May 2009

Issue Twenty-eight

ANTENNAE
Contents

TREND REPORT
P.03 Introduction
P.04-05 Instant information
P.06-07 GPS

MAY 2009
P.08-09 Gaming
P.10 Home connectivity
P.11-12 Automotive
P.13-14 Interaction
P.15-16 Advertising

INFOTAINMENT
ANTENNAE May 2009
Issue Twenty-eight
TREND REPORT
MAY 2009

28
The Antennae Trends team at NewEdge +
The Brewery carries out research in new
design trends, ideas and creative thinking
- from global product innovation through to
changing consumer lifestyles.

Cultures, habits, practices, and people are

changing as technology infiltrates every
corner of our lives. This issue explores how
our connected lifestyles are changing, as
information and entertainment merge.

If you’d like to know more about The

Antennae team and our trends research
consultancy or if you would like to comment
on anything you have read in this issue,
please email us at:

antennae@newedge-thebrewery.com

Page 2

Driven to distraction
Technology is now everywhere, filtering through every part of our lives
Technology has resulted in us finding distraction
everywhere. We are now almost always within reach
of something infotaining. The list includes mobile
phones, iPods, portable DVD players, television,
email, games consoles, PDAs, social networking sites
– and it’s growing.
We are able to access 50 million websites, 1.8 million
books in print and 75 million blogs, but we increasingly
seek information in Google searches that we often
digest while in the middle of other tasks.
May 2009
Issue Twenty-eight
Through technology we can contact millions of people
globally, but rather than spend time having a phone
conversation we increasingly send instant messages,
whether via MSN, Skype, Facebook, or SMS.
How are brands and products adapting to cope with
the changes in culture and social behaviour associated
with the increase in connectivity, interactivity, and
infotainment?
Page 3
 May 2009
Issue Twenty-eight

Instant info
The jumbled age of instant disposable information

The ‘zapping generation’ are now grown-up; they are stress when they are unable to get online. Named Above and below
From next season Arsenal
impatient, used to information excess, digital media, ‘discomgoogolation’, people have been feeling fans will be able to stream
and they are at the centre of the move towards distress or anxiety when unable to get immediate match information and video
on their PSPs
infotainment. information access.

They have neither the time nor the patience to read The study highlighted that the most stressful time for
large amounts of text. They want the information in a people is when they are out and about. They often
timely, useful, and flexible way that is easy, convenient need to make many short-notice decisions, but they
and appealing. feel they are doing so without the full information the
internet usually gives them.
Thanks to Twitter, Facebook, and other social
networking sites, we have created our own
entertainment, broadcasting our daily lives. Increasing
numbers of people Tweet from their mobiles, with the
site up 1000% on members globally since last year,
and reaching a 3200% increase in the UK. Everyone
from Barack Obama, Gordon Brown, Britney Spears
and Elton John, to you and your neighbour, have
signed up to Twitter, often writing the simplest and
shortest of messages.

The proliferation of broadband has meant that we

have entered a culture of instant answers, with the
world’s information ‘googlable’.

Psychologists have actually determined that there

are a soaring number of people that suffer from

Page 4

According to recent research, over three quarters of
Britons admit they cannot live without the internet,
with over half using the internet for up to four hours a
day. Ninety percent of Britons now rely on the internet
as their main source of information.
Many products and services offer connected
solutions to increase the level of information that
consumers receive. From next season, Arsenal fans
will be able to watch replays of goals at home games
by using their PSPs. The Premier League club has a
deal with Sony, so that spectators will be able to buy a
disc for the console that unblocks a signal and allows
live streaming of the match with a five-second delay.
This device will bring an extra dimension to the game
– adding information and statistics, as well as the
numerous camera angles. It is thought that it could
be used to link fans to each other during the game
as well.
May 2009
Issue Twenty-eight
Televisions too, are being revolutionised in the
infotainment movement, morphing into multimedia
hubs. Sony are releasing sets using the Yahoo Widget
Engine showing YouTube video’s, Amazon Video on
Demand, plus other internet content straight into the
HDTV set. The internet TV apps, or widgets, will deliver
real-time information relating to the programme being
watched. The TV sets will also be able to access Sony
BRAVIA Internet Video content featuring a selection of
free and premium movies, programmes, sports, and
music, allowing viewers to watch content when they
want and to personalise the TV experience.
This trend is only going to grow in the future, so it will
become increasingly important to simplify information
and make messages attractive for consumers.
Consumers want access to the right information
when they need it, wherever they may be. Creating
solutions that meet these needs will increase the
future success of any brand.
Below
Samsung television
incorporating widgets
Page 5

