The third industrial revolution has begun

When we sit on the cusp of a new method of production, one that moves us beyond the production line and returns us to a bygone era of artisans, bespoke, custom-made innovation and production, then it becomes necessary to re-frame the way we think about the way we create, own, distribute and have.

In this weeks’ on-air chat with David Dowsett of ABC radio we turned our attention to the recent announcement by St Vincent’s hospital in Melbourne that within 5 years they would begin trialling 3D printing of human body organs and that within 10 years printing of human spare parts may become “normal”.

This technology has been on the rise for a number of decades but technology, culture and medical advancements are all conspiring to make this the time that science fiction starts to turn into science fact.

3D printers will, over the next decade, evolve to print cars, homes and buildings, food, clothes, furniture and so much more as we begin to “manufacture” items in situ in real-time at our shops, factory’s, hospitals, homes and wherever we need to produce or have an “object”.

The world of innovation, manufacturing, global citizen equity and the ability to “have” will all be challenged as we see industry’s emerge, industry’s disappear and billionaires created in this brave new world.

Have a listen to the live recording and then let me know your thoughts on the new world of 3D printing:

Noodle making robots

Robots have long been the stuff of science fiction and many of us have grown up waiting for the day when our dreams might turn into technological reality.

In this morning’s regular look ahead David Dowsett of radio ABC and I took a look at robots and discovered that they are already here.

Telemedicine robots allows Doctors to virtually jump inside a moving mechanical device and transport themselves around hospitals and clinics engaging and treating patients along the way. Robotic surgeons use their robotic arms to accurately guide and oversee complex operations often in tandem with skilled physical physician hands. Nano robots are routinely swallowed into our body and then guided around to take internal x-rays and photographs. Robotic limbs replace lost, degenerated and non-existent limbs, as well as provide heart pumps and other life-giving robotically controlled devices.

In our offices and factory’s we see the increased use of teleworkers using robotic Segway like devices that allow executives to be in two places at once by jumping on-board a telerobot and riding it virtually around far away offices to attend board meeting in one country without ever having to leave the comforts of their own offices. Many of these devices cost no more than $250 and use PC tablets mounted on robotic shoulders and free software to see and connect you.

On our roads we can expect to see a fleet of driverless cars who know where you need to be and when, have real-time updates of the road conditions ahead and will chauffeur you to your destination in comfort and safety.

Robots are also entering the hospitality industry as noodle makers, hamburger flippers and sous chefs and in retail as clerks and sales assistants.

Robots as anthropomorphic, high functioning, independently thinking, self replicating humanoid machines are still a long way off. In theory they appear to be easy to create, but in reality are still beyond the ready boundaries of our capabilities and technologies.

There is much work being done in robotics and the most recent catalyst of this is the growth and convergence of big data, mobile technologies, changing culture and a growing appetite for robot like devices together with a practical and pragmatic future need to overcome a growing chronic shortage of workers in some industry’s.

For now, and the immediate future, we will have to contend ourselves with robots and mechanical devices that provide assistance with life and works more mundane and repetitive tasks.

Robots when they do arrive will bring with them many challenges. They will start and stop careers, industry’s and jobs. They will require us to grapple with the ethics and rights of robots and humans and make decisions that we have never had to make before as we learn to co-exist with machines.

The time to start these debates is now, for we are truly on the precipice of when not if as science fiction turns daily to robotic science fact.

Have a listen to the segment now…

3D Printing and Robots – the April Webinar

Science fiction becomes science fact in my BreadCrumb Innovation webinar this month as I finish off my series of three webinars on my 13 trends for 2013.

This month we took a look at robots in our offices, aged care facilities, warehouses, on the road and pretty much everywhere we look, and the heralding of the 3rd Industrial Revolution, the thing that will for ever change the way we see design, prototyping, manufacturing, retailing and every other thing we do and buy – 3D printing.

These horizon game changers need to be on every decision makers radar strategy screen and we must start thinking now how and when they may start disrupting and changing our world and business.

We also stopped off along the way to celebrate the 40th birthday of mobile phones and explore what this little invention has meant to the world and also chat about a couple of great teenagers with incredible innovation skills and what they’ve invented.

Have a look at this month’s webinar (47 minutes) and be sure to join me on Monday 13th May 2013 @ 1.00 p.m. AEST when I begin a series of webinars sharing the how, what, where, who and why of innovation, taking you behind the scenes of my BreadCrumb Innovation program and show you the step by step proven formula of how I bring Innovation and Foresight to an orgnaisation. click here to reserve your spot.

April 2013 Webinar – 3D printing & robots

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Happy 40th Birthday Mobile Phone

Forty years ago we took a giant leap into digital space and untethered by wires made the first mobile or cell phone call.

Today Australia boasts nearly 30 million mobile SIM cards for a population of almost 23 million and 60% of the entire worlds population has, or has access to, a mobile phone.

In developing nations the mobile has allowed people to skip the wired computer that they were likely never to have gotten and instead turn immediately to the mobile phone for health, banking, communication and so much more.

We have come so far in the last 40 years, changed our belief and understanding of the world and our place in it that it is often difficult to remember life before this magic little mobile box, but this week David Dowsett of Radio ABC Wide Bay and I took a nostalgic look at mobile phones and a futurist glance at where their headed.

Join me for BreadCrumb Innovation – the monthly FREE Webinar tour into the FUTURE

Ever fancied yourself as a sculptor or inventor? Ever looked at a car, lamp shade or dinner set and said I’d like that, but I wish it also had…….

In the not too distant future your hyperpersonalisation needs and creative genius will unite to be able to give you exactly what you want, where and when you want it.

