Let’s end the stigma about mental ill-health in the business
until it is as normal to talk about mental ill-health in the business world as it is to disclose a broken leg.
Just the other day, I had the pleasure to Chair a conference around the topic of the Future of Work. The conference organised by Chris Cummings of sonic events, held in London with a fantastic lineup of speakers including Twitter, BT, PWC, IBM and for Citi Group.
The afternoon session started with a talk around Artificial Intelligence, a topic that I was also going to be talking about later on in the day.
The second-afternoon session completely shook me up. Mr Rob Stephenson, the founder of inside-out, talked about Mental Health, and openly spoke about his bi-polar life.
Rob humbles me. He explained how he took on this challenge and turned it into an opportunity! Rob has started a foundation for senior business leaders, to allow them to open up about their experience of mental ill-health.
From the website, inside-out.org, they write.
Each year, we publish a list of senior leaders from our workplaces who are open about their experience of mental ill-health. The list designed to celebrate each leader who has decided to open up around mental ill-health. Playing their part in ending the stigma and helping others in their organisation speak out and seek help. We will grow the list each year, creating a ripple effect of more and more executives speaking out until it is as normal to talk about mental ill-health in the business world as it is to disclose a broken leg.
While Rob was talking, he mentions some of his daily checklist items of which one was about honesty. My stomach started to hurt, and I suddenly began to remember a deep dark place where I was some 15 years ago. I remembered my promise to myself that I must always be honest to myself.
I often inform people when I explain my professional journey about the fact that I once hit the wall and the doctors told me that I had only six months to live. I have described some of the reasons why and the changes I made after the recovery of my illness. I never explain the mental illness that took effect or horrible mental journey that I went through.
Rob Stephenson was talking about his everyday life with Bipolar. He said that today was about 6½ out of 10 and I felt so small in his shadow. As chairperson of the conference, I ask a couple of questions to the speaker after their talk. My body started to shake, my stomach was churning, and my eyes were filling up with water, both from remembering the worst times of my illness but also with Rob’s uplifting talk. It usually is effortless for me to talk and to facilitate these types of events, but this was emotional now, I grabbed his hand as if he had just become the world champion and thanked him for one of the best experiences in a conference I ever had!
I turned to the audience and explained that this was difficult for me. Having gone through some mental illness in the past and thinking it was over but really, I have been dishonest with myself, and that I am still trying to keep it in a box, buried deep in my soul, Rob has switched on the light and made me face this reality again. I did not think that I would be receiving therapy while at this conference.
However, this is not about me, as this is about a true hero and leader, Rob Stephenson, who has used this illness as an opportunity and instead of hiding mental illness like many do and have done in the past. He uses it as a catalyst to show to the world that many of us have some form of mental illness, making aware to the world that hundreds of senior business leaders have mental illness and understand these challenges, to smash the stigma of mental illness in our business and workplaces.
Thank you, Rob and your family for switching on the light!
If it has enough data, it is perfect at identifying trends and creating predictions!
So imagine when your shopping web site, whether it is food, clothing or household item shopping has collected enough data to predict what you want before you already have thought about it! The retailer could then send to you products that it has predicted, to arrive just in time for you to use them.
This scenario is very close to coming true for many of today’s e-retailers.
When I discuss this idea with friends or in conferences, I always recieve staements such like this will never happen. Statements such as ‘how can it predict my needs as I am unpredictable?’ also, ‘If they send me items that I have not ordered, then I do not have to pay for them!’
Artificial Intelligence actually can predict your predictability as well as your product selection predictability. Of course, retailers will start with customers who are very predictable before moving forward to customers who are more unpredictable.
Retailers have the upper hand when it comes to agreements. When we sign up for an account, there are always “A Terms of Agreement” that needs to be agreed to before continuing into the solution. We never read these agreements, and ultimately the retailers will include that they have the rights to send goods to you, based on your previous orders and that you must pay for them if you keep them. If you do not want them, you have to return the items.
