Some 2016 communication trends you need to know

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Etymologically, the words trend and “turn” are closely related: they derive from the same Old Norse root: trendr. Trends are new directions, transformations, changes. If our time could be described with a social phenomenon, the lot of increasingly, frequent and definite trends is the right one. The communications sector is an example of how these trends occur very quickly. Some of these trends, which have had prominence in the current year, will be analyzed in this post.

Related: Find Out What Happens When the Telecommunications Industry Discovers 3D Printing

According to Forbes, communication with Millennials is a priority, and one of the ways this will be achieved more efficiently is through human capital investments in call centers. It will certainly develop the necessary technology to achieve the necessary communication.

Several call centers have invested a considerable amount of money on improving communication technologies. The aim has been, for a long time, an effective agent management and a continuous improvement of customer service. Today, the focus of many investments in this sector is real-time communication with users through virtual channels (WebRTC and SMS, for instance), because the Millennials seek, above all, direct and immediate interaction with customer service for solving their problems quickly and efficiently.

Brands will be the new activists. It’s important to keep communities together, but we need to live the experience of living among them and to see them in action. Because of the new kind of consumers, who judge everything based on economic and social policies of brands, we continue to see how brands give more weight to those political and social issues that concern people, placing values at the heart of its communication strategy.

On the other hand, virtual reality as a channel of choice is another important trend this year. While consumers need more experiences and less linear communications, virtual reality will become a key trend in the current 2016. This system has been generally used in the gaming and adult entertainment community, but content creators and communications professionals will use this kind of platforms to help people to assimilate certain realities. Users ask for new experiences in real life every day (or something that closely resembles.) Virtual reality has been very useful in the education sector (driving and flight simulators, for example), to the point that in the future will be a need to impart knowledge of all kind. Since during 2015 the technological advances in this field of communications were tremendous, this year things will move faster. “Brands not only need to ensure that they understand the impact that technology may have on the strategy,” says Don Burns, leader in the telecom industry, “they also must know when to use it and where to turn it into work.”

Image courtesy of  Tyler Pruitt at Flickr.com

In addition, in the flowcharts of companies, Youtubers may have a significant presence to stream content to workers. Companies need to decode new cultural codes, just like Youtubers: a social phenomenon of a decade that started in 2006 and has revolutionized the way information is transmitted at present.

Large 2016 marketing campaigns don’t just make noise to catch attention: they provide a good service. IBM, for example, has protected people from the rain under their ads on the street, and Samsung has set up giant screens in the back of their trucks where they project an image of the traffic through a camera on the front of the vehicle, to show drivers a good view that the truck is blocking. Marketing campaigns will be increasingly active every day.

The traditional model of 'funnel' sales belongs to the past. Consumers go directly to the end point of purchase today. While large online retailers are always seeking the amplitude, brands must seek depth. They guide their ad contents and campaigns to create a good experience with the brand. It makes it possible for consumers not only back, but remember the brand anywhere when purchasing.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is changing the way the global society communicates with itself. This phenomenon of hyper-connectivity will produce a paradigm shift of huge proportions, difficult to foresee (almost like the invention of the steam engine or the discovery of electricity.) Every day, more devices and objects of daily use are connecting to internet and providing useful information for users and businesses. In ten years, the number of smart objects will exceed the fifty billion of units. This year, more and more brands want their products to use IoT technology to improve the user experience and their sales and services as well.

Finally, the Millennials are destroying advertising. iOS 9 has allowed ad blocking, but the market is not ready to react. In 2016, brands will need to improve native advertising, as well as exploring new ways to generate notoriety in the top of the funnel (from sponsored podcasts and agreements with bloggers who are influencers, vloggers and Instagrammers), to a renewed commitment to activities experiences.

What You Need To Know About Augmented Reality

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Here in Don Burn’s Blogspot, we like to keep you up to date with the latest and greatest of upcoming and new telecommunication technologies, so you are always aware of what’s going on in this always changing fast-paced world of hi-tech developments. 

Augmented reality is a concept that we have been hearing a lot about lately. What is it? What does it mean for me? What aspects of our life is augmented reality able to influence and change?

According to Wikipedia, “Augmented reality (AR) is a live direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented (or supplemented) by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data.” This means that technology in a way enhances our views, concepts and perceptions of reality, as opposed to Virtual Reality (VR), which completely replaces it with an entirely simulated world.

Augmented reality adds graphics, sounds, tactile interaction and smell to the natural world as it exists. This in itself, is enough to let the imagination of developers run wild with ideas on how the human experience can be enhanced in pretty much all aspects of how we interact with the world around us. People in all walks of life can be greatly benefited by AR, from soldiers in a battlefield to tourists visiting a new city or children learning in a classroom.

In Hollywood films we have seen approximations to augmented reality that today have become gadgets that we can get at any electronic store and that continue to transform into more amazing examples of what this technology can do it. The use of HUD (Heads-Up Display) is not something new anymore, but new advances to augmented reality are putting these types of display to good use in eyewear, windows, glass displays and can windshields to name a few. From education to manufacture and gaming, the world seems to be at a turning point for augmented reality assimilation.

A recent study predicted that by the end of 2016, revenue produced by the AR Industry would total more than $600 billion. This study also determined that in 2014, approximately 864 million mobile phones will be AR-ready, and in excess of 100 million vehicles will come equipped with AR tech. Knowing this makes it more than clear, that augmented reality will have a profound impact in our world over the next decade.

Augmented Reality in Medicine.

One of the most amazing implementations of AR in medicine comes probably from one of the most simple uses of the technology, remote viewing. Using Google Glass, doctors are able to perform surgery and stream to thousands of students throughout the world from a first-person perspective. 

