Minority Report Clip
Got some gas today on the way in, and just as I put the nozzle in the car, a voice that I could not avoid spoke to me from behind. It said; “Are you tired of your low mileage vehicle? Then come on down to your GM dealer and explore all of the fuel efficient options we offer!†It went something like that anyway.Of course, it was one of those annoying video screens on the top of the gas pump that are normally telling me about something I really don’t care to hear about as I feed my mechanized monster, but this time, I heard it loud and clear. I nearly stormed off to my friendly neighborhood GM dealer even though I had just leased a new Dodge minivan (yep, I did what I said I’d never do) only 3 weeks ago.Wow, talk about getting your message to your target audience at the exact moment they are feeling the pain that you purport to have the cure for. Nearly perfect, and it got me to thinking how we can get our messages across every day at the right time, and at the right place… or more likely, how we don’t do this.We live in the information age of course, and never before has it been so easy to access what you need to know, when you need to know it. Whatever holes there were as far as having access to that information have been largely plugged by Google. However, most information still has to be sought out by the seeker. We have to proactively locate a search appliance, and at least have a clue as to what keywords will cause the search mechanism to find what we need to know.So I wonder, what’s next in the world of context sensitivity? Will we ever get to the point where… say I’m having trouble figuring out how to forward a phone call, and sensing that I’m having diffculty, a little hologram guy pops out of the top of the phone and tells me how to do it?A glimpse of how far context sensitivity could be taken can be seen in the movie “Minority Report†where Tom Cruise is walking along a hallway, and the massive video screens curtail their message to him specifically as he passes them. I don’t think any of us would like to see it go that far, but what’s a happy medium? At what point is context sensitivity annoying vs. helpful? What say ye?