Of course, retailers are smart. They will select VIP accounts to start with and be very conscious of the customer and the encroachment of prediction engine. Fantastic marketing, great pricing and promotion campaigns will be put in place to ensure a comfortable flow of acceptance for Item Prediction.
As humans, we will accept this unknown need to think about such meaningful tasks.
The prediction engine is complete when the loop is closed using feedback and appraisals. In five years, we as humans will wonder why did we ever have to think about buying such goods.
Why would retailers do this? What do they have to gain?
The initial focus will be to build trust for the brand of the retailer, a retailer that can help me focus on more important things in my life. A retailer that can successfully deliver items that I need, and now it can provide products before I know that I need them.
The retailer will get a guaranteed business and as time moves, as more items are added to the basket, more profit from these transactions.
The ultimate gain is the transformation of the business to consumer model to the business to the wholesaler/retail model. I describe this from B2C to B2W.
The retailer (who becomes the wholesaler), can then manage the purchase price against the selling price. Consumer branding as we know it today will disappear as these huge wholesaler-retailers decides which brand to delivered to the consumer. If the product producer does not play ball, then their product will not be available from the wholesaler-retailers.
What happens to today’s retailers, supermarkets, clothes shops, furniture stores and the likes?
Will they survive?
Only specialised stores, exotic boutiques, high-end stores will survive as the customers are looking for specific items, but prediction engines may too replace this ability. We are not describing a revolution but an evolution, just as the corner store disappeared, the high streets and shopping malls have become ghost towns, most retailers will not be able to fight the wholesaler-retailer giants. We can see that today that we order batteries, eats, tickets via our in-house voice-activated AI engine, instead of buying them at a shop.
What can we do? Can we stop this happening?
Not really, it is progress, and it has already started. We can become more humanistic and focus on local markets, community shopping. It will help, but it will not stop the giant wholesalers-retailer making their mark.
The number of people on the planet who are 60 or older will more than double from 1 Billion in 2015 to 2 billion in 2050. With the implementation of Artificial Intelligence and robotics, when will humans retire?
We are informed about the fact that we are all living longer, the global population is getting older and it happening now! The number of people on the planet who are 60 or older will more than double from 1 Billion in 2015 to 2 billion in 2050 — an increase from 11 per cent of the global population to 22 per cent for the over.
At the same time, the number of people below the age of 24 will have no significant growth. To put it into perspective that is almost 10,000 people reach the age of 65 every day in the USA.
SOURCE: UNITED NATION, “WORLD POPULATION DATA”
Retirement age is increasing.
As a consequence of the increase of the over 60’s, our governments have already started to raise the official retirement age. Countries have slowly been increasing the retirement age from 62/65 to 67 around 2023.
Governments are already contemplating to change the retirement age to 75 or even 80 by 2035.
I believe that government retirement strategies are unsustainable!
50+ Syndrome
Training opportunities, leadership programmes and talent management schemes are absolutely necessary for a modern workplace. The majority of these initiatives focuses on young employees, to develop young talent into management/leadership roles. These initiatives are in place to help the company to grow and develop.
An employee learns and develops new skills. The company builds loyalty and better company branding, which enables the attracting of new talent.
The challenge is that once an employee reaches the age of 50, what do modern companies offer? There usually are not a lot of development opportunities or re-skilling opportunities for the 50+. Thus this encourages our 50+ employees, especially our senior managers sit fast and hold onto their positions as long as they can.
For the majority of people aged 50+, (who are not headhunted), find it extremely difficult to find and secure a new job.
Primary reasons are the interviewee experiences out-ways the interviewer’s experience as well as their unconscious bias of older people.
Are business making the right decision about development opportunities for the 50+ workforce, if the retirement age will increase to 75 years old?
Now comes the biggest game changer
By 2023, 50 per cent of the tasks that we perform in a modern workplace will be executed by Artificial Intelligence and robotics. In a report from the world economic forum, by 2023, 70 million of today’s jobs will disappear, and at the same time, 130 million new job roles will appear, job roles that we may not even exist today. Fifty-four per cent of the workforce will need to be re-skilled.
