Mapping the Body: the New Marketplace
August 19 2008 / by John Heylin / In association with Future Blogger.net
Category: Entertainment Year: General Rating: 4
The most amazing thing about some of the movies hitting theaters nowadays is their uncanny ability to map human movement for special effects. Case in point are creatures such as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings, the great ape in King Kong, and of course the infamous movie Beowulf which mapped out the actors bodies so accurately that in some of the shots you’d have sworn they weren’t computerized images. It only makes sense that this kind of technology would gradually find its way into the broader consumer market.
Already people are spending hundreds on golf clubs that measure swing speed and trajectory, or gloves that tell you if you’re gripping the handles too hard. In fact there are even devices out there already that can tell you where your swing is wrong, if your feet are too far apart, or if your posture is poor. You can buy equipment and software that can work for just about any sport. Tennis, bowling, baseball or track and field to name a few. Heck, even curling, the greatest Olympic sport in the world, could benefit from video analysis.
Down the road we could see the technology get so advanced that instead of having to carry around 30 pounds of equipment costing over a thousand dollars, all we’ll need is an add-on to our digital cameras. Coupled with expert analysis instead of self-analysis, this product could change the importance and role of coaches worldwide.
Sports are perfect for this technology, but what other applications could this be used for?
Imagine taking tango lessons in your home with a world-class dancer telling you where you’re going wrong and what you’re doing right. A culinary program showing you the proper way to clean a fish or prepare cherries jubilee. If we really expand our minds, how about a mobile program on a sailboat speaking into your ear piece whether you’re on the port side instead of starboard, or telling you how to tie a knot step by step. What would you think about taking karate lessons from Jet Li?
If you enjoy Wii Fit, imagine playing a video game that depends on your every move. When attacking an entrenched bunker you have to lay lay flat on the ground, then jump up quickly to sprint across a mine field. Or maybe you have to dodge a lineman to dive and score the winning touchdown.
The possibilities are almost endless and not all that far from feasible.
But would there be a downside to this kind of technology?
It is conceivable that cities might install mapping software around their city instead of video cameras, allowing them to know every action you take from the gum you spit on the ground to the street you jaywalked on. The lack of privacy might not seem too daunting to most people (“I have nothing to hide, I’m not a criminal, why should I care?”), but consider that they’ll be able to tell what shops you went in, if you walked out with any purchases, and how often you shop at certain locations. Advertisers are constantly trying to find ways of tailoring their ads to the individual because it’s so successful — could they really resist? What cookies did for the Internet, body mapping software might be for the physical world.
All in all, the idea that the populace would permit something this invasive is far-fetched (but not impossible – biometric cameras are already being used by the government to establish and track identity). On the plus side, we’re going to see a whole new revolution as far as personal online or downloadable learning courses. And with the program at your fingertips, you won’t have to worry about being late for class.
Comment Thread (1 Response)
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I think you have a very good point about body mapping possibly becoming the cookies of the physical world. We all sort of know about cookies, and maybe we aren’t too happy about them, but there isn’t a movement to stop them. I wonder if people WILL be upset about body mapping as data collection.
Posted by: Mielle Sullivan August 22, 2008
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