Piaras Kelly PR – Public Relations in Ireland

I came across two really interesting videos thanks to Adoption Curve Dot Net by Johnny Chung Lee from Carnegie Mellon University. Chung Lee hacks a Wii to track fingers Minority Report style and how to create a Low-Cost Multi-touch Whiteboard using the Wiimote.

Both the Wii and the iPhone are examples of user experience which will change the way we look at games consoles and mobile phones respectively. I believe that a similar user experience will ultimately make it’s way to the TV.

There are two trends driving this in my opinion:

1. The average size of TVs in households is getting bigger. I actually have to bar myself from going to electronics stores for fearing of drooling on flat screens and being forced to purchase them
2. We’re increasingly accessing content from different sources through or TVs – games console, DVD player, etc.

I was playing around with my Xbox 360 over the Christmas holidays and plugged in my external hard drive to access music and see what video content I could play. I quickly had to unplug it for fear of spending even more time in front of the TV screen. The Xbox 360 isn’t a games console and shouldn’t be thought of as that, it literally is a home entertainment centre (disclosure – Microsoft are one of my clients.)

The point is that we’ve got all sorts of content and information that’s effectively centrally hosted by our TV. As a result, we’re already starting to change the way we interact with televisions and a similar innovation along the lines of what Johnny Chung Lee will further extend the humble TV’s capabilities and how we access and engage with content on our screens.

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