Who will get re-skilled? The under 50’s? The under 25’s? Everybody?
It does not compute!
From a work perspective, Artificial Intelligence and robotics will focus on assembly, productivity, agriculture, finance, construction as well as learning more and more skills as they develop.
Humans will need to focus on human interaction (e.g. nursing, caring), complex problem solving and innovation. The way we work will change, we will probably only work a few days a week and a few hours a day.
If we are all working to the age of 75, will there be enough work for us all to do? Will we get paid the same amount of salary as we do today?
Our governments need taxes to be able to exist and to sustain the governmental services required by the population.
Will they be able to collect enough taxes without the introduction of taxation on Artificial Intelligence and robotics?
Will we ever retire?
To be able to retire, we need to be able to work and pay taxes and save money so that we can retire. Over the next ten years, the way we understand about retirement will need to change, as well as the way understands work. As Artificial Intelligence and robotics become more de facto, the impact on the way we work will be destructive.
By 2030, I believe the concept of retirement as we know it today will have disappeared!
In my ebook “The Future of Work”, The rise of Fifth Industrial Revolution, I write how Artificial Intelligence and Robotics will change fast food restaurants in the next six years. I decided to elaborate on this topic to explain how this will happen in the next six years.
George Edward Muir
There will be three major stages in this revolution.
There will be three major stages in this revolution.
How we order food at a restaurant.
Robotic cooking and 3d Food Printing.
How Artificial Intelligence will decide on your food choice.
Stage 1
We as humans are now accustomed to the self-service kiosk when buying groceries, furniture or checking-in to a flight. The presence of self-service food kiosks is now appearing in fast food restaurants. The purpose is to reduce staff costs and increase profitability. With the implementation of customer relationship solutions in the kiosks, they will recognise customer preferences and will be able to market special offers.
In fast food restaurants, profitability is generated through large sales volume. Humans are the most significant overhead cost, and thus it is more economical to replace humans with technology. At the same time, human interaction and dialogue is a critical component from a customer’s perspective. Customer service is more significant the more costly the restaurants become. A major challenged for the restaurant and its reputation there is a discrepancy between the order and the delivery to the customer.
Stage 2
The automation of kitchens with robotics within a fast food restaurant is the second stage of this revolution. Within this stage, I can identify three distinct developments. Initially, there will be robotics in the kitchen. We already have robotics in the processing of food in factories.
The first example is the Spyce Kitchen in Boston, MA, USA.
Four MIT students set up the Spyce Robotic Kitchen. The restaurant has robotic ordering kiosks from order to delivery around 3 minutes. All bowls are 7.50$ and very healthy.
All recipes are developed by a human chief, with four choice sections, all ingredients, vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free. All customers can customise their meals. Meals cooked in woks and robotic runners collect the ingredients and make the meal. The wok then empties the food into a bowl where a human collects it and adds the finishing touches.
The robots do the hard work, the making, the washing and the other-workers focus on customer service and hospitality. By replacing humans with robots, you can make your food healthier and cheaper.
The customers love that fact that the food is healthier, that they save money compared to other fast food, but the silver bullet is to be able to customise your menu and get it presented to you within three minutes, so essential to be able to skip the queues at lunchtime.
The second example is creator, San Fransisco, CA, USA.
creator has developed two automated hamburger bots, a lovely design that deliveries made to order, high-quality, hamburgers. It takes five minutes to cook the order, and no human is involved in the making of the hamburger. The bot has a total of 350 sensors, providing precisely the hamburger that you request — super fresh burgers with better quality for a lower price. The hamburger bot makes 320 hamburgers an hour, and the customer can choose the from two cheese, 12 seasonings, 15 sauces, locally produced vegetables and buns plus antibiotic and hormone free, pasture raised brisket and chuck come from a coop of family ranches on the west coast called Country Natural Beef. There is a positive reaction to creator hamburger. From the customers, made to order a hamburger with no human hands touching the burger from the beginning of the cooking process. Freshness and quality at great price. The workers are healthier because they are not breathing in the fumes and sweating in the heat. The workers can be involved in other creative tasks. The owner can get make hamburgers in a smaller space at a lower cost, allowing the ingredients to be of higher quality.
