First they were the cars, which got connected. Then it came the Nike + Fuelband. It followed The Google Glass, still under development, and the next step were the talking sneakers, also by Google.
Just few weeks ago Durex announced the upcoming launch of a line of underwear for men and women which, thanks to an app for smartphones, allows couples to play fore games in the distance. Now Huggies Brazil put a diaper on the market that alerts parents whenever the baby makes pis through a tweet on their mobile phones.
In 1998, Vinton Cerf, one of the fathers of the TCP-IP, launched an apparently science fiction forecast during his speech at the Mundo Internet congress held in Madrid -Spain- that “in the future even our coffee pot will be connected to The Net”.
I found the forecast so visionary that I chronicled everything he said on an article published in one of the dean magazines devoted to the advertising and marketing world in Spain. But Cerf fell short when just speaking about televisions, refrigerators and other connected home appliances, because today we have in fact the Internet almost attached to our skins.
There’s just one thing left more to seriously consider the mobile cyborg era is here: a chip inserted in our brains enabling us to leave our cell phones at home.
Beyond the i-Diaper, now the TweetPee
Some few years ago Dodot launched the i-Diaper. A product with a smart fabric that cared better for the baby’s bottom keeping it “dry and happy”.
Now Huggies, thanks to its advertising agency, Ogilvy Brasil, launches the diaper for digital natives.
The garment carries a built-in sensor, designed to sent a tweet to the smartphone of the parents, whenever it detects the rise over a certain level of humidity in the diaper.
An app for smartphones makes this possible. But this is not the only service that the app provides for the parents. It also counts the diapers used, alerts mum and dad when they need to purchase more. And they can do it through the mobile.
The tweeting diaper, which is called TweetPee, brings this good to a new dimension adding a service that is integrated into the product itself. The mobile information technologies increase the efficiency of the diaper for children, who keep the butt dry if parents do the changes when they receive the tweets.
This product for babies now also protects the parent’s purse. It avoids unnecessary diaper changes and lets do the purchases just in time, even online via the mobile phone itself, letting save money and inconvenience to parents.
Durex Fundawear,lingerie to treat your couple in the distance
Did anyone ever say that eroticism and foreplay has nothing to do with communication?
Again an advertising agency has developed a connected product line for its customer. In this case the agency is Havas Worldwide Sydney and the client Durex Australia. And again a smartphone app, a cellphone with touchscreen, along with an ad hoc server, and sensors, strategically placed in the garments do the “miracle” trasforming a video-conference into a true vis a vis.
The Durex Fundawear shows once more the outcomes of the work of an agency that decides doing better than just saying.
Talking sneakers tha encourage you to stay active and tell your friends
Google seems decided to keep us literally connected from the head to the toes. At home or on the move.
The tech giant has presented in the SXSW, currently being held in Austin (Texas -USA-), a smart sneaker with personality that talks back and can connect the wearer’s activity to the web, if the wearer chooses to.
Those are an adidas pair of sneakers that can talk. They were developed by Google in partnership with the artist Zach Lieberman founder of YesYesNo. This project is just one of a range being developed in collaboration with iconic brands and artists under the Art Copy and Code program, which was started off by Google in 2012.
By connecting a pair of sneakers to the web, they arise a range of opportunities between physical objects and digital ad spaces.
Every move the user makes generates data that are captured through an accelerometer, gyroscope and pressure sensors. That data then get pushed to a web app on the mobile of the user .
The app translates the data collected in real-time into funny and motivating commentaries. That commentary then is pushed to banners and social media, creating content in the digital world from something happening live in the physical world.
The Google talking sneaker has been developed under the connected objects header within the Art and Copy Code program, but there are some other ideas already brought to life.
No fantasies, but commercially viable projects
Like the TweetPee, all of them the Durex Fundawear lingerie line, the talking Adidas sneakers and the Google Glass, integrate IT and interactive communications as a differential component of the product. A differential that sometimes provides for an enhanced “social” use of these objects because it allows sharing aspects of the owner’s life with others through the social networks.
Those are smart products that interact with consumers and other objects improving the performance, comfort and service even the fun enjoyed by the owners. They actually are making come true what not long ago seemed just science fiction.
And what’s certainly not science fiction the money and efforts that technology companies, advertising agencies and brands are willing to invest in this kind of connected goods.
I will just quote some examples besides the Nike + Fuel Band, the Huggies TweetPee and the and Durex Fundawear, already being marketed or in the pipeline to be launched.
Last April Google Ventures and KPCB got allied to finance the development of Google Glass and Nike announced in December 2012 a project for the acceleration of startups willing to develop products based on the Nike + Fuelband.
At the high speed that new digital technologies are currently being developed, it is difficult to say that anything is a fantasy like those conceived by Jules Verne.
Our own closets might well become a sort of chicken coop, where the sock talks with the sneakers and the lapel chats with the scarf dating to go out together, while they tell us, “now you, keep quiet, do not disturb, we will send you a tweet later”.
Imagen sobre el titular.- Nike+ Fuelband © Nike
Related external links (videos):
Las zapatillas parlantes de Adidas y Google
Related Eastwind Marketing links:
RGA NY got the Grandy 2013 for Nike+ Fuelband
http://www.eastwindmarketing.es/blogs/eastwindmarketingycomunicacion/en/2013/03/21/rga-ny-got-the-grandy-2013-for-nike-fuelband/
Nike to accelerate 10 companies driving digital sport innovation based on Nike + platform
http://www.eastwindmarketing.es/blogs/eastwindmarketingycomunicacion/en/2012/12/10/nike-to-accelerate-10-companiesdriving-digital-sport-innovation-based-on-nike-platform/
Google: First an Internet connected glass, now a talking shoe
http://www.eastwindmarketing.es/blogs/eastwindmarketingycomunicacion/en/2013/03/13/google-first-an-internet-connected-glass-now-a-talking-shoe/
Google Ventures forms seed capital association for projects linked to Google Glass
http://www.eastwindmarketing.es/blogs/eastwindmarketingycomunicacion/en/2013/04/11/google-ventures-forms-seed-capital-association-for-projects-linked-to-google-glass/
Google, selecting in Twitter the best candidates to participate in Google Glass first trial
http://www.eastwindmarketing.es/blogs/eastwindmarketingycomunicacion/en/2013/02/21/google-selecting-in-twitter-the-best-candidates-to-participate-in-google-glass-first-trial/
Google glass, a step further to the cyborg era
http://www.eastwindmarketing.es/blogs/eastwindmarketingycomunicacion/en/2012/04/11/google-glass-a-step-further-to-the-cyborg-era/
