Researchers in Japan have designed an organic, disposable sensor that alerts caregivers when a new diaper is needed on a baby. It is made of a thin plastic film, which is embedded in a diaper for a few cents. (Investor’s Business Daily, paywall)

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Sensors that monitor heart rates and body temperature have now been installed in bras to help wearers know when they in the company of a potential true love. The sensors send signals to smartphones with special analytical software, and if the wearer’s natural body signals are determined by the software to be “right,” the bra unsnaps! (Guardian Weekly)

These are just two of the many developments occurring in the growing world of inexpensive sensors. The diaper invention holds the promise of alerting young parents, who may be engrossed in a video game, Pinterest, email responses or catching up with their long lost kindergarten friend on Facebook. While the small cost of the sensor is appealing, a no-cost crying baby may still be the best indicator of a wet diaper – and also offer the opportunity of bonding between baby and caregiver.

If we were to start listing other places where sensors could enhance the “undergarment market,” this blog could quickly become R-rated. But we will say that these are yet more examples of interpersonal decisions being turned over to technology.

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As part of the investigation into the Asiana Flight 214 accident at San Francisco Airport, the National Transportation Safety Board learned that the pilot had set the plane’s speed at 137 knots and assumed the auto throttles would maintain the speed. The system did not maintain that speed, actually leaving the Boeing 777-200ER engines at idle speed through the final portions of the plane’s landing approach and placing the aircraft very near an aerodynamic stall less than 200 feet above San Francisco Bay. A 777 fleet captain for a different major carrier was quoted by Aviation Week and Space Technology, “I don’t know how the whole crew could take their eyes off the speed.” 

The incorporation of automated systems in many areas of endeavor might well be assumed to increase capacity and efficiency, but they also increase unanticipated risks.   Anyone care to go for a ride in a Google autonomous car?

Takeoff and landing are known to be the two key times to maintain maximum safety vigilance on all flights. With automatic capabilities now incorporated into the most advanced aircraft, one must question whether the technology guiding these planes is “training” flight crews to be less vigilant.  

 
With that being said, it is no surprise that a new study by psychologists at the University of Utah has learned that hands-free (voice-activated) texting – new technology that will be standard in some 2014 automobiles – is more distracting that talking on a cellphone, whether hands free or handheld. 

 Use the right lane while voice texting…

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For one, the mailbox is answering the call for delivery of online purchases.

Amazon is now teaming up with Staples, Radio Shack, 7-Eleven and Albertsons for its Amazon Locker Service.  The physical retailers will install Amazon lockers in their stores, allowing customers to buy from Amazon and ship packages to the lockers and then pick them up later.

As we have noted in our New American Lifestyles context, individuals are increasingly moving to urban locations and these locker services, also offered by startups BufferBox and ShopRunner, may prove beneficial to those living in apartment buildings and urban environments.

For another example of the past offering a solution for modern problems, the general store is proving to be a valuable retail model in some cities.

Facing a mass exodus from urban to rural areas and a general population decline that was forcing retailers to close, residents of the German village of Barmen formed a corporation and funded the creation of a village center in 2006.  Today the 150 square meter store sells basic staples and also has an ATM machine, post office, travel center, a place to register a car or renew a driver’s license and has a doctor who comes once a week from a neighboring town.

Those who run the Barmen store have gotten so many inquiries from other towns that they have created a separate consulting firm and estimate that they have helped set up about 10 other stores, none of which are losing money.  They have another 25 stores in the works.

According to one of the Barmen consultants, the most important element of the village store is the café in the back.  While the store can’t compete with discounters on price, or with upscale supermarkets on variety, it can offer a community feel and an experience.

Simplicity (the limited inventory), Connectivity (the community of the town center) and Experience (the café) are three things that are making these general stores a success and are also three of the four items, along with Restraint, on our American Consumer Values Hierarchy.

American retailers, faced with a myriad of challenges, might want to look to Germany for some ideas.

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Yabbly  is a new community-based question and answer Website and app  which allows consumers to receive feedback on potential purchases from others who have recently been in the same situation.   A consumer can ask a question from the general community and Yabbly will then match the questioner with others who have recently made similar decisions.