As well as food bots, there is 3d Printing of food.
The ability to print food already exists today, commercial 3d food printing is available, both for the home and for catering organisations. There are 3d food printers for Chocolate, pasta, pastries available around the 2.500 to $5.000 price tag. Today’s printers are using a 3d extrusion technology, in effect replacing plastics / and metals with a paste-type ingredients. This allows chefs to create structures and shapes that they cannot do in today’s kitchens, with fresh ideas. These printers are using fresh ingredients to make new and exciting food.
The world’s first 3d printing restaurant, Food Ink
The world’s first restaurant where the food, utensils and furniture are all 3d printed.It is a pop-up restaurant that highlights the advances in 3d printing. Food is being 3d printed using the latest technologies such as by flow, a paste 3d extrusion printer. By flow can create customised shapes that chefs cannot make by hand. Beehex was backed by NASA to help develop a concept for 3d food printing for space travel. One of their products, Chef 3d, can print a pizza in six minutes.
The next evolution is Bioprinting.
Bioprinting has been developed to fabricate biomedical parts, natural tissue and organs. Some companies are pioneering this technology to create synthetic materials such as fur and leather.
This research has been applied to 3d printing of synthetic meat. Dr Amy Logan, a team leader for dairy science at The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), has just launched a three-year study into the personalised fabrication of smart food systems.
The mission statement “Our scientists and engineers at CSIRO are working towards this future where food, nutraceuticals and other products will be personalised based on an individual’s genetic makeup, and a reality where optimum well-being for each person is a reality. We are building the underpinning science required to: Develop a personalized and instant food processor, providing the smart, structured soft materials (food and cosmetics) on demand and personalized for you on the day, incorporating sensor technologies that measure food – body and cosmetic – body interactions coupled with personalized genomics and phenotype (lifestyle) data.”
[Personalizing Food, Directed by Your DNA | The Spoon. https://thespoon.tech/personalizing-food-directed-by-your-dna/]
Dan Gibson talks about their DNA printer (the first printer in 2013) in his 2018 TED talk that allows them to edit DNA. He talks about creating life-giving scientists the power to convert digital information into biological material. Scientists can read DNA easily but create (writing) is not as easy. It will not take long to industrialise this approach to make food.
Stage 3
Everybody has their personal assistant with them, their mobile telephone. It is continuously collecting data, and when it is connected to your health devices; smartwatch, health bracelet, and other IoT devices. They are al collecting even more information about your body. We also add useful information through apps, such as water apps and calorie counters. The artificial intelligence will calculate your daily intake, the fat intake, the vitamin intake, the burn rate of your body to perfection that it can simulate how your body is functioning.
Once your personal assistant is on communication with the self-service kiosk, whether they are at a restaurant or a grocery store, the loop is completed. Your personal assistant will be able to order on your behalf, knowing your preferences and also predicting any specific customisations and in other words, making our food choices. When we are conformable with this level of autonomy, your personal assistant will program the customisation of the food to include supplements and vitamins, remove/replace ingredients that will help your body to function better. Your personal assistant will know you, your preferences and your body better than you do. It can predict your wants and needs, and it will order food/meals on your behalf. It will ensure you eat at the right time and if you ever overindulge, it will balance your food intake over time.
The Next Six Years
Over the next six years, the food revolution will have begun and that the majority of people will accept the progress in the robotisation of the making of food. Just as most homes have a microwave, I believe that every home kitchen will have a 3d food printer of some form. Obesity and our need to be more healthy and fitter will be a major selling point of this revolution. There are of course significant consequences on workers who work at fast food restaurants and grocery stores. Artificial intelligence and robots will replace their jobs. Even exclusive restaurants will use robotics in the kitchen as we can already see that Michelin star chefs use their robots today. The most controversial discussion will be the use of bioprinting. There has already been a backlash on genetically modified foods. The ability to ask for food as in StarTrek is not too far away technically but will probably not be commercialised by 2025.
