Taiwan Design Center
Internship Project
Summer 2018
Computing Experience
in 2030
Travel Experience
Before going into the project, I have to say I had a wonderful experience working in Dell TDC as an intern. Everyone is super nice and friendly, and keep on giving me amazing advice on both my project and my career.
I appreciate everyone I know and everything I have learned in this 7 weeks. I had a blast.
The future
of computing experience
The Topic that I need to explore is the future computing experience. Therefore I started to explore the possibilities through 3 categories shown in the below brainstorming exercise.
DISPLAY
WAYS OF Interacting
Where the computing power is
Then I started to think what is the problem with current computing experience? And what is current computing experience anyway?
Normally speaking, desktop computer and laptop is still the most powerful computer right now; however, many of its' basic jobs, such as sending and receiving emails, simple word processor, and even photoshop, have been replaced by smartphones and tablets.
Complex work
REPLACE?
Simple work
For many people, they don't even own a desktop or laptop anymore, smartphone is enough for all the computing power they need!
Even back in 2015, Wired magazine had predicted that people's smartphones will be their only computer in 2 years. And this prediction has been somewhat true for many people since their jobs don't require heavy computing power.
Then it brought up a question:
Is smartphone the answer of our future computing experience?
No, I don't think so.
I took the left picture on my way to work, and almost everyone is using their smartphones. This is normal, but after getting off the MRT, a good portion of them are still using their smartphones while walking in the station and even on street.
People even watch a live concert through the smartphones!
Although smartphones cut us off from reality for a lot of times, we have to admit that mobile computing has became part of our daily life, and it will influence us even more in the future.
Mobile computing experience,
if not smartphone, then what?
This mobile computing experience should enable the user to access the reality and the digital world at the same time without neglecting one another.
Going back to the first brainstorming exercise, I found out that...
MIX REALITY is the answer.
& What is mix reality?
Mix reality is a kind of device, compare to virtual reality which can provide a fully virtual world, MR can blend the virtual world and physical world together seamlessly; therefore, the user can access the virtual world and the physical world at the same time.
Here are some current major mix reality device:
Microsoft Hololens
Magic Leap One
Mix reality will replace smartphone as the mobile and most common computing device once the technology is mature enough. Here is what I envision how mix reality will work with traditional computer if needed.
Take our creative job for example:
Desktop or laptop won't disappear, it will be used in certain situation, and sometimes even can work with MR if necessary.
The storyboard shows that the laptop and the MR device are linked together, and consider the technology trend, I would say they are linked by internet, which is internet of things.
Not only like the internet of things we have right now, they will be powered by artificial intelligence, which brings to the name AIoT.
AIOT will be the driver of the new computing experience.
Imaging that your AI is the soul of all your devices and belongings, it can exist in many devices at the same time. Therefore, every information are shared among devices.
So what role does MR play within this? MR will be the bridge of the user and all the other devices. Since mix reality device is a wearable, it can constantly collect the user's data, and the user can communicate with all the other device with real time feedback.
Real time communication between the user and one of his or her devices through AI and mix reality.
Virtual sharing between 2 users through their AI and MR devices.
User can also have real time communication with a location or even a smart device within that place.
Dining
Experience
The very first adaptor of the experience will be generation z and millennials.
Both generation z and millennials are familiar with the ever changing post internet world, and they are even used to upload their own information on to the web.
Therefore, it will be relatively easy for them to love this new mix reality experience.
After exploring the hardware, the overall experience, I need to decide what kind of computing experience.
There were several candidates other then creative experience:
learning
Experience
Health Care
Experience
Gaming
Experience
Travel
Experience
I choose travel experience to explore how MR computing experience can change our daily life.
The reason why I choose travel experience is because it can showcase how many current problems can be solved by MR computing experience.
Common problem with current
travel experience
I conducted several interviews to find out what are the major problem when it comes to traveling.
Those problems can be put into 2 categories. One is planning before trip, and the other is during the trip.
Forget To Bring Things
Time
Consuming
Planning
Time
Management
Lost
The Way
Language Barrier
Transportation Problem
During the trip
All these problems can be reduced or solved by mix reality computing experience which I made a concept animation to demonstrate how it can potentially work.
Before I show the animation, let me introduce the persona, Luke and his daughter Ray.
Meet our persona,
Luke and Ray.
Luke is a 32 years old software engineer who lives in San Francisco.
He has a great relationship with his 8 years old daughter Ray. They are both huge star wars fan.
Because of love for the Star wars franchise, Luke made his personal AI the image of Darth Vader.
Personalize your AI
Since AI will be the heart and soul of all the future computing experiences, it is very important that the users can trust them in a certain level.
Being able to personalize the user's own AI allows the user to feel closer to it emotionally. Therefore, they can trust their AI more.
The Experience
Now is time to show you the demonstration of how the future computing experience can improve travel experience all the way from planning to during the trip.
Looking back to the problems that I defined, they are all solved in some way. Other then solving problems, it also brings a lot of convenience to our future travel experience, such as shopping through mix reality. Here are 3 fundamental elements of a good travel experience.
All these three elements work together to form a great mobile computing experience which therefore can improve our travel experience.
However, not only travel experience, just thinking about how these three elements can improve our daily life experiences makes me excited about the future of mix reality development.
In this project, I didn't work on the MR hardware itself, I only drew a generic glasses to represent the device. It doesn't mean that the device is not important, it is actually a critical part of the experience, since people have to accept and like the hardware before they can enjoy any of the experiences.
I truly think the MR hardware won't be the obstacle of this future computing experience, there are so many money putting into this field right now.
With countless brilliant people out there, there will be a wonderful mix reality device that is light weight and beautiful for people to wear.
I also designed a mix reality eyewear for my MFA thesis, here is my design.
Questions are answered rapidly in a way the user like since the AI knows its' user's preferences. The AI can even be the smart hotel AI for the user.
Get the important information as soon as possible or to get the inevitable action done without waiting.
Eliminate language barrier is only at the surface level of human interaction enhancement; however, with the easy access of our AI, we can understand the culture of the place where we are instead of just walking pass through things we don't understand.
Summary and More
For more information about my thesis, please click here