Augmented hearing is one of the trends that is identified in Ericsson ConsumerLab’s report 10 Hot Consumer Trends 2018. The 63% of the respondents of the survey that form the basis of the report think that earphones that translate languages are a good idea. And as many smartphones makers now build their devices with digital multi-function ports the wired headphone is becoming a thing of the past. With this new form of mobility, you can wear them all through the night with the benefit of not being disturbed if your partner is snoring or if there are other sounds close to you. 52% believe this would be of great benefit. The report also acknowledges the fact that people now often cherry-pick what they want to listen to, e.g. as Spotify is pushing out the radio and Netflix old-fashion TV-broadcasting. The next step in this development according to the respondents of the survey thinks that within three years there will be earphones that let you select which people in a room you want to listen to. Another trend within this theme that was identified in the report is “Uncanny Communication”. 50 percent said that “not being able to tell the difference between human and machine would spook them out”. At the same time as 40% thinks it is spooky if their smartphone sees when they are happy, sad or bored and responds accordingly. While 33% said that they would avoid contacting an organisation that is using intelligent robots in their customer service. It is obvious that human-to-human interaction is of great value even among the early tech adopters that answered the Ericsson ConsumerLab’s survey. Source: Ericsson ConsumerLabs
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