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HMI TREND RESEARCH

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Future Concepts of Human Machine Interfaces

HMI Trend Report
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With SONAR Trend Platform Reply is able to create an overview and mapping of relevant trends in the field of Human Machine Interfaces, based on their occurrence within expert media articles, mass media, patents and scientific publications.
Discover more about Reply's survey on current developments in the field of Human Machine Interfaces!

The Development of HMIs

In today's fast-paced world, people are looking for products and services that work smoothly, save time and ultimately increase comfort, requiring more intuitive and natural interfaces. They don't want to be restricted by having to carry screens with them and operate them with their hands. But that's not all: Technology is increasingly in demand as a tool for expanding or even improving one's own abilities and senses. These two growing needs require new intelligent and immersive user interfaces. We are currently moving from the age of "Hands & Touch", in which we operated buttons with our hands, to an age of "Mind & Body", in which we use our body as a user interface.

Mainstream Technologies

1960

KEYBOARD & MOUSE

1980

DESKTOP COMPUTERS & GRAPHICAL UI

2014

MOBILE COMPUTING MULTITOUCH

2018

CONVERSATIONAL INTERFACE

2020

VIRTUAL & AUGMENTED REALITY

2030

BRAIN - COMPUTER INTERFACE

HANDS & TOUCH
VOICE
GESTURE
MIND & BODY

WHAT IS TRENDING IN THE WORLD OF HMI?

Here's an overview and illustration of the relevant trends around Human Machine Interfaces, based on their appearance in trade media, mass media, patents and scientific publications.


Click on the legend labels to deselect/select.

ESTABLISHED
TRENDS

Established trends offer merely low business potentials for new players as the market is already saturated and consumer interest is steady or going down.

NICHE
TRENDS

Niche trends offer a great potential for differentiation and could only be on the verge to becoming an upcoming or booming trend.

BOOMING
TRENDS

Booming trend fields are exploited with opportunities for old and new players alike, serving the rising consumer interest.

UPCOMING
TRENDS

Capitalizing on an upcoming trend early allows companies to establish as a leader before others have the chance to.

Growth Volume

Timeframe: September 2016 - September 2018 For comprehensibility, values for volume and growth are standardized and normalized. (values from 0-100)

The arrow in the illustration above implies a typical trend development and a life cycle from a small and growing trend – which is discussed in relatively few scientific articles and publications – to a larger, established trend with stagnating growth, which has long been discussed in various media and has shifted from niche circles into the mainstream.


A shift to Full Immersion

Human Machine Interfaces are shifting to being gateways to evermore natural forms of communication between humans and machines. Hence, we find ourselves in the journey further towards full immersion, a world in which our reality is overlaid, mixed and even extended with the digital sphere. For businesses, the path towards such a world is characterized by a myriad of opportunities.

Amongst many others: closer, more engaging, more personalized and much more emotional customer interactions, better ways of visualising and analysing information.


Status Quo:
Voice Assistance

Status Quo: </br> Voice Assistance

VOICE ASSISTANCE

Voice technology triggers interest and investments and its impact on individuals and businesses is increasingly significant. This is reflected by the increasing media attention for Voice Control and Smart Assistants. These are very much correlated and led by the big players who have fiercely competed by launching their smart speakers with integrated digital assistants. Among the list of the biggest players, led by the usual suspects Google, Amazon and Microsoft, is also high-end speaker company Bose. Companies experiencing the highest growth rates since 2016 are Facebook, which wants to compete the incumbents with Facebook Portal, and the music system company Sonos, with its Sonos One, a smart speaker allowing use of Alexa and Google Assistant.


Voice Interfaces

allow people to use voice input to control computers and other devices.

Smart Assistants

are software agents that can perform tasks or services.

Hearables

are electronic in-ear-devices designed for multiple purposes, ranging from wireless transmission to communication objectives.




SoundHound Inc. received $100M in funding from a group of investors including Tencent, Daimler AG and Orange S.A. The company thrives to integrate voice and conversational intelligence through an independent platform into various products across verticals like automotive, enterprise apps and services.

technologies

HOW CAN VOICE ASSISTANTS SUPPORT YOUR BUSINESS?

With advances in machine learning, voice assistants are able to automate more and more tasks: This ranges from the fact that hands are no longer needed for input to the possibility of letting the assistant complete entire tasks, such as taking minutes, e-mailing or even telephoning. This increases productivity and leaves more time for more meaningful tasks.

UP AND COMING:
EXTENDED REALITY

UP AND COMING:</br> EXTENDED REALITY

EXTENDED REALITY

Extended Reality (XR) revolutionises both our way of consuming and our way of interacting with people and our environment. The technologies combined under XR enable completely barrier-free communication and eliminate geographical distances. Augmented, Virtual and Mixed Reality support the engagement and motivation of consumers through strong, immersive experiences, lead to cost reduction and more security through virtual representation as well as more efficiency and a more productive environment.


Gesture Control

is the ability to control a computer system without direct body contact, purely through movement.