Location, location, location
With more mobile phones now including GPS, social networking may never be the same
The recent furore over Google’s Street View service
has put GPS based web applications firmly within the
social spotlight. Dozens of images were removed just
days after the UK roll out of Street View, due to public
complaints.
The fallout included communities blocking the driver of
a Google Street View car, which captures the photos,
as well as protests by numerous organisations,
charities, the media, and an investigation by the UK’s
Information Commissioner as to whether the service
breached the Data Protection Act. Does this indicate
that there is a place for such services in society? Is
there a real demand for GPS, location data-centric
platforms?
If the number of services and applications that use
GPS are anything to go by, the answer is a firm yes.
The increase in GPS chip sets in mobile phones
has given rise to a new breed of applications and
software. Combining social networking and GPS
together, many new applications aim to utilise location
centric technology to giving users more information
about their surroundings, and even detailing if any of
their contacts / friends are close by.
Loopt is one such application. Via interactive maps,
May 2009
Issue Twenty-eight
users can share their status and location with their Above
nra is only available on UK G1
contacts, particularly those that are close by. Loopt phones
can also be linked to your Facebook or Twitter profile,
notifying you of any friends that are close by and
automatically updating your status.
Loopt is partnered with various major telecom
networks such as AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile, giving
the application access to their resources and providing
a reliable and up to date service for its users. Loopt is
also very keen to stress its advanced privacy settings,
particularly after the fall out from Google Street Map,
and doesn’t maintain a “location history” as well as
being a “100% permission based” application.
Loopt also has similar competitor services, such as
BrightKite, which offers social networking combined
with maps. Expect to see a multitude of like-minded
services, with subtle innovations between them
before one becomes the standard.
Other services are going for alternative innovations
in order to get consumer attention. Breadcrumbz
is a pictured based, GPS reliant navigation service.
Following journeys that are created and enhanced by
the use of photos, users are guided through locations
on their mobiles.
Page 6
 May 2009
Issue Twenty-eight

Users can also create their own routes using the It seems highly likely that partnerships will be formed Middle
Loopt aims to create a link
GPS and camera on their phones. These can then between brands – such as a Nokia with TomTom between social networking
be shared with other users. This service, whilst GPS technology – while others will include as and GPS technology
only available on the Android platform, has found much technological functionality in their products Bottom
popularity with tourists and visitors who want an as possible, and rely upon independent software Breadcrumbz utilises the GPS
and camera functions on a
alternative view and experience of a location. developers to innovate and produce services. consumers phone

Never before have we had such easily accessible
information about a location. But how can all this
information be easily interpreted by the user and, even
harder, displayed on screens that will rarely exceed
three inches?
With our continuing desire for instantaneous
infotainment on our devices, GPS will continue to be
a technology driven by consumer led innovation and
services.

Lastminute.com has a service called nra – or “near you”

– this utilises the compass, GPS and accelerometer
on an Android phone to create a simple physical
interface that shows restaurants, hotels and other
points of interest. The graphics are simple, smart and
clear, with locations closest to you displayed closer
to the centre of the compass. The application even
allows you to select a restaurant and view their menu,
as well giving you all the relevant information to make
your booking. By just moving the phone around, the
user can see different information on screen. Although
currently only available to UK consumers, expect to
see similar applications coming out worldwide, and
for different platforms.

