As we close out 2014 and I reach the end of my tenure as editor of I want offer some insight going forward in our industry. As you can gather from the past four years of my time at I am a technology junkie, always looking for new and exciting things that can make our work and personal lives that much better. Part of my daily routine is to read through press releases from around the industry. If that wasn’t enough, I’ve been making a habit of checking in on information from more than 300 news sites, technology blogs and websites. Sounds like a busy morning, right? It normally takes two to three cups of coffee to get through it all.
I do it because there are always interesting new studies and technologies emerging that may be designed for the populace, and these same technologies could vastly improve our workflow and industry. I offer a few technologies that are currently in some form of development that could change the way we work in our business.
Reactive Touchscreens
Ever since the touchscreen made its way onto those first lighting desks, console developers have been trying to figure out a way to help users navigate the screen while their eyes are focused on the stage, not on the screen. One technology that seemed promising was to provide vibration feedback. If you are an Android user, you know what I am talking about. Basically, when you tap the screen, a vibration is felt throughout the entire phone. The limitation with “whole device” vibration, of course, is that it doesn’t let you know which button you selected, unseen, on the screen.
A new technology that is still in development is a liquid filled display from Tactus Technology out of California. The idea is that when you need tap a button on your touchscreen, the portion of the screen where the keys are bubbles up and offers a tactile response, very similar to a keyboard. You don’t have to just take my word for it; check out the video on C|net: plsn.me/LiquidKeyboard.
Since most consoles offer the ability to lay out your screens with whatever you want, wherever you want, having a raised key come up out of your display when you need it is step in the right direction to get the feedback from the console.
Speech Recognition
I can hear the moans now… “He is going to talk about Siri and his iPhone…”
You know me too well! Siri on my iPhone is a great personal assistant. That is, if I want to hear her say something funny or not understand “Search for coffee.” In all seriousness, speech recognition could vastly cut down on programming and cueing for an LD. I don’t want to put any programmers out of sorts (or work). But making things go quicker and more efficiently can get a gig underway without holdups. Most designers that I know speak console syntax when talking to their programmer. “Give me channel 1 thru 20 at 25 percent… take them up 5 percent.” Or, “Get all of the washes into the red color palette.” Seems like that is something Siri could handle, no?
Wireless Power
One of my heroes, and one of the world’s great, and still-underrated inventors, has to be Nikola Tesla. You know he gave us AC power right? He was a genius, though not well understood. Towards the end of his life, he began to experiment with wireless power. YES, wireless power. Think of it: cutting the cord and wirelessly powering and controlling a light. That vision of the future is already here, thanks to AURA. They have developed a wirelessly powered and controlled Christmas light. Check out the kickstarter campaign here: plsn.me/AURAlights. Think of the possibilities on stage!
I leave you with these ideas to further expand and to be creative in our industry. Every generation says this, we are living in extraordinary times. That is the thing with evolution, development and creativity; we are always in fascinating times with new technologies and ideas happening every single day. Look at how far we have taken the LED in just 10 years. I am eagerly looking forward to tomorrow, days, months and years beyond to see what our creative business comes up with.
Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your lives within these pages of PLSN for the past four years. It has been a pleasure to serve you the latest information from around our great industry. I wish each and every one of you a Happy Holidays, a bright New Year and a prosperous career!
