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See me, be me. The future of Lifelogging.

This is a post about how Lifelogging will revolutionise the real-time sharing of information.

Related posts:

Seeing through Google Goggles

Blogging, microblogging, lifelogging. Evolution?

Laying the foundations of Lifelogging

Increasingly we use technology to tell people where we are and what we’re going. ‘Back in the day’ this used to be a phone call to a loved one letting them know we arrived safely somewhere, or a call to someone telling about what we’re up to. Mobile, email and SMS then became the easier way of asynchronously performing this action. The important point to make here is that the action of letting someone know what we’re doing and where we are was a one-to-one action.

The advent of microblogging, social networks and more recently geo-checkins facilitated this action but on a slightly different basis, a one-to-many basis. Social networking (as a catch-all) has created a movement of telling many people (our friends, fans and followers) what we’re up to. This asynchronous action currently takes the form of words (tweets and comments) and pictures (uploaded images and in some cases video).

But the game is changing with the advent of Google Goggles and the expected growth of related Lifelogging devices. Here’s the check-list:

  • Wearable devices (glasses for now, contact lenses in the future)
  • Built-in camera capable of recording still imagery and video
  • Microphone for recording sound
  • GPS
  • Broadcast and receive capabilities (Wifi, cellular)

These are the primary tools to facilitate Lifelogging and in combination will allow us to record and real-time broadcast what we’re doing, seeing, saying and hearing. This is the device and product that will totally revolutionise social networking, ‘status updates’ and everything related to how we choose to share and disseminate personal information.

What this is leading to is the ability to share real-time experiences with our friends, family and colleagues and allow them to see and hear your view (accessed on-screen via browser, smartphone etc).

This means the ability to broadcast home to your family to show them what you’re up to.

Or being able to attend a presentation and have your team back in the office experiencing the remote ‘front-seat’ of the auditorium.

Or allowing your friends to share the excitement of the big game that only you managed to get tickets for. You can bring them virtually into the stadium.

And the list goes on. In essence, anything you think someone would be interested in experiencing, as you’re experiencing it, is enabled by Lifelogging.

But let’s ramp this up a notch and look at the commercial aspects of Lifelogging and here’s where it gets really interesting…

Celebrities have embraced both Twitter and Facebook with top-tier celebs having millions of fans and followers eagerly awaiting their next update.

Bringing Lifelogging into this relationship you have a potent cocktail. Imagine being able to experience the life of your famous sportsman or rockstar as they live it. This is a shift from ‘following’ to ‘being’.

For example, putting yourself in the shoes of Roger Federer as he’s playing in the French Open final. Experiencing him toss the ball for the serve, attack the net with a volley and soak up the applause as he slides a back-hand down the line. Pretty engaging stuff.

Or what about joining Jay Z on stage at Madison Square Garden. Seeing the mic in front of you and experiencing the crowd singing back to you.

These are experiences way way beyond watching a Youtube video or reading a tweet. And sure, it’s not the same as actually being at a venue watching a celebrity as a spectator but at the same time it’s a completely different and totally unique way to experience something.

So, the commercials.

Shared real-time experiences will become virtual goods, allowing fans and followers to purchase access-driven digital assets in the form of broadcasted ‘virtual being’. How much would you pay to get a ticket to the French Open final? $200. Maybe more. How much to be Roger Federer in the final? Well, that’s the big question but let’s factor this down by 10x to $20. I think that’s not an unrealistic figure. Then multiply $20 by the number of Roger Federer fans. That’s a big number. And it’s also an entirely new market just about to be created.

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Slideshare for Q1 2012 Universe Chart

KZero Universe Q1 2012

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Universe charts for Q1 2012

Earlier this week we published the first version of the KZero RPG Galaxy, a visualisation of companies and games in the MMORPG sector. These charts of course are based on the virtually world famous Universe charts and here are the Q1 2012 versions of the Universe.

This is the most comprehensive edition of the Universe chart we’ve ever produced with over 100 virtual worlds and KT&T MMOs shown. Quarter on quarter from Q4 2011 to Q1 2012 the overall total for cumulative registered accounts increased by 149m with the 15 – 25 year old showing the strongest growth. At the highest level the total market of cumulative registered accounts now stands at 1.921bn.

High res version of the chart are over on our Facebook page and the entire presentation can be ordered here. We’ll ping out a link to the Slideshare shortly. Here’s the overall breakdown:

 

And here’s the segment for virtual worlds with an average user age of 10 to 15.