This use of technology is part of a growing trend for

manufacturers to design and develop products that
include GPS. Nokia believes that over half its handsets
will have GPS capabilities by 2010-2012, and with
chip manufacturers producing GPS components a
fraction of the size they were 5 years ago, expect to
see GPS capabilities in all manner of products.

Could we see GPS chips in clothing, bags and wallets?

How would consumers respond to GPS chips in their
trainers, tracking how far they’d ran during a jog or a
football game? The more variety of products GPS is
applied to, the more innovative and diverse we can
expect the software and services to be.

Already GPS and telecomm services have started

to converge. Garmin, traditionally a GPS device
manufacturer, has produced its first mobile phone –
the Nuviphone. Although sold as a smart phone, its
main selling point is its advanced GPS features.

How will brands maintain their identity and values,

whilst trying to provide consumers of all the services
they demand? Should we expect the growing trend
for convergence in the GPS and telecom sector to
continue?

Page 7

End of the game console?
Will the rise of new technology and innovative business models in entertainment affect gaming?
With our lives becoming more mobile, we are now
demanding that our entertainment should follow us
and become instantly available whenever we want
it. This trend is particularly evident in the computer
gaming industry.
With a predicted value of $44 billion globally by 2011,
the interactive entertainment industry is a massive
arena for NPD and changing business models that
adapt to our lifestyles – which poses exciting and
unique opportunities for innovative thinkers.
Currently, the gaming market is dominated by the
console genre, with Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft
vying for market dominance. Each brand has its
own unique product and after-sale offering, such as
the Xbox Live service provided by Microsoft. Xbox
Live provides the user with an online community to
play games with, as well as the chance to download
games, levels and trailers onto their consoles.
Using a Microsoft Points system, gamers can buy
content for their games, as well as films and TV
shows. Although Xbox Live has been around for a
while, its business model is used as clear evidence
of consumers wanting to use their consoles for
more than just gaming – they use them as portals to
May 2009
Issue Twenty-eight
numerous sources of information or entertainment. Above
The interactive entertainment
Sky has also signed a deal with Microsoft to make market is currently dominated
it possible to download / show Sky content on an by a select few products and
brands
Xbox - further evidence that the console is becoming
a media centre for the home. Sony also offers a
similar service to its users too, although it has gone
a step further and made it possible for other Sony
entertainment products to interact with each other.
Consumers can connect their Sony PSP’s to their
PS3 in order to transfer or download files, or even
play music and games. By increasing the connectivity
and integration of their devices, Sony has taken a
big step forward in making interactive entertainment
something that can be easily accessed whilst on the
move, as well as having a more immersive experience
in the comfort of the home.
The technological advancements in mobile phone
technology has made gaming on the move more of an
interactive experience. The addition of accelerometers
in mobiles has meant that the user is not just tapping
buttons, but also physically moving and immersing
themselves in the game.
The ability to easily download and install games on
mobile devices has made them ever more popular,
Page 8
 May 2009
Issue Twenty-eight

with games that are easy to understand and pick up

finding the most traction amongst consumers. The
majority of the popular app downloads for the iPhone
are games, due to the ability of users to pick them up
quickly and put it down just as easily.

The popularity of games for mobile devices has

meant that a trend for simplistic, easy to grasp game
titles has developed not only for mobile devices, but
for use on larger machines, such as consoles. Titles
are developed to be short lived, easy to understand,
challenging puzzles that are cheap and easily
accessible. The fact that they can be installed and
removed from a device easily, is also a unique selling
point that users are finding satisfaction from.

This growing trend is further supported by a new,

innovative service called OnLive. OnLive claims that
its games won’t need to be run from a PC, Mac or
console, but would be accessed via the service’s
servers. Each subscriber will be able to gain access
to a catalogue of HD games that can be launched
automatically, without the need for download time or
a complex piece of hardware.

This opens up the idea that interactive gaming in the

future won’t rely on expensive hardware, but will just
require a simple ‘dumb’ device on which content is
downloaded and played on.

