well it's been lovely being here on blogger, but i have outgrown what blogger can give me, and i have now moved to my own domain (christopherwilkie.com. i will continue to blog there, but i can now combine my twitter, jaiku, blog and photo/video sharing onto the one website rather than have several services. i hope you will continue to follow my work :)

i'm all about lifestreaming and i'm all about creating a more seamless link between people's lives, how they interact with others, and the devices they use to interact.

i am sure it's all be thought of before, but i wanted to outline an idea of mine.

i want a solution that works across the different systems i use, be they computer, phone, car, plane, watching tv, etc. any system for my everyday life that can intelligently be connected to create useful and meaningful information and help. primarily for the average person, their main devices are their mobile phones, their computers, their tvs, navigation systems and vehicles. as people lead more and more hectic lifestyles, finding the time to interact with others, though very important, is sometimes hard for most of us. this is where i feel lifestreaming is going to come into our lives in a big way as a means of keeping in touch with those around us, so we continue to maintain valued relationships.

overall, all devices and systems should be able to interact, but because the market is driven by money rather than by solving a problem, there is no way for companies to work together, or collaboratively and achieve anything worthwhile. i want this to change. i want the competitors to remain competitors, but all for the cause of pushing for better and more efficient development. anyway, aside from that, my idea;

i want the devices around me to read me, and not require me to tell them what to do, what to think, etc. i want my computer to read my facial features and detect changes in my voice so that it can start doing certain things. these abilities could detect when im angry and start playing soothing music, though recognizing i am working on a ducment that has a deadline set for 2 days from now, it decides to suggest relaxation methods that don't take much time, but are effective. it can meanwhile update my lifestreaming page with my current mood should i want it to. a lifestreaming page is going to be a page on the net that is all about you. it will have your current location, your emotion, your updated picture, methods of contact, what you do for a job, and all bits of information are shown dependant on who the viewer is, and what you have decided to show. imagine a jaiku/twitter, facebook, friendster, blog mashup. this site will be your profile, streamlined so that it is generic enough to be used by systems without needing much hacking and chopping, but is unique enough to be a digital identity for the real you.

my phone should be location aware, whether that awareness is based on the wifi network it is currently connected to, or by gps hotzones. these hot zones can be marked out areas, by yourself, can be used for a few different things. apart from providing a location for literally every phone carrier on the planet (and ask yourself, is there really a big brother out there who is going to spend his time watching you, or would you prefer the police be able to find you should you be kidnapped, or worse, your child be taken), it can be used as a trigger. my lifestreaming page can show my current location should i choose, also my phone could give me information on the closest restaurants, cafes or shoe shops. these hotspots can also aid in data collection by local councils so that infrastructure can be bettered, services can be made more efficient, all leading to a beter standard of man made environments.

aside from this, nearly every phone has a calendar, but it is a dumb tool that tells you what you have programmed in. why not have the work intelligently depending on the devices in use at any certain time. for example my phone knows my university schedule, so it turns my phone on and off silent when im in and out of classes. it can post to my lifestreaming page that im studying law atm or doing my management practical work. all depending on how much info you want it to post. a fun idea might be that it uses its gps functionality to detect how fast your travelling, and post that you either walking, driving or speeding down the freeway! aside from that, now it recognises i have work and does what every digital calendar should, and reminds me to leave because at 12.40 to be there by 1 because it has taken into account my location and calculated the commute time to be around 15 mins. all this time, my lifestreaming is being updated with whether i am in class or not, and whatever other info i want projected there. i start playing my music and put my earbuds in as i walk to my car. when i get in and switch the vehicle on, my stereo picks up on the phone's presence and fades the phone's music off and takes over playing my music through my car speakers. it also recognises i have an event coming up (work) and gets the location info i have put in for that event in my calendar. my gps intelligently maps my route to work for whatever location im starting from. i get to work and rather than putting events directly into my phone, i log into my own lifestreaming page and use the online calendar that is always in sync with calendar because now there is no central place for my calendar, instead it is an entity that floats from each device, without actually needing to be transferred. each calendar (on my phone, in my car, on my personal computer or on the web) is a sync of all others, as its presumed i'm only putting events into one calendar at a time.

i finish work and start driving home, only to find my dinner date has arrived early at my place. my house video calls my mobile phone, streaming me a feed of what my video intercom is seeing. i tell my house to start trusting this person, and it lets them in, switching lights on and turning the tv on to the entertainment channel because it knows she is a guest. i get home and am excited to show her the photos i took on my phone (that actually incorporates a decent camera, because people dont want to carry more than one device if they dont need to) and use my ps3 to stream the pics from my phone and throw them up on my high definition tv.

another intelligence should be between my phone and my laptop, each device detcting when the other is present and adjusting settings accordingly. for instance, i dont want to have both my phone and laptop inform me i have new mail. when i'm in front of my computer, i want it to let me know, and when i'm out on the road or not at my desk, i want my phone to tell me. but i still want both devices to give me access to the same things. so when my laptop knows my phone is close by, it tells me i have new mail, and tells the phone not to worry about letting me know as well. just like when im away from my desk, my phone lets me know, and my computer doesnt have piles of notices for me to click out of when i get back to it. of course, any mail i do read or not on either device will be mirrored on the other. my phone even lets me take and make video calls on my computer because its easier for me that way rather than holding a phone up in front of me. whats even cooler is that as my phone knows where i am, it can tell the caller i am unlikely to take a video call in my lecture, but a voicecall is fine.

back home, i'm watching tv with my housemate. my tv has posted what tv show im watching to my lifestreaming page. my housemate has specified not to be alerted of new mail, but i have chosen to be alerted via the tv if my phone is not with me (proximity sensors will sort all that out) because i run my own business and dont want to delay on replying to clients. a small notification box pops up in the top right and i go to my computer to reply to my new mail. i then go out as i have to see a client and on th way home, i stop by the shops. the shopping has already been done for this week, but my housemate has been craving chocolate and so wrote that on the wishlist the fridge displays as part of its interactive menu. because the devices can talk to each other across mediums (over wifi, phone service and internet), my phone knows im at the shops, as does the fridge, and so the fridge asks my phone to tell me to get the chocolate my housemate wants. my fridge is very intelligent as well. it knows my timetable because it can access my calendar, so it knows when i will be home so the groceries can be delivered. my fridge can also start recognising trends of how many people are usually in the house at what times, what days and what months during the year so nothing is bought when its not needed.

i tell my calendar i want a haircut sometime this week, and it will contact the hairdresser and find a time they can cut my hair, and that i am free too, taking into account commute time of course. it will then book it in for me.

something controversial and not supported by everyone is the reporting of location awareness info to authorities. i put it like this; people can choose whether their info is freely available, or available in an emergency. my lifestreaming page knows where i am, but do i want police tracking my every move?...well in some instances, yes i do. my phone will be able to realise if im in a precarious situation, whether ive just had a car accident or that someone is holding me hostage, and contact authorities and people i have listed as emergency contacts. alternatively i have been missing but my phone hasn't realised anything is wrong. my housemate has though, and had my location not bee posted to my lifestreaming page, authorities could request it, but only after going through the right legal channels. big brother isn't going to watch everyone, or anyone for that matter.

i think systems developers need to be more focused on having their products work seamlessly together than to try and have their product used the most, and incompatible with anything else. people want integration, not mutual exclusivity between their devices.

lol an interesting read, how one man's PS3 killed his 360