Technology

Biometric Bras And One-Eyed Robots – What the Future Holds for Us

According to technology columnist Jeff Bennion, there's a lot to look forward to in 2016.

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There seems to be a great deal of confusion out there about what people actually need. This week is the start of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. On Monday, we saw inventions announced like this one: OMbra by OMsignal, the biometric bra that finally allows women the freedom to have their bra send messages to their phone’s screen telling them to exercise more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=go5BZJ8Toy4

What about this robot, Tipron by Cerevo. It’s like a Roomba, only instead of vacuuming your house or bringing you cake like the robot from Rocky IV, this one has an eye with a projector on it. You program where all the rooms are in your house and you can set digital timers for it to perform certain actions. The idea is it can sleep in its charging station, but then at 7:00 in the morning, come into your room and project the morning news on your ceiling.

Maybe some people need that, but I’m pretty sure that most of us will not. Here’s what I’m eager to see more of in 2016.

Mobile Devices

We need more tablets and other small devices that allow us to do more from wherever. The number one complaint people make about mobile devices is “I hate always being connected and that people think they can always get a hold of me.” Well, that threshold was passed about 10 years ago. Statistically, about 20% of you are reading this right now on a smart phone that also gets calls and texts and e-mails. Probably, almost all of the other 80% also have one of these devices. Most of us have laptops or computers at home. There are no partners out there thinking, “It’s a Friday night. Too bad I’ll have to wait until Monday morning to get someone to work on this brief.” Mobile devices are more about spending a Tuesday afternoon at zoo with your kids because you can, even if that one important email comes in with a draft for you to approve or make quick changes to.

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Tablets are also key to working efficiently. Just last week, I attended a settlement conference. We prepared settlement conference statements for the court. The other side stipulated to liability and we were getting ready for a trial on damages only. Opposing counsel had a rolling suitcase of documents. I had my Surface Book that had all of the exhibits, all of the discovery responses, all of our pleadings, all of our settlement videos, and everything that we had previously taken out after the stipulation. The first thing the judge wanted to look at was stuff that we had not included as exhibits and that no one else brought. I only brought it because those files were already synced to my computer. The judge asked us for them because the other side did not bring them either. The other attorneys said, “That’s it, next time, we are bringing boxes of everything.” The lesson they learned was that they didn’t have enough paper and a tablet saved the day instead of the simpler solution of just buying a tablet.

One of the cooler things that did come out of the latest CES announcements was the LG paper-thin, roll-up OLED screen. It’s a monitor that you can roll up like a newspaper.

Imagine, instead of a projector (or a robot projector), you take out a 40″ screen and unroll it and hand it to the judge and it’s got your day in the life video or an impeachment video deposition clip, or you put it on an easel and put an expert’s report on it and walk through the report. Imagine an iPad that you can roll up and fit in your pocket. I know this is just a screen for now, but it probably wouldn’t take long to let your phone cast to it.

Better Security

Convenience comes with a price. Whenever you make your client’s confidential records more accessible to you, you are making them more accessible to others as well. This last year has seen some great advances in security. My computers’ drives are encrypted and I can log in with Windows Hello’s facial recognition software. I can receive signals telling me where my stolen or misplaced devices are, and I can send signals to remote wipe devices that are stolen. Most companies are rightfully cautious when it comes to firm policies taking or accessing client files outside of the firm’s walls. Whether you are cautious about taking data outside or letting something bad inside, we need innovative ways to combat innovative thieves.

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Better, Cheaper Software

In the last few years, we’ve seen companies like Microsoft and Adobe offer low price subscription models to their otherwise expensive software suites, making it available to more people. This also encourages them to come out with frequent updates to make the subscription model more attractive since it comes with free updates to the next software version. Competition among paid cloud service providers has also forced companies lie Dropbox, Google, and Microsoft to find innovative ways to stand out at lower prices. Companies are also making certain online software available for free. Microsoft offered Sway online for free. Adobe recently made their Slate app, a program for digital storytelling, available online for free. I’ll cover more on the trial uses of digital storytelling software in another article. With this trend of cheaper, better software in full stride in 2015, I’ve got high hopes for what 2016 will bring us.

Jeff Bennion is Of Counsel at Estey & Bomberger LLP, a plaintiffs’ law firm specializing in mass torts and catastrophic injuries. Although he serves on the Executive Committee for the State Bar of California’s Law Practice Management and Technology section, the thoughts and opinions in this column are his own and are not made on behalf of the State Bar of California. Follow him on Twitter here or on Facebook here, or contact him by email at [email protected].

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