Although a service that is still in development and

a few years from disrupting the current interactive
gaming market, OnLive is a sign of things to come,
where consumers can get instant access to HD
content on a number of devices. With a similar retail
model working so well for Apple’s Appstore, OnLive
could signal the death of console, or hardware
based gaming, with a move towards a more
flexible, accessible and mobile form of interactive
entertainment – further reinforcing the consumer
desire for services that provide entertainment and
information, instantly and on demand.

Top
The Xbox Live community
offers a lot more than just
games

Middle
Mobile phones are now
increasingly used as gaming
platforms

Bottom
OnLive could be the ground
breaking service that changes
the current interactive
entertainment industry
business model

Page 9

Making connections
Access to information quickly and easily when you need it
After years of predicting it as the future, the connected
lifestyle has finally come of age. Technology has
become cost effective and advanced enough for us
all to be truly connected, and for many of our products
to use connectivity to make our lives easier.
O2 launched Joggler this month, a new touch-screen
device for the home. It contains free news and weather
from Sky, games, and a traffic map that shows delays
on roads and motorways, with information supplied
by Trafficmaster. It also acts as a photoframe, can play
music (MP3), and in the future it will stream content
from digital radio stations. But the main function is a
shared calendar application, which can be accessed
from the device, online and from an O2 mobile phone,
allowing a family to add appointments from anywhere
and check any member of the household’s agenda by
text. It shows at-a-glance what everyone in the family
is doing, and it can send text message reminders for
events to the phones of family members.
The Joggler is designed to save money, get rid of
hassle, and create time to spend together. It supports
family life keeping everyone ‘in the loop’. This
functionality is meant to replace the kitchen calendar,
or notes on the fridge.
May 2009
Issue Twenty-eight
Living up to it’s brand tag line ‘we’re better, connected’ Above
O2 Joggler
O2 continue to offer solutions that meet the needs of
people’s busy lives and their desire to be connected o2family.o2.co.uk
to each other and what each of us is doing.
This ties into the large trend towards the third display.
Beyond the computer and the television many
houses are now incorporating another access point
to media and the internet. At this year’s CES a number
of systems were exhibited, including photo albums,
mini-movie players, multi-widget screens, and
messenger stations. Many digital picture frames are
now connected to the internet, allowing consumers to
email photos directly to the frame, and display friends
pictures from social networks.
All of these systems offer consumers access to
information quickly and easily from wherever they
are, delivering desirability and functionality, allowing
people to stay connected.
Page 10
 May 2009
Issue Twenty-eight

Enjoy the ride

The proliferation of in-vehicle infotainment

The days of just listening to the radio whilst in the car upcoming BMW 7-Series, will make cars smarter Above and below
EDAG’s
are long gone. Today’s travellers are moving into high- and safer. The new 7-Series can read speed limit Light Car - Open Source
tech infotainment including digital radio, DVD players, signs and then project the limit into the drivers
www.edag.de
dashboard navigation, and games consoles on the vision on the heads-up display. Another technology
backseats. The market for in-car infotainment goods appearing in the new 7-Series is night vision that can
is set to grow to $54 billion by 2012. detect pedestrians on or near the road and alert the
driver with a moving video on the heads-up display,
Portable entertainment devices are becoming a providing warnings if the person ahead is at risk.
necessity for all families, with many cars, minivans,
and people carriers coming equipped with devices. At
the top-end we are already seeing wireless terminals
that allow consumers to instantly stream video on
demand and live TV channels. They are not only
useful for families, but also for business people who
need to keep up to date with the latest information
whilst travelling.

Taxi’s across South-East Asia have been installed

with touch-sensitive colour LCD screens in the back
of taxi headrests, featuring infotainment and location-
based marketing. They display interactive content
that engage passengers by offering financial news,
film trailers, current news, and traffic information.

