eBay wants to know what the technology of the future looks like — and they need your help to do it. Overnight, a huge eBay branded dome turned up next to the IMAX in Darling Harbour, but it’s what’s inside that’s important. Gathered in this tent are some of today’s most interesting emerging technologies, but who’s to say whether they will be adopted by consumers or fall by the wayside as just another fad.
This is the intention of eBay’s Innovation Lab, which seeks to gauge potential adoption rates and interest in future technology by measuring the public’s reaction to these gadgets. Interest is measured in a number of ways, from high tech gaze monitoring to simple questionnaires that . The number one intention of the Innovation Lab is to let the public have some hands-on time with technology they may have only heard about before. “We know that you need to actually experience technology to understand what its impact on your life could be,” says Steve Brennen, eBay’s Senior Director of Marketing and Retail Innovation. “The Fitbit was one of the top selling gifts on eBay last Christmas, but if you’d asked people 12 months before if they wanted to count their steps – they’d have said ‘no way!”
There won’t be any Fitbits to play with down in Darling Harbour this weekend, but eBay has brought in a number of other exciting gadgets including the 3Doodler, the Samsung Gear VR, the Double by Double Robot, a 3D Body Scanner/Printer, a Bublecam and more devices that you’ve probably never heard of before. “Will we embrace drones as pets?” futurist Chris Riddle wants to know from the research he is assisting eBay with. “Will 3D printing take personalisation to an unrecognisable level? We will be measuring what people think and feel around the technology earmarked to enter Australians’ lives in the coming years in order to provide insights and analysis into what Australians can really expect from the future.”
Do you want to go hands on with some of today’s most interesting emerging technologies, and add your opinion to eBay’s research? The Innovation Lab will be open in Darling Harbour again tomorrow, from 10am – 6pm.
[eBay]