We come across dozens of design breakthroughs and technological innovations daily--so many that it's easy to miss important trends emerging in the chaos all around us and not connect the dots to see the BIG picture. Here at The Institute for Customer Experience (ICE), we understand the business and design value of capturing the right trend insights at the right moment. We observe and analyse trends in design, technology, and business, and keep our fingers on the pulse of the global zeitgeist. In this series of trendbriefs, we bring you alerts on what's trending in our world and their possible impact on our future. Subscription to ICE Breakers - http://eepurl.com/S1ZFL

1. ICE Breakers by
“By 2015-2020 every South Korean
and many European households will have a robot.”
(Ministry of Information and Communication South Korea, 2007)
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Actroid-SIT, a lifelike robot from Japanese firm Kokoro, can function autonomously, talk and gesture
while interacting with people. Actroid-SIT features a ‘motion parameterization’ system that allows her
to adapt to the location of the speaker, hence, making the person feel like the robot is really paying at-
tention.
Actroid-SIT - A lifelike Robot
Jens Newmann became the first person to get an artificial vision system. He received an implant of
researcher William Dobelle’s second generation brain-computer interface (BCI). His electronic eye con-
nects directly to his visual cortex through brain implants. His vision has now been technically restored.
Jens Newmann - Man with artificial vision system
IMPACT ON UX
• Humanness' of interactions will become stronger
• Advent of a human-machine civilization where users' experiences will shift from real
reality to virtual reality.
• Users will include humanoid robots in their lives for assistance and companionship.
• Augmentation of human faculties with technology will allow users to break free from
human limitations.
• Ubiquitous ecologies will emerge, where old & new media and physical & digital environ
ments will be designed, delivered, and experienced as a seamless whole.
'
Another aspect of Robonity is Transhumanism - the belief or theory that the
human race can evolve beyond its current physical and mental limitations by
means of science and technology. Transumanist technologies like Cryonics,
Mind Uploading, and Neuro-hacking are working towards transforming
human beings into superhumans.
The industrial era of robotics is over. Robots are becoming hu-
manized. They have started to move around in the world imitating
and looking like humans. They were already performing tasks like
humans do, but now some of them even show human-like emotions. At
this pace ‘Robonity’ might soon replace humanity on this earth.
ROBONITY
Humanized Robots &
Robotic Humans
“Let's not kid ourselves
here. Robots already
run most of our world.
We'll be their butlers
soon enough.”
(Eric Stoltz)