George Muir is the founder and CEO of Udal Cuain AB.
He is a renowned keynote speaker and Futurist. He is known for igniting ideas, discussing the practical importance of the digital revolution in business and how artificial intelligence will impact our professional and private lives in the future.
I have been a very strong supporter of crowd sourcing community sites to help innovators develop their dreams.
I have supported many projects for over five years now. My first pledge was a fantastic success, 6,500% of the initial goal. Over the last five years I have backed many, many projects but now come the challenge when these projects have been over successful.
When you are planning for the project , you need to decide up front how many models you are prepared to make, describe and plan the production process (a lot of these projects use China as their production base).
Lets take an example, if you have planned to build 1,000 units with a contingency plan for 2,000 units. You start the project and it becomes very successful and you have pledges for 20,000 units. All your plans are then wrong, the production capacity is wrong, the negotiations in China are all messed up and the production project quickly extends out by months to even years.
This is happening to many of the projects (that I have backed). Most projects are delayed but lately these projects are delayed by 9 months to a year to a number that are over 2 years delayed.
What happens is that the project turns from a great idea to a massive negative campaign , where all the backers ask for their money back and / or give the project owners a lot of negative press and hassle.
Last week i was invited to look at a project on the day of its launch, a brilliant idea, a pledge of 2,000 $. Within the first hour, the project was 75% funded, Day two the project was already 300% funded. Today, day 7 the project is 4,824% funded with 23 days remaining before the project is closed. I decided not to back the project on the first day because the chances of seeing this product is zero, which really does not feel good.
I feel that the crowd sourcing sites need to take a bigger responsibility and govern the projects.
What i mean is that when the project is funded by more than 100%, the project shall close for more funding. These crowd sourcing sites are making money in a big way too, therefore they should also take responsibility for a “no show” and provide some of the original funding back to the people who made the pledge.
As a true supporter for innovation and crowd sourcing sites, I really think that we need some form of governance to ensure that these crowd sourcing sites will be successful , sustainable and that the backers do not get disillusioned (like i am) so that we all can continue to back crowd sourcing projects.
Christmas creep, a phenomenon in which retailers exploit the commercialism of Christmas.
I could not believe my eyes! September 19, Dunfermline Scotland, I had taken my mother to Dobbies Garden Centre, a place where you buy bulbs, plants and other gardening accessories. There it was, as you walked through the door, Christmas decorations, Santa Claus figures and artificial Christmas trees! What has happened?
In the UK, the Holiday season / Christmas season starts mid November, in the USA it starts after Black Friday (the day after thanks giving), so why have they started to push Christmas in September?
I know that there something called Christmas creep, a phenomenon in which retailers exploit the commercialism of Christmas.
But what I see is not a creep this is an imposition!
This is really down to the economics of the Holiday season to the decrement of the enjoyment of the holiday season. There have been occasions where Christmas was celebrated in July, during the World War II, and was a campaign designed to gather Christmas cards, letters, and gifts from American families in time to ship them to troops overseas.
If we continue this way , we will have Christmas 365 days per year and in fact we could celebrate Christmas whenever we want to !!
With just under 100 days left until Christmas, I really think it is offensive for the retailers to push Christmas!
How much time does your child spend on the internet or the game console every day?
This is a question I have been pondering with for many years! I have been watching my children grow up with the internet. I also have studied students at school and the university who are totally connected and integrated to the internet. It has not been until now that I have evaluated how much of this digital lifestyle has/will totally changed the world.