Virtual Reality

is an artificial, computer-generated simulation of a real environment.

Augmented Reality

overlays reality with computer-generated extensions or improvements.

3D Displays & Holograms

are a set of technologies enabling a 3D vision of contents without the need of wearable devices.

Smart Glasses

are wearable computer glasses that add information alongside or to what the wearer sees.




Magic Leap, the American mixed reality startup enabling users to interact with digital devices in a completely visually cinematic way, raised $461M from the Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. The company already raised $502M in October 2017 – one of the most notable financings in Mixed Reality that year.

technologies

technologies

87% of executives are already in the process of exploring, piloting or deploying mixed reality.

- Microsoft & HBR Survey of 394 executives, June 2018.

HOW CAN EXTENDED REALITY SUPPORT YOUR BUSINESS?

The advent of Extended Reality offers companies countless and unprecedented opportunities to reinvent traditional marketing through better storytelling opportunities and immersive experiences and to leverage immersive marketing. VR lets people dive into brand or product stories, while AR offers the integration of an additional layer of information into the real world.

THE NEXT STEP:
FULL IMMERSION

THE NEXT STEP: <br> FULL IMMERSION

FULL IMMERSION

Progress in immersive technologies and neuroscience is increasingly suggesting that a world in which humans are fully connected to computers may not be so far away. Already today, the latest developments, especially in science and medicine, show that it is possible to connect the human brain to computers in order to control them with mere thoughts or even to exchange simple thoughts between people – be it via headsets or brain implants. Right now, start-ups lead the list of most frequently mentioned players within expert media. Companies experiencing the highest recent growth rates are led by Proteus and Microchips Biotech who want to revolutionise drug delivery within the body with microchip-based implants. Abbott takes the third place by entering the market with Confirm Rx, an insertable cardiac monitor. Top patent filings have been made by Oculus, Lenovo and Bae Systems.


Neural Control Interfaces

are direct communication pathways between an enhanced or wired brain and external devices.

Augmented Body

also known as human enhancement aims at “improving” the human body and its performance through artificial means, such as implants or electronic tattoos.




August 2017: Startup Neurable unveils the World’s 1st brain-controlled VR Game.

technologies

technologies

RL Labs raises $28M from Google Ventures and Lux Capital for its brain-machine interface.

MindMaze, a startup that fuses neuroscience and VR to create human machine interfaces, has received a funding of $100M in 2016 from Hinduja Group following by an undisclosed investment by Leonardo DiCaprio.

technologies

HOW CAN FULL IMMERSION SUPPORT YOUR BUSINESS?

It's easy to think "That doesn't even exist yet" when full immersion technologies are discussed. The opposite is actually the case. Many companies are already working on mind-controlled headsets, communication via thought transmission or computer chips for the brain. One example is Emotiv’s “Insights” Headset. Users can control electronic devices such as televisions and drones. They can also monitor their neuronal processes with the aim of monitoring and optimizing their mind, such as improving concentration and reducing stress.

The Enablers of Future HMIs

Since 2016, the Artificial Intelligence trend has been characterised by steady, high growth, driven primarily by Google DeepMind, Nvidia and IBM, but also by thriving start-ups such as Bonsai and Mindmeld, both recently acquired by technology giants. In addition, Computer Vision, Biometrics and Natural Language Processing are driving the development of HMIs, but their growth over the same period was slower. Looking at the last 12 months of SONAR data, the start-up Cognitive Scale, a developer of Augmented Intelligence Systems, is the most frequently cited player, followed by tech moguls such as Nvidia, Google or Intel's Mobileye.

And yet there is more to come

Sonar has compiled some of the futurist ideas that companies are working on and visions that will take quite some time to come true.
Here there is the future outlook of the top four:
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    SENDING THOUGHTS

    Full immersion technologies lead to a world in which the exchange of information with machines and other people takes place instantaneously. We will be able to share ideas, feelings and memories with friends through mind control and open up an unimaginable world of frictionless, intimate communication and networking.

  • HUMAN ENHANCEMENT

    Brain-machine interfaces could be used to improve human perception. By coupling our brain with computers, AI-controlled assistants and the Internet, we could one day not only have instant access to the world's information, but also download know-how into our brain or even merge it with super-intelligent AI systems.

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    NEURAL HEALTHCARE

    Immersive technologies will in many ways lead to disruption in the healthcare industry as they enable the recovery of diseases that are currently often incurable: from the treatment of severe depression or PTSD and other mental illnesses, to the cure of Parkinson's disease, to helping paralyzed patients walk. In addition, drug release could change completely and become more neurology- and data-driven as suitable brain-machine-interfaces become available.

  • VIRTUAL COPIES

    By connecting our minds with computers, they can store any form of data transmitted by our neurons, i.e. thoughts, memories or feelings. In the future, this could be used to make virtual copies of ourselves that can be stored to one day create our immortal digital self. That, at least, is the vision predicted by the American inventor, Futurist and Google's Director of Engineering, Ray Kurzweil.

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SONAR

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