Not all the technology set to appear in cars in the

next few years is aimed at driver convenience or
entertainment. New technologies, as shown in the

Page 11
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Following Toyota’s Pod concept car, which changes

colour depending on the mood of the driver to
indicate happy, sad, or angry, Toyota are now working
more on changes in the driver’s mood than change’s
in the car’s appearance. Research has shown that
a driver’s emotional state affected how they drove.
By identifying the emotion in the driver’s voice
when using voice-recognition controls it could give
information that would help, such as for the stressed
driver identifying a less jammed route, or by playing
soothing music, and for the tired driver louder music
and different climatic conditions. Later this year
Mercedes are going to put a system into production
cars that senses fatigue by detecting minor steering
errors, as an alteration on their ‘normal’ driving
pattern. The car will then issue auditory and display
warnings.

Intelligent safety systems are not only being

developed for in-car use, but also for external use to
inform surrounding vehicles. Lack of communication
between drivers is commonly believed to be a cause
of road rage. An auto-engineering company from
Germany has built a prototype car that uses OLED
displays on its front and back windshields to better
communicate with surrounding vehicles. The ‘Light
Car – Open Source’ can display road conditions
and better display indicators, including braking.
Rather than just a red light the breaking force can be
communicated, a distance reading, that there is a
pedestrian crossing the road, that there’s a speed or
a construction zone ahead, or if the tail end of a traffic
jam is ahead could all be displayed.

The driver can design the outlines of the lights to his

individual taste to give the car a unique appearance.
He can also configure the ‘desktop’, by adjusting the
size, position, and style of the dials and gauges in the
car’s dashboard to meet his personal desires.

The future of in-vehicle entertainment includes a full

suite of computer connectivity and applications. It is
becoming increasingly easy to enjoy the comforts
of the home whilst on the road. As well as making
the drive more pleasurable, these systems remove
many of the stresses of driving by giving drivers
the information they need to know to help with the
journey, and for those around them.

Top
Toyota’s Pod concept car
www.edag.de

Bottom
Taxi advertising provider
Touchmedia

Page 12

It’s in the body language
Are consumers ready to take the next step in touch and gesture based interaction?
With touch screens now becoming commonplace
in mobile phones, and increasingly in personal
computing, gesture based interaction between
information portals and ourselves has never been so
accepted.
But how much further can this technology go? And
are consumers prepared to make that shift from
traditional data input methods, to more physical
interaction?
The Fluid Interfaces Group at MIT’s media lab have
recently unveiled a prototype called SixthSense
– a wearable, gesture driven computing platform.
Currently worn as a necklace, SixthSense combines
a small camera and projector to create an immersive,
yet discreet, information centric experience.
The small camera can detect certain gestures, such
as the drawing of an @ symbol in the air, and translates
this into a function, connecting to the internet and
pulling out the relevant information. This is then
presented on a nearby surface by the projector.
The everyday usage possibilities for the technology
are huge. Imagine finding a book in a shop, making
a gesture over the title and having SixthSense search
May 2009
Issue Twenty-eight
Amazon for reviews, prices and other books by the Top
Barclays now has a Microsoft
same author. Taking a photo would be a simple as Surface installed in their
making a square with your fingers, with the image Piccadilly branch
instantly uploaded to a social networking site of your
preference.
The developers also see this technology becoming
an even more immersive form of computer gaming,
building on the success of Nintendo’s Wii. However,
there is also acceptance that although the technology
is there, the programming and user-interface design
that would be needed to make this work would be
complex and have a considerable development time.
Is this a leap to far though? How comfortable would
consumers feel with such technology?
The SLAP widgets, developed in a Germany and
the USA by the RWTH Aachen University and UC
San Diego, aims to make this shift towards virtual
controls less severe. SLAP (Silicone Illuminated Active
Peripherals) widgets are real life plastic and silicone
objects used in conjunction with a multi-touch table.
Each object has a certain input format, such as
push buttons, sliders, knobs and keypads. When
a widget is placed on the surface a camera detects
its location and shape. The surface will then produce
Page 13
 May 2009
Issue Twenty-eight

a contextually appropriate virtual control, such as

colour-coded buttons, keys and dials. As the user
manipulates the objects the display is affected in real
time. The use of real physical keys means the user
gets tactile feedback, allowing more precision in the
input, whilst also benefiting from a flexible, dynamic
output display.

