The Brain Computer Interface Will Redefine the Travel Industry

The Brain Computer Interface (BCI for short), is the phrase used to describe the technology that enables us to instruct a device or software to execute a function, without using touch, but rather thought. Currently, this technology is used in high end prosthetics, robotic suits for paraplegics and gaming. There are also BCI products available to enable designing and spelling on conventional computers. 2014 saw the first ever human-to-human, brain-to-brain communication using this technology between India and France. And this is something that the travel industry needs to worry about.

In July 2015, I wrote on Pulse that Facebook May Resehape The Travel Industry, wherein I wrote about the convergence of Virtual Reality, the internet and other technologies may change the way travel consumption may change, thus posing a significant transformational challenge for the industry. Of key significance to the possibilities highlighted therein is the role of Head-Mounted Devices (HMDs) and live streaming. And that is the subject of focus herein.

By now we're all aware, that initial attempt at commercialisation of the most anticipated gadget in modern times, the Google Glass, has failed spectacularly. A major factor for this failure, mainly due to legal and regulatory concerns around the world, has been its capability to facilitate Visual Logging. Cinema owners don't like this product because users can record everything they see, exactly the way they see it, which beats the head-mounted cameras in helmets or seats of race car drivers any day. You see, with such logging features, the secondary viewer does not see an image from a camera perspective. The secondary viewer rather, views the image from the primary viewers perspective. This means that the secondary viewer views a logged image as does the primary viewer. Add to that, the possibility to log the audio as the primary viewer hears it, with enhanced audio recording systems.

The Convergence of HMD and BCI

The fact that the most anticipated product commercialisation of Google in it's history flopped so badly has nothing to do with the desirability of the product itself, is of immense importance when considering its future. You can hold back great products, but you can't keep them down. You certainly can't bury them. As much noise as naysayers may like to make, and as they may be able to make today, we cannot change the future that Google had made certain for humanity, the day they announced the product; that we'll all someday be using HMDs in one form or another, with the functions, that Google Glass promised. You see, the first effort at commercialising it after all, was the resistance to it, by industries that felt threatened by its disruptive potential. The disruption that the resistors have feared, can be delayed though. It cannot be stopped.

Emerging alongside the HMD, is the BCI technology and rather rapidly too. As of 2014, telepathic or Brain-to-Brain communication was considered by most first world graduates as pure fiction and fantasy. In that very year, scientists made it a very feasible technological reality. Yet, as of 2015, most professionals on LinkedIn would like to think that the commercial utilisation of BCI enabled Brain-to-Brain communication is a long way away from now; a far fetched reality. In reality indeed, we are more likely than not, to see the mass-commercialised usage of BCI for "telepathic" communication before 2025, most likely in convergence with the HMD. What this means, is the possibility that at a thought, we would be able to relay a live stream of what we see and hear, as we do without the limitations of what a camera can capture, instantly, to anyone, anywhere in the world. And because there is no touch involved, but rather only thought to execute a command, it is effortless. And this could be something we're all empowered with, within the next decade.

The Cool Implications

The difference between streaming of a camera captured log or recording or transmission and the transmission of actual visual captured by the human eye, is the first person, real experience. Add to that, the personal touch of personal feelings narrated in thought. The most natural guide! Your High Definition television can't give you that experience.

Sitting at home or on a beach in Singapore, I am viewing and hearing, as I would if I were there myself, the sights and sounds of Paris from high up on the Eiffel Tower, is an ideal sounds great in my mind. The saves the long travel time, the cost and hassle, of actually going from Singapore by flight to Paris. The moment I have had enough of Paris, I can get a good view of Japan, from atop Mount Fuji. All by simply thinking an instruction to switch the source of streaming on my HMD. The source, would be the mind of a user who is in a particular location, that I am connected to via the internet, that I'd want to tune into.

Similarly, a mass audience of people in Ahmedabad, India, will be able to tune in to what I see and hear while up at the Skypark at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. Through my eyes, they'd able to see the Singapore Zoological Gardens, the Botanical Gardens, the Gardens by the Bay and much more. The only experience that live HMD streams of relayed visuals from my thoughts would not be able to substitute from the folks in Ahmedabad would be, that of shopping at the Mohammad Mustafa Centre. I mean, for that, seeing and hearing from someone else's eyes and ears would not be enough. You'd want to be there to pick-up and touch the product of your interest, and buy it.

The Impact upon the Travel Industry

Much of leisure travel today is about seeing places and things in those places. There at least 3 billion people around the world today who already have web access from ages 4 to over 90. This number is going to grow and cover pretty much most of inhabited earth.

If as many people tomorrow have access BCI enabled HMDs or other similar wearables that fulfil the functions, as do the number of people who possess smartphone today, consider the number of virtual tour guides cum surrogates for live audio visual experience that we'll have tomorrow, anywhere, from whom we'd want to seek that experience, and will be able to as well. And through such surrogates to whim we could connect, we can see the places where they are, as they see them, experiencing what they experience, through their hearing and sight.

There are some things in the world that people will not want to invest in experiencing because of the risks such as deep sea diving or cave exploration for example. This can be overcome with the technology in question here.

Now then consider, the impact on the travel market, and the travel industry of course, of this technology that takes away the need for travel, to see and hear places, and yet offer more, by enabling users to experience experiences they would not otherwise dare to pursue. That, without an additional cost beyond month data plan subscriptions on their devices, without leaving home and without investing the time, that travel takes.

If I can see Rome, Paris, Zurich and Vienna, all in a day, without wearing myself out, everyday, as much as I want, without leaving my room, how much of the impetus to actually travel there diminishes, is an important question to ask.

The impetus to travel that remains strong or preserved then, is wherein there is a greater incentive to pursue experience beyond sight and sound, that "telepathic communication" or technologically supported simulation cannot be a substitute for. And the list of things you can think of, are ever shrinking, in that particular respect, as multi-dimensional technologies are ever making simulation of experiences more possible, such as the possibilities of virtual teleportation as described in the article, Facebook May Resehape The Travel Industry. How then, will the travel businesses of today, adapt, to the realisation of BCI enabled HMDs that are a likely reality by 2025?

Harish Shah is Singapore's first local born Professional Futurist and a Management Strategy Consultant. He runs Stratserv Consultancy. His areas of consulting includeStrategic Foresight, Systems Thinking and Organisational Future Proofing.