A recent study in the UK has shown that 38 percent of 2-5 year olds own an Android tablet, and 32 percent own an iPad; almost a third (32 percent) of these children also have a mobile phone. This study also found that 37 percent of parents said that their child spent between one and two hours a day playing with technology and the internet , and 28 percent said between two and three hours playing with technology and the internet .
In China, the average amount of time of 8-10 year olds spend on the internet every day is eight hours, with children over the age of 10 spend an average of eleven hours every day on the internet.
In the USA, the average time of 8-18 year olds spend on the internet every day is over six hours.
In South Korea, 10 percent of 5-9 year olds spend on the internet every day over ten hours.
This is a world wide problem!
Two million of the youths in South Korea are classified as internet addicts as well as an amazing one hundred and sixty thousand 6year olds now classified as Internet addicts, In the USA, 23 percent of the youths are classified as video game addicts with the numbers are rising every day.
South Korea have recognised that they have the highest rate of internet addiction in the world and has decided to set up a network of boot camps across the nation to offer their children a digital detox.
Digital Detox Centres are starting to appear in many countries across the world, designed mainly for adults addiction but the will soon be filled to capacity with children.
There are so many consequences on today’s society with regards to the digital lifestyle. We need to reconsider how we should adapt to this, and we need to reconsider it now.
My questions are around how to be a parent and lead you children in this new addictive digital lifestyle. For example, Professors often make comment that ‘Multitasking is for adults and not for children’ but we can see that the children’s lives are dependent on the ability to multitask. Another example is how to handle our children when there is no internet connection , when the technology fails or the battery is running out. Finally, how do ensure that our children brains and ability to learn will not burn out by the age of fifteen and that they mentally burn out by the age of twenty five?
The answer is that nobody knows, we must learn and adjust at the whilst the new digital lifestyle evolves and takes over our lives.
The children of today will be the adults of tomorrow, it is up to us as parents to secure that our children will have a safe environment to live in so that they do not just end up as internet junkies!
A few months ago, I was travelling home from a trip where I needed to transfer from one flight to another via Dubai airport. When flying it is always necessary for me to have noise cancelling headphones and an iPod, to listen to my music and to be able to disconnect from the boredom of the long distance flight. Normally, my iPhone and my iPod is placed in a pocket in my headphones bag.
Not this flight, I had placed my iPhone in the extra seat pocket on seat in front of me as I was listening to the iPhone instead of the iPod.
Anyway, on arrive in Dubai, I collected all my belongings and as I stood up, my foot was snagged by the headphone cable and everything went flying around. In my haste, I picked up everything and exited the aircraft.
When I arrived at the terminal to go through security, yes you guessed it, I realised that my iPhone was still in the airplane in the front pocket of the seat I was sitting in.
Panic struck!! I ran to a security guard and asked if I could go back and collect it? He said it was I could but would need to ask the security guard on the other side of security! In my naiveness I went through the security gate. The security guard at the other side then informed me that it was impossible to go back to the airplane and that needed to report to the airport police.
Dubai airport is a rather large airport and find the police station was a real challenge. Once I reached the police station my stress turned into sheer panic. The police did not really care , it was not important for them and sent me to the Lost and Found office! Off I went, this office felt like it was 10 miles away under the airport.
Arriving at lost and found, I met a Japanese gentleman in tears, who had lost his Samsung phone with no hope, getting little help from the people there and he left empty handed.
After waiting another 20 minutes, I started to explain my story, the exact position of the iPhone, the serial number, etc. Their relaxed reply was that they would have to wait for the cleaning team to collect the phone and it would take about three hours. This room was around 15 m2, contained 5 personal and 10 huge crates full of phones and tablets.
The feeling of loss was enormous, I know that it is only a piece of technology, (fully backed up and replaceable. BUT it was mine, my photos, my detail, my music, my configuration, mine, mine, mine!!
I was given a ticket with a lost and found serial number and was asked to complete a lost and found questionnaire so that the could contact me when they found it! I proceeded to one of the many computer retail stores and logged into this site.
My next step was to contact the airline I was flying with, with apparent nonchalance , they took some details and informed me that this happened all the time and they would fix this without any problems.