Due to the fact that the SLAP widgets are off the shelf
components, and that the multi-touch table is also
already in production, the only development is in the
programming. This makes this form of virtual input a
lot more feasible for the near future, and could be an
expensive, yet highly efficient, form of communication
or data input. However, multi-touch tables have
already started to become a feature in our lives.

The Microsoft Surface is a 30-inch touchscreen

table that displays information and images that
users can interact with via touch. Barclays bank
in London’s Piccadilly Circus has become the first
bank in Europe to use this product in its branch.
Along with other interactive displays and features,
the Microsoft Surface can be used by customers to
talk over accounts with member of staff, to check
local attractions, the news, weather and whole other
multitude of things.

Although used predominantly as a marketing tool by

Barclays, more practical uses have been made of the
technology. The Microsoft Surface was used by the
head of security at this years Super Bowl in the US.
It allowed him to go through the stadium blueprints
easily, as well as checking security camera images in
real time.

Gesture based interaction has made a huge impact

to how we access information on our mobile devices
– soon it could affect how we pull information from
other portals. The need to consume information,
and to access it as quickly as possible, means that
innovative forms of interfacing will always be needed.

Top
SixthSense has been
developed by the Fluid
Interfaces Group at MIT

Middle & Bottom

SLAP widgets integrate
touch screen technology with
interactive ‘dumb’ objects

Page 14
 May 2009
Issue Twenty-eight

Entertainment while you wait

Digitalization of our streets improves perceptibility of marketing

Advertising billboards tend no longer to be static,
displaying one campaign at a time. Many have now
been replaced with digital displays that not only
present revolving campaigns but also the latest
information on news, weather, sport, and travel whilst
you wait at the bus stop, or drive by. In addition, a
number of billboards are now interactive allowing
commuters to interrelate with the brand.
In Canada a number of displays have been erected Above and below
Adobe billboard in New York’s
in waiting areas by Solo to allow strangers to talk Union Square
to each other on ‘giant mobiles’. The interactive
billboards present a large flip-phone which allows
walkers-by to press a button and chat to strangers,
via two-way radio, who are sat at other transit shelters
across the country.

Sharpie, makers of permanent markers, have

developed interactive e-cast billboards beside bus
stops that allow waiting commuters to leave their own
message, or interactive graffiti, on the side of the bus
stop.

Health Club chain Fitness First have also installed

interactive marketing at bus stops. Commuters in
the Netherlands are viewing their body weight on the
billboard when they take a seat. This initiative is likely
to increase membership numbers at the local Fitness
First.

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Issue Twenty-eight

In the UK, Nokia allowed waiting commuters to

interact with the advert for their latest handset by
playing a lighthearted touchscreen game ‘Find the
pairs behind the pockets’, requesting that the player
flip images in order to find matches, and eventually
reveal an image of the phone.

In New York Adobe have previously used interactive

billboards to advertise Creative Suite 3. As pedestrians
walk past the wall, infrared sensors lock onto the
closest person, and their movement will operate the
slider, displaying a colourful animation and playing
music, growing or receding as the person advances
or retreats.

Standing out from the crowd and getting noticed has

always been of importance for a successful marketing
campaign, but with the infiltration of interactivity
and connectivity campaigns are becoming more
perceptible.

Top
Sharpie billboard in Hamburg

Middle
Fitness First bus stop in
Amsterdam

Bottom
Solo billboard in Vancouver

Page 16
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Issue Twenty-eight

Our immersive society

In summary the list of devices with increased
interactivity and connectivity will continue
to grow, and it is important that as our
society and behaviours change as a result,
companies and brands stay in touch, or lead
the changes with products and services that
meet these shifting needs.

If you’d like to know more about The

Antennae team and our trends research
consultancy or if you would like to see how
we can help you with any of the trends
emerging from this issue, please email us at:

antennae@newedge-thebrewery.com

Page 17
 antennae@newedge-thebrewery.com

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MAY 2009 T +44 (0)20 8439 8400

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