Posey's Tips & Tricks
Do Futuristic Technological Predictions Ever Come to Pass?
Let's take a look back at how Microsoft saw future travel, and see how close to the mark it got.
As someone who started messing around with computers in 1987 and who got their first "real" IT job in 1992, It absolutely amazes me to look back and see just how much technology has changed in the last 30-plus years. Of course all of that technological innovation didn't happen by magic. There have always been people thinking about what technology might look like in the future and working to make that future a reality. In fact, I have lost count of the number of times that I have attended tech conferences and seen short video presentations of how technology companies imagine the future. Recently though, I found myself wondering if any of these futuristic videos ever actually become reality.
As I thought about this question, I remembered one particular video that Microsoft produced roughly 10 years ago. The first half of the video (which is the only portion that I am going to discuss because of space limitations) shows Microsoft's vision for what international travel would look like in the future. I decided to compare the video to present-day reality to see if the travel industry really evolved in the way that Microsoft envisioned.
The video starts by showing someone leaving the airport after arriving on a flight. She puts on a pair of augmented reality glasses that translate the airport signage into English. The video predates HoloLens by a few years, although the video was made at around the same time as Google Glass. The glasses used in the video look like normal prescription eyewear as opposed to the bulky augmented reality glasses that have been produced by Microsoft, Apple and others. However, there are augmented reality glasses in development that look like regular sunglasses.
The price and overall bulkiness of augmented reality glasses have thus far held back widespread adoption, but the technology does exist that would allow someone to use augmented reality glasses to translate a sign. Of course it's probably quicker and easier to use one of the many available smartphone apps to do real-time translations.
At this point, the woman in the video gets into a cab. The cab's backseat windows are equipped with digital displays integrated into the window glass. Again, the technology exists to do that sort of thing, but I haven't seen any taxis equipped with such a feature.
Next, the woman in the video takes out a smartphone and we see that the phone is frameless. The display covers the entire surface of the phone. Frameless smartphones do exist, so I will call that one a win for Microsoft.
As the video goes on, we see that the taxi cab's smart glass windows acts as a secondary display for the smartphone, displaying a reminder about a meeting. However, this was no ordinary meeting reminder. The window glass highlighted a particular building as the cab drove past and added a block of text saying, "Your meeting tomorrow is here."
Again, I haven't seen taxi cabs equipped with smart windows, but the technology does exist. In fact, there are HoloLens apps that display holograms calling out real world landmarks such as buildings.
As the cab continues to travel, the woman in the video uses her phone to check into her hotel room and is informed that her phone will act as a room key. Today of course, this is pretty common. There are plenty of hotels that will allow you to check-in online and use your phone as a room key.
Next, the video cuts to the hotel and a greeter is holding a transparent, digital business card displaying information about the traveler. In addition to showing her picture, this card shows the language that she speaks, the length of her stay, how much her bags way, her service level, favorite amenities and even how long her flight was.
I stay in a lot of hotels and I have yet to see any of them using transparent cards to prepare for a guest's arrival. Even so, the technology does exist. The HoloLens uses a transparent display, as do many other devices, so it is not unthinkable that a hotel could use transparent digital devices when greeting guests. The data could easily be transmitted to such a device over the hotel's WiFi connection.
Later in the video, we see the woman in her hotel room going over her presentation for the next day. Her phone synchronizes to smart displays within the room. She uses a handheld, touch-enabled canvas to begin editing the presentation, easily reorganizing it by dragging individual elements and verbally instructing the software to make certain changes such as pasting content into a new slide. As I watched this portion of the video, I couldn't help but to think of Loop, which makes it possible to add collaborative blocks of content to documents, and Copilot, which will make it possible to ask Office to make various edits to documents on your behalf.
Overall, I was really surprised by just how accurately this video from so long ago predicted the future. I will be the first to admit that Microsoft did not get all of the details right (nor would I have expected them to), but there was nothing shown in the video that was beyond the limits of current technology. When this video was first presented many years ago, I distinctly remember thinking the video was cool, but that the technologies shown were overly futuristic and somewhat implausible. What a difference 10 years can make.
About the Author
Brien Posey is a 22-time Microsoft MVP with decades of IT experience. As a freelance writer, Posey has written thousands of articles and contributed to several dozen books on a wide variety of IT topics. Prior to going freelance, Posey was a CIO for a national chain of hospitals and health care facilities. He has also served as a network administrator for some of the country's largest insurance companies and for the Department of Defense at Fort Knox. In addition to his continued work in IT, Posey has spent the last several years actively training as a commercial scientist-astronaut candidate in preparation to fly on a mission to study polar mesospheric clouds from space. You can follow his spaceflight training on his Web site.