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RPG Galaxy Slideshare presentation

KZero Galaxy Q1 2012
View more presentations from KZero Worldswide

 

 

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Announcing the KZero RPG Galaxy chart

We’ve been slogging away at this for a while, so now we’re delighted to announce the first publication of what we’re calling the RPG Galaxy chart. Anyone who’s ever asked us ‘Where is World of Warcraft?’ now knows where to look!

The Role Playing Games (RPG) Galaxy chart is similar in style to the Virtual Worlds Universe chart (see what we did there ;) ) and shows total cumulative registered accounts for:

  • MMORPG: Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game
  • FPS: First Person Shooter
  • ARTS: Action Real Time Strategy
  • MOBA: Multiplayer Online Battle Arena
  • MOR: Multiplayer Online Racing

As usual with the first iteration of these types of charts, it’s extremely important to point out that these are very much work-in-progress and contain estimates. These charts will be published on a quarterly basis and will improve (in terms of accuracy) over time. We’ll also be adding in new games with each edition.

High res versions of the chart can be ordered here and here’s the Slideshare version. Shown below is the segment showing games with an estimated average age between 20 and 25.

In this age range, fr0m a MMORPG perspective Dragons Nest leads the pack with 100m cumulative registered accounts with Dofus in second place with 55m.

The other juggernaut in this segment is a QQ Speed, an online racing game with 100m registered accounts.

From a ARTS point of view Travian is a major player with 80 registered accounts.

Moving onto the next age range of 25 to 30…

We estimate World of Warcraft to have 90m cumulative registered users and therefore the largest RPG in this age group. Ragnarok Online and Perfect World tie in second place with 50m.

More updates to follow!

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Seeing through Google Goggles

In December 2oo9 Google announced Google Goggles, an Android app that allowed visual search from a smartphone. In essence this tied together geo-location and ‘light’ image recognition to identify landmarks (for example) or alternatively read a barcode. As Google usually does, Google Goggles was marked as a ‘Labs’ product meaning work in progress. Here’s a video explaining this launch relating to the app expansion over to the iPhone.

…And people got very excited, primarily due to the reference to this app being Google’s first foray into Augmented Reality. Putting two and two together, analysts and commentators were keen to point that that this was a natural move for Google because this type of app or device would allow the layering of local, geo-fed data into a real-time view.

More recently (last week in fact) Google ramped up the Goggle PR machine. CEO Larry Page wore the next evolution of the smartphone app, namely a pair of glasses during his speech at the annual Google Zeitgeist event in London. This new wearable version of Goggle is code-named Project Glasses and comes with GPS and a camera. And here’s a video of that.

And then Google went a step further and pushed out a video of Project Glasses recording video.  Which of course is making people slightly more excited.

BUT!

This post isn’t an exploration of the application of AR. Instead, it’s an exploration into what Google could actually be planning longer term with a Google Goggles type application. And rest assured it’s not about delivering contextual advertising. It’s about Life-Logging.

Let’s start by taking a look at the Metaverse Roadmap to see how Life-Logging (and AR) fit into the ‘bigger picture’. Here at KZero towers you know we’re all about virtual worlds but we’re also all about how virtual worlds fit into a longer term and wider architecture. The Metaverse Roadmap framework does a brilliant job at presenting this picture.

Virtual worlds, as shown in the diagram are ‘Intimate Simulations’, meaning you experience a virtual world usually on your own in a private setting (i.e. via a lap/desk top) and what you experience is a Simulated (i.e. created) environment. And hey, 1.7bn cumulative registered accounts ain’t bad so clearly people love spending time in virtual worlds.

Mirror worlds are the sisters to virtual worlds and whilst still being Simulations, they are External as opposed to Intimate, meaning they reflect (or mirror) the real-world – they’re based on real-world places. Tourism and time-travel are two interesting uses for mirror worlds.

Let’s get more to the point.

Augmented Reality fits into the Metaverse Roadmap as being the polar opposite to virtual worlds. The experience is External as opposed to Intimate. Meaning you use AR away from the ‘desktop’ and on the streets, so to speak. And rather than being a simulated environment, the experience is one of Augmentation, i.e. data (information) is added to (augmented) into your field of view. Pretty cool and of course set to be a multi-billion Dollar industry pretty soon.

And leaves us with Lifelogging. This is the sector that to date has garnered virtually zero coverage. This is the segment which I believe is THE long term play for Google, with Google Goggles, or Project Glasses, or whatever you want to call it, being front and centre of the strategy. Continue reading →

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