Frustration and anger with my self started to build up.
Whilst sitting in the airport and realised that one of my friends was flying through the same airport later on that weekend! I contacted him, explain the situation and asked if he could go to lost and found and collect my phone.
I arrived at my destination around 12 hours later and went to the desk of the airline company. Again with a nonchalant reply, they asked for details and promised to call me later on once they found the phone.
A few hours later on, my friend called me from Dubai airport! “They have found your phone!! Can you send an email with a copy of your passport allowing him to collect it!”
My precious is found! Fantastic!
But how would he be able to get the phone to me? He lives nearly on the other side of the world! During the following days, sending emails backwards and forwards to the airline company, the shipped the phone to the destination airport where I collected it, three days after I left it on the airplane.
I must therefore thank Emirates for their handling of this matter but I really wished that their staff would go through the same experience. Also I must thank Jon for all his help during my panic!
Loosing your passport or credit cards / money is really not a great feeling!
Loosing your iPhone is 1000 times worse!
As a footnote , today, three months after the incident, lost property from Dubai airports informed me that they will be closing the case since the have not received any response!
Are you tired of having to create a user account every time you access a web site or an app on your smartphone. Not to mention trying to remember all your passwords for every account! Often you are asked to use your Facebook account or Google+ account or a twitter account since these sites allow a loose connection to an email address.
Would you realistically then book a flight using your Facebook account or login to you bank account using you’re a twitter account or login to your workplace computer with your google+ account?
It is pretty clear that the answer is no!!
The thought would never cross your mind because it is not safe, it does not have enough personal information and your employer would never allow it. What we need is a Trusted Digital ID for all citizens and some countries have already started to explorer this idea.
For example, Estonia has a highly-developed national ID card system. Much more than simply a legal picture ID, the mandatory national card serves as the digital access card for all of Estonia’s secure e-services. The chip on the card carries embedded files which, using 2048-bit public key encryption, enable it to be used as definitive proof of ID in an electronic environment.
In Barcelona, they promote a Digital ID for the citizenship of Barcelona, a digital identity that is saved on their smart phone..
Canada’s Governments and businesses have declared to secure their digital future by developing a Digital ID, and I guess there are other countries or governments with the same intent.
Sweden provides a solution called Bank-ID that can be saved on the computer or their smart phone that is a trusted digital ID provided by the banks.
Any there are probably many more solutions.
The challenge is that we need to have a world-wide solution to allow this to be ingrates and trusted around the world.
An ability to have a TRUST model where governments, businesses and standards committees can work together to allow YOUR DIGITAL ID be valid across many counties, exactly the same way as credit cards are trusted.
I strongly believe within the next five years, we will all have some form of Citizens Digital ID, a digital passport, that is you one and only trusted ID account. The Digital ID will be valid for the country you live in and I expect it will take another 5 year before it can be used freely outside the country you live in.
Who do you think will take the lead and drive this?
Facebook / Google / Twitter / Our Governments / Non-Governmental Organisation / Institutions / The Banks ?
Have you every been in at work or on in a train or a public place and somebody receives a phone call and then start to shout!!!
Is it because we use technology or is it because we always raise our voice when somebody does not understand.
I have an idea to be able to help this situation. We are all used to noise reduction windows or noise reduction headsets, the process of removing noise from a signal.
Why can’t we do that when people are talking on a phone?
I don’t mean noise reduction microphones as such, the ability to get a clearer voice message.
What I mean is a human voice reduction so that when someone speaks on a phone, the noise reduction removes the voice from the human.
My first idea was to use an old hair dryer as such a device, so that you can have hands fee and also a 3D screen on the inside.
But this would not be so portable.
What I would like is a phone headset that emits a signal so that when one talks then only the microphone can recognise the voice and everybody else would hear nothing ……
Is there anybody out there with solution for this idea????
Have you every been in at work or on in a train or a public place and somebody receives a phone call and then start to shout!!!
