need to create a user unique user experience in order to really propel your product to the forefront of next generation entertainment. As we talk about in our research around the Net Generation entertainment norm, the companies that will truly succeed with this demographic, are the ones that engage people, and facilitate new levels of interaction within physical and virtual spaces. Here’s a few great examples:

Click for hi-res.

If you do nothing else all day, watch this video, because it is a breathtaking example of the direction the gaming industry is going in. Mirror’s Edge, as you can see from the video, is a game that is shot entirely in the first person view, and which promises to provide a fluid environment for you to interact with, while introducing realistic sound (e.g. panting/footsteps) and virtual-physical mechanics (e.g. use of hands). Perhaps none of these are new, but I have yet to see a game that combines them all seamlessly and really gets me as excited about it. And I’m not the only one, this is what gamers want, just look at the comments. Imagine playing this game with surround sound, equipped with next generation versions of the LCD glasses I linked above, and with a next generation ‘rumble suit’ that uses haptic technology beyond what currently exists on the Wii/PS3/360. When this type of experience becomes the standard, other companies will need to adapt, and produce similar offerings or get left in the dust.

I thought I’d never say this, but I remember when I was a kid, and although I didn’t walk to school barefoot and back, our toys were just getting to the point where you could send them out into the world using electronic inputs, such as a basic remote control car. Now one company has created a car that can bring you with it (using on-board video), which obviously creates a totally new and innovative experience, as you ride along in the drivers seat of your remote control car. Obviously the next step beyond this is to include an on-board recorder to capture the audio and transmit it back to the headset – it may not be there yet, but you better believe that some company will one-up this product and add that next level of sensory feedback to increase the level of experience and real world interaction.

I’ve so far largely focused on visual and audio feedback, but let me direct you to a few other sensory-based products before I leave you.

Sound feedback has become sophisticated enough to give you wearable surround sound headsets and ultra detailed/noise isolation in-ear headphones (scroll to the bottom) that will allow you to block out all noise but the sound you want to listen to. What about voice communication? We already have portable phone headsets. Could increasingly sophisticated speech recognition allow people to verbally communicate with, and interact with, various forms of media and devices. You can already do voice-chat with other gamers, what about interacting with the virtual world using speech, where robot computer players and environments understand what you’re saying and react?

Haptic (touch) feedback is already integrated into various existing technologies, such as the aforementioned rumble packs used for gaming, or localized touch screen haptics in phones and other portable devices. How else will it develop?

Which brings us to taste and smell. Right now these are the two most difficult senses to artificially stimulate in any practical way. On the smell front, there are goals of creating TVs that emit smell but they are clearly still a long way off. That said, at one point, so did much of our technology.

That’s it for now. I hope I’ve helped instill in you an excitement for the future of entertainment, because it is clearly evolving in very cool ways. That’s today’s ‘Thought-Date’ hope to catch you next time.