Today I would like to share with you an interesting insight by Julio Gil. In his Ted Talk at a TED institute in partnership with UPS, he stated that more and more people will start living in the countryside (Zelas, 2016). Julio Gil predicts the density of cities to decrease. This is a very surprising view as a lot of media suggest the density of cities to increase even further (Gil, 2017).

Julio Gil predicts we will be able to enjoy the benefits of living in a city from anywhere. For instance, he suggests that by using augmented reality tools we will be able to spend up to 80% teleworking, this makes living in a city for your job less important. Also, access to services and goods will be just as easy as in cities due to drones being able to deliver packages to your door simply and fast. Finally, he states that a lot of people move to the city for a rich social life, while it is actually proven that social connections are stronger in smaller groups (which takes place at the countryside) (Gil, 2017).

In my opinion, the technical advancements will indeed make it easier to live out of town. However, I believe the importance of physical presence and networking will still prevail, even as augmented reality settings increase in quality. Thus, I believe the attraction of cities will prevail and density will still increase.

So, what do you think? Will the attractive factors of cities indeed be available everywhere, including the countryside? And will this indeed move more and more people to the countryside? Or will the cities remain the most attractive places to live, increasing the density? One thing is for sure, the happiest people are found at the countryside, and the unhappiest people are found in rural areas (Swinford, 2013).

• Gil, J. (2017, July 1). Future tech will give you the benefits of city life anywhere. Retrieved from: https://www.ted.com/talks/julio_gil_future_tech_will_give_you_the_benefits_of_city_life_anywhere/reading-list
• Swinford, S. (2013, October 23). Living in the countryside makes people happier, ONS suggests. Retrieved from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/10399019/Living-in-the-countryside-makes-people-happier-ONS-suggests.html
• Zelas, K. (2016, November 8). Millennials’ mass migration to cities is an urban myth, CBRE says. Retrieved from: http://www.investors.com/news/millennials-mass-migration-to-cities-is-an-urban-myth-cbre-says/

Yesterday, during the Apple event in the recently opened Steve Jobs Theatre, the release of the iPhone X was announced. Apple claims the iPhone X will be Apple’s best phone ever, including new features such as a display filling the entire screen, improved cameras, and a glass screen promised to be stronger than ever. However, there is one feature especially innovative. Apple decided to equip its newest phone with face recognition technology helping you to unlock the phone (Apple, 2017).

The system is meant to replace the previously used Touch ID in which you would have to scan your finger in order to unlock your phone. The newest Face ID system allows you to unlock your phone by simply looking at it. The system will project over 30.000 invisible infrared dots onto your face once looking at it, by using the infrared camera equipped on the front end of the phone. Those dots will then be pushed through a neural network in order to set up a mathematical model of your face. At every look to the phone the dots will be compared to the mathematical model created in order to see if there is a match, leading to the unlocking of the phone (Betters, 2017).

After the introduction of this new system onto a relatively mainstream product like the Iphone, the question is, will this be the start of a much more widespread application of face recognition technology? But, Apple is not the only company using face recognition technology. For example, recently, the British police also started a pilot using face recognition technology. In this pilot, the British police was able to compare videos made on the street, using intelligent camera’s, to images stored in a database (McGoogan, 2017).

According to Apple, the possibilities are endless. For Instance, they also introduced the use of the face ID together with Apple Pay, an application used to pay using your iPhone. But, of course, there are numerous people afraid of the privacy issues connected to the widespread use of this advanced technology (Garvie, 2017). So, what do you think? Will this be the start of the extensive application of face recognition technology, or did Apple just make a big mistake?

References:

• Apple, (2017, September 13). Apple X. Retrieved from https://www.apple.com/iphone-x/
• Betters, E. (2017, September 13). What is Apple Face ID and how does it work? Retrieved from http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/142207-what-is-apple-face-id-and-how-does-it-work
• Garvie, C. (2017, September 13). Facial recognition is here. The iPhone X is just the beginning. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/13/facial-recognition-iphone-x-privacy#img-1
• McGoogan, C. (2017, June 7). British Police arrest suspect spotted with facial recognition technology. Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2017/06/07/british-police-arrest-suspect-spotted-facial-recognition-technology/