Human Augmentation - Online

2011 Gartner, Inc - Human Augmentation

Strategic Planning Assumption: By 2025, cumulative sales from human augmentation products will surpass $1 billion.

In April 2010, the first Augmented Human International Conference convened. The literature sent out to solicit participation identified one of the goals of the conference as follows, "The AH International Conference focuses on scientific contributions towards augmenting human capabilities through technology for increased well-being and enjoyable human experience." Conference organizers selected "World's First Wearable Humanoid Robot That Augments Our Emotions" by Dzmitry Tsetserukou of Toyohashi University of Technology as the best paper of the conference. The paper's opening comments clearly indicate its content is vastly different from content most familiar to traditional IT professionals:

"In the paper, we are proposing a conceptually novel approach to reinforcing (intensifying) own feelings and reproducing (simulating) the emotions felt by the partner during online communication through wearable humanoid robot. The core component, Affect Analysis Model, automatically recognizes nine emotions from text. The detected emotion is stimulated by innovative haptic devices integrated into the robot. The implemented system can considerably enhance the emotionally immersive experience of real-time messaging. Users can not only exchange messages but also emotionally and physically feel the presence of the communication partner (e.g., family member, friend or beloved person)." 

Emotions are created through facial expression, hormonal activity and experience... the online has capitalised on two out of three...but now Human Augmentation will change the emotional connection online. No longer will relationships be formed through rational words, experience over time, or the photo of a nice person....but we will begin to feel them too!

How we understand our emotions and inform them and interpret those of others might change cultural trends. If the online environment informs our relationship experience more then the real-world...I call this the 'white t-shirt theory'. - An evolutionary phase of the Internet: It's how the online environment might continue to influence our lives and subsequent generations to come.