This type of applications are highly advantageous considering the steep learning curves and the valuable insight that can be give to many learners at once considering there are 143 million simple operations need to be performed annually, and that requires need 2.2 million surgeons, aestheticians, and obstetricians.

Augmented Education.

The advantages are countless. AR allows for teachers to capture the undivided attention of students by implementing AR technologies in the classroom. Students can access in their own devices class materials, interactive prototypes, models, illustrations and supplementary learning tools that will make them appropriate lessons in a more effective manner. The fact that with a simple scan of their phone, students can access so much information linked to each other, ensures a higher retention level of the information presented in class and foster the intellectual curiosity of a generation that is more familiar everyday with this type of devices and initiatives.

Entertainment.

Image courtesy of Eduardo Woo at Flickr.com

Unless you have been hiding under a rock for the past few weeks, you must have heard of Pokémon Go, the amazing app developed by Niantic. The idea started as an April Fool’s Day joke that merged Google Maps with the popular game Pokémon by Nintendo.

Pokémon Go is a game that encourages you to get out in the real world and use your mobile phone to catch Pokémon using the implementation of augmented reality. (Pokémon, for those who don’t know it, are collectible creatures that players use to battle one another. They debuted in gaming consoles by Nintendo in 1996, and in the early 2000’s they also populated an animated cartoon and stacks of playing cards). Only two days after being released, Pokémon Go has been installed on 5.16% of Android phones in the United States. In less than a week it has become the most downloaded app in Apple’s App Store.

Until now, no other augmented reality app has gone mainstream, let alone in such massive way as Pokémon Go, which means that even if we don’t care about this little creatures at all, we must look forward with hopeful eyes to what developers are planning next knowing the amazing response from people towards this type of apps.

What Is The Present And Future Of Virtual Reality?

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Many experts project 2016 as the year for Virtual Reality. This technology is far from new, yet the most promising advances in the field of virtual reality have been reached and made public in the last few months.

What is Virtual Reality? According to Wikipedia, Virtual Reality is a computer technology that replicates an environment, real or imagined, and simulates a user's physical presence and environment to allow for user interaction. Virtual realities artificially create sensory experience, which can include sight, touch, hearing, and smell.

The way Virtual Reality will be used in the years to come is still a matter of speculation amongst most people. What is true is the fact that current technology has placed the tools necessary for anyone to implement their ideas using Virtual Reality; like in the case of Google’s Cardboard, a downloadable set of instructions to turn any smartphone into a VR headset.

When most people think of Virtual Reality, they think about games and entertainment. It is true that most applications that are known to the public have been made in this area, mostly because we are used to a very rudimentary form of Virtual Reality called 3D movies. 3D movies have been popular for decades due to the immersion they provide to the audience and the enhance experience they create to the senses. Oculus Cinema is an app that already goes a step beyond the magic of 3D allowing users to watch their content as if they were using a virtual screen in a simulated environment, or in some cases, as if they were inside the movie itself. Movie theatres are not the only simulated environments that Virtual Reality is seeking to emulate when it comes to entertainment; a company called LiveLike VR has built a Virtual Reality stadium where you can enjoy matches as if you were sitting on the stands next to your friends, everything from the comfort of your own couch. Concerts and performances are the next step in simulations that can have you watching your favorite bands in a virtually generated environment just by wearing a headset.

The healthcare industry is another area that can be greatly benefited by implementing Virtual Reality tools. These advances go way beyond surgical procedures performed at a distance by a doctor using a headset remotely connected to robotic instruments. Victims of stroke and brain injuries can also reap the benefits of virtual environments that have proven to help gain cognitive functions a lot faster than conventional therapies. Computer generated images can also give doctors an immersive look into the body of patients with the use of VR CAT scans and ultrasound. These imaging techniques can help doctors and surgeons make better decisions when contemplating surgeries and other complicated procedures on patients. Another interesting advancement in the area of healthcare is the use of virtually simulated environments to offer users an alternative for pain relief, stress management and resilience.

The manufacturing industry also sees great promise in the field of Virtual Reality. Virtual prototypes are not new to many industries that deal with engineering in many levels. The creation of VR prototypes can same resources and correct errors before actual products are physically created and assembled, giving manufacturers not only a great financial advantage, but also ensuring the safety of their products and processes.

Education is also being greatly affected in a positive way by the implementation of Virtual Reality solutions. Sites like Universim already offer a huge amount of Virtual Reality educational content available to users of Oculus and Samsung headsets in areas like anatomy, space exploration, history and even business. The immersive experiences provided by virtual-reality headsets can revolutionize education in all fields. Imagine field trips, lab sessions, history lessons, biology and even physical education being enhanced with the use of these amazing tools that are already easily available to everyone.

Image courtesy of Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas 

at Flickr.com

Shopping online is something that has become second nature to all of us. What once was a strange and foreign concept is today as common as going to the store in the traditional way, and even preferred by some. Virtual Reality can change the way customers interact with products and even with the retailers themselves. Instead of using catalogs and web pages, people can actually get a real-time shopping experience accompanied by their loved ones, with the convenience of staying right at home.

The inclusion of Virtual Reality into our daily lives in evident and is growing more and more each day. Places like courtrooms, hospitals and even the way news are delivered will shortly be enhanced by its many advantages, striving to bring us a better quality of life and a different perspective in the way we see and interact with the world around us and bringing us closer to our fellow human beings.

For more information about the way telecommunication technologies continue to change our world, visit Don Burns blog and check out our many articles on the subject.