Phil McKinney and the digital future in 3D
December 10th, 2009 by Tim Greenhalgh
I’ve just been listening again to Phil McKinney’s views (Guardian Tech Weekly podcast) on the future of everything digital – just to remind myself of how much we’ve got to look forward to in the next decade.
Phil is the global CTO of Hewlett Packard as well as the presenter of the influential Killer Innovation podcast and has the knack of turning the technical mountains into the flatlands of speed and opportunity.
In the Guardian podcast, he races through the future of print media, the need for slate computers that fill the need for 4.5–10-inch screens, what’s in the way of cloud computing (the network infrastructure) and data mobility transforming third-world lives.
But for me, the most interesting focus was on the future of 3D. Phil believes that 3D is how we will be accessing a lot of rich information and the reasons, he says, are simple - 2D means that you are throwing information away.
Anyone viewing 3D makes better decisions and for business that means greater productivity because the information presented is more in tune with how people see things in the real world. The challenge is to present 3D without the funny glasses.
I think the expressions of 3D over the next few years will include the full range, from virtual reality through to 3D interactive virtual worlds, accessible anytime, anywhere. Right now, there is an explosion of 3D environments, tools and services that push the boundaries of knowledge delivery.
As Phil concludes: “3D will fundamentally change how we see, view and experience content.”
How we will find relevant information is another challenge - for the search engines.
Tags: 3D, cloud computing, Guardian Tech Weekly, Hewlett Packard, HP, Killer Innovations, Phil McKinney, slates
