The world of technical innovation has exploded over the past five years and is still progressing at an amazing rate, with mostly younger people being at the forefront of this revolution. This explosion is going to become even more prevalent this year with one the last platforms to be opened up with the introduction of the Ouya games console. This excites me as it creates huge opportunities and enables people to be more creative and innovative on an old medium, which up until now has been a closed market.
This type of innovation is within a niche eco-system, on previous platforms such innovation has progressively become novelty and not creativity.
Hearing thoughts recently from Samsung's senior designer Goldman Krishna about changing the way we think about user interfaces, I agree with his statement: "The best interface is no interface". If you look at some of the most creative apps coming to market in 2013, like Mailbox and Sunrise, they simplify the way we interact with old technology (Email and Calendar) keeping the UI clean and minimalistic.
The things that excite me are not so much the latest must have social media platform or game release, but solutions and gadgets that have purpose and impact in our everyday lives. Some of these solutions use existing mobile platforms as a facilitator for their products, such as the Tinke by Zensorium that monitors the health and fitness of people through their smart phone. The real time data collected could be used by governments and organisations to streamline medical services and enhance research into many of the world's health issues. Nokia recently announced a $13 dollar smartphone for emerging markets, this is a cost effective way to collect such data.
The area that concerns me the most is the fact that our natural energy resources are depleting rapidly and renewable energy will be in great demand. Therefore I see this sector as being our single most important focus for the future of our race, innovation in this arena must be encouraged and funded by all. I also like innovations to be glaringly obvious issues sometimes created by technology, such as AlphaBlue that I founded to help parents protect their children against smart phone misuse.
We also now have a generation emerging that has grown up with technology playing a large part in their lives, both socially and educationally, most are far more technically savvy than their parents. I believe it's this generation that we need to inspire and help to bring out their creative flair for innovation.
We must also be aware that they will require support and guidance to enable them to make their ideas a reality in the commercial world. By doing this we will enable growth, and provide a much securer future for our children.
Graeme is talking in the Hub at the Gadget Show Live, Birmingham NEC, UK - April 3-7 Alpha Blue amd Zensorium's Tinke can be seen at the Gadget Show Live, for tickets, click here