This little genie is heralding the third industrial revolution, an epic adventure we have already embarked on that will eventually become routine and easily produce one-off spare parts, bespoke tailored clothes, designer houses, tricked up cars and even produce our own replacement human organs right in our own homes, offices, hospitals and workplaces.

In this morning’s Melbourne Age there’s a great article on someone who had lost part of their face to cancer and had it reprinted for him and reattached (great story read it here).

This game changer technology, known as 3D printing, will ultimately revolutionise the way we think, design, produce and manufacture and for those that get into it now, it may offer the riches of a new-found industry.

This disruptive technology will change the way you do business. It will offer you invention, innovation and possibilities that until now you may have considered science fiction, but I’d love to show you how it’s all becoming science fact in my FREE 45 minute webinar on Monday 8th April at 1.00 p.m. AEST.

BOOK NOW

The other major horizon trend we’ll chat about this month is Robots, who doesn’t love a good robot story!

Robots have started to do some really cool things in farming, aged care, education, retail, medicine and even walking around our offices and I’ll show you what to expect from them in the very near future.

As always we’ll stop off along the way to look at what’s new and trending, what’s hot in innovation land and which projects and ideas are getting the global innovation juices flowing this month.

Lots of great stuff this month and as always when we know future, we think future and do future, so…

BOOK your spot NOW

Last month we had a record crowd online, so please join our ever-growing tribe of Webinar Wisdom Warriors.

All you need is an inquisitive mind, a passionate desire to know what’s over the horizon and a computer screen.

BOOK NOW

Co-creation, collaboration and peer to peer – March BreadCrumb Innovation Webinar

In the 60′s we got together held hands, physically touched each other, shared and sung kumbuya. Now we digitally gather, virtually hold hands, poke each other and audition online for youtube stardom.

In this month’s Futurevation webinar we went exploring down the road of collaboration, peer-to-peer and co creation to find out we’re not alone, that there are others out there and that collectively we are more purposeful than we may be on our own.

We stopped along the way to peer into the digital store-front of a myriad of websites and apps that are beginning to show and sell these new business paradigms and thinking; one in which control is banished in favour of management, where ownership is unnecessary as long as we can share resources and where we can outsource innovation to a group of virtual strangers.

Take a look and listen at this month’s webinar and as always please share your thoughts on what you see ahead.

BreadCrumb Innovation – The March Webinar

At next months FREE webinar on Monday 8th April @ 1.00 p.m. AEST we will take a look at printing hearts, homes, cars, clothes, records and food and the rise and rise of robots and what we can expect of them over the next decade or two.

Click here to reserve your free front row digital seat now.

So, what’s new?

I love this question, it’s so open-ended and can lead to such a great discussion and that’s exactly what my friend Jason Jordan and I did last night on one of our regular catchup’s on radio 6PR’s Weeknight’s program.

We took a look at smart televisions, what they are, why they are and is it worth buying one. We then moved on to second screening which is the growing phenomenon of watching one screen (usually your television) and having a second screen (usually your phone or tablet) in your hand.

Google glasses and the rumored Apple iWatch also got some discussion as did the role and impact of technology in culture and society.

A great chat and well worth a listen and after you have, let me know what you think are the big trends, gadgets and technologies ahead.

What do Ned Kelly, Al Capone and digital wallets all have in common?

Up to this morning’s interview with Celine Foenander on ABC Local I would have said nothing, but one of the recurring questions I get asked around digital wallets is how secure they are?

The answer is very secure, because it’s in the interest of the banks and credit card providers to make it as secure as possible, but of course as secure as they make it, there will always be someone who will try to outsmart them, just like Ned Kelly and Al Capone.

We soon turned our attention to the digital wallet future; migrating our physical cards, licences, passports, airline tickets and other stuff on to our mobile phones;what and how we will use this new technology for in the very near future and whether physical cash is becoming extinct.

Another plus with this interview is that Celine thinks I’m funny, not strange funny, but ha ha funny – go figure!

Anyway, have a listen and let me know your thoughts on digital wallets, less cash society’s and whether you think you think you’ll use it or not.

Listen now:

Is this the new look in computer interfaces?

Clarke Kent took off his glasses to become Superman, but Google is hoping you’ll put on their glasses and transform yourself into superman and superwoman.

Google Glass just launched its website and video to explain what it hopes will be the next revolution in computer interface technologies, a pair of glasses that let you see the real world and digital world simultaneously – think Top Gun heads up display – and allows you to speak your commands to it.

If you’re an eager beaver you can get your hands on an early model of this $1,500 new gadget, by entering a competition and flying to the States to pick up your prize.

Take a look at the video and website and let me know whether you think this new gadget is going to take off or not.

What’s happened to Innovation?

I got an on-air call today from Gillian O’Shaughnessy of ABC Radio Perth to ask why inventions are no longer named after their inventors.

What a great question!

Thinking back, Henry F Phillips invented the Phillips screwdriver and screw; Candido Jacuzzi invented the Jacuzzi; William Henry Hoover the hoover vacuum cleaner; Jules Leotard the leotards; Thomas and William Bowler the bowler hat and so on.

The answer lies in a different view to marketing, a different innovation and invention landscape where it’s easier to fund and sell generically named inventions and the growing reality that the ability to think, build, market and sell an idea, product or service now increasingly requires the skill sets of more than just a single inventor.

We also had a quick look at crowdsourcing and crowdfunding sites like kickstarter and pozible to find and collaborate with like minded people that may invest or assist you in bringing your great idea to market.

Have a listen now and let me know your thoughts on the Future of Innovation…