This Website has the potential to be another tool in the quickly expanding consumer-shopping toolbox and as a result, brands will have to work even harder to get their message across.

http://www.fastcompany.com/3002609/buy-or-not-buy-yabbly-ask-someone-whos-been-there-bought

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This is great for the teachers trying to make ends meet during a time of reduced funding to education, and another example (following eBay, Craigslist, Kickstarter, Etsy and others) of the power of peer-to-peer sales.  Schools facing budget squeezes might want a piece of the action, though.  A New York Federal court ruled in 2004 that schools have a right to some of the profits, if teachers produced marketable lesson plans as part of their regular work, even if it was on their own time.  Will schools start suing some of these teachers for their share of the lesson-plan profits?

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For the past few years, we have written about the ways in which consumers have gained control over their shopping experience, and one of the results of that control is the beginning of the end of the big-box era  (see, “The Consumer in Control Goes Shopping” http://www.inferentialfocus.com/our-discipline/current-topics/).

Walmart, for one, appears to realize that, if it wants to remain a retailing power in this new environment, it will need to improve the shopping experience for its customers, both online and in the stores.

The company has built a new search engine from scratch in order to better help customers find what they are looking for. Walmart is managing its own search in-house, in a similar manner to online competitors Amazon.com and eBay, but in opposition to its conventional brick-and-mortar peers that mostly outsource their search technology. Walmart’s new semantic-search engine technology, named Polaris, includes something it once called the “Social Genome” – a way of enabling discovery using algorithms that rank results via social signals from around the web. Walmart claims the new search engine will increase by 10 to 15 percent the likelihood that customers will complete their purchase.
Walmart has also begun testing an iPhone-based self-checkout system in one of its Arkansas stores, making it the second major retailer (aside from Apple) to try such a system.

 
Over the past few years Walmart has purchased small technology companies such as Kosmix, OneRiot and Small Society and combined them to create WalMart Labs, which the company is using for digital innovation.  Walmart’s low prices will still be a draw for many consumers, but in an era where consumers also value simplicity and experience, it won’t be enough.  We expect Walmart to continue to aggressively address the digital side of the retailing experience, and for others big-box retailers to follow suit.

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New robots developed in New Zealand have neural networks onboard that can test mine tunnels and, like mine inspectors, can detect flaws and risks.  Normal guidance systems for autonomous vehicles depend on GPS, which is not available underground, and so mine robots use ultrasonic and RF signals to identify where they are.  Sandvik’s robots use constant contact with operators above ground via Wi-Fi signals. Rio Tinto is working on an autonomous rig drill that can bore holes and even assess various rock strata on its own.  Drone-based mining is another example of digital technology completely restructuring an industry.

Taking risky human tasks and getting machines to do them is good for curtailing human injuries, but that switch also reduces the number of jobs that humans can do.  Autonomous trucks are displacing decent-paying jobs, a money-saving efficiency for the company but a troubling reality for the unemployed and the consumer economy that depends on their having salaries to spend in markets and stores.  As machines steadily eat away at the human job market, what industry is going to provide new jobs, or are we headed toward steadily higher unemployment?

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We’ve written in the past that individuals are willing to give up their information, or at least look past privacy concerns, if they were getting something in return, and companies such as Personal would appear to be well positioned to take advantage of that perspective.

However, as we have discussed recently in a context we call the Data Arms Race, companies are now swimming in information, and many have successfully gained valuable consumer data without paying anything to the consumer.

Additionally, as cyber-criminals well know, something as seemingly valuable as a credit-card number now sells for only a few cents on the black market because so many have been stolen that the market for them has collapsed.  That is, information is easy to get.

It would appear to us that while companies value data more than ever, they likely won’t pay the consumer much for it.

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In a separate announcement, Comcast said it would let Xfinity Voice customers place free calls over WiFi and other wireless data networks, using mobile devices or PCs.  Additionally, as part of the Voice2go service, customers will be able to forward calls to as many as  four additional phones or devices.

These announcements could have a profound effect on the revenues of mobile wireless providers.  Verizon and other mobile providers are already losing revenue from one source as people have begun moving away from text message plans and towards messaging apps like WhatsApp and Facebook, which provide free texts, but use data. Now the mobile providers may have to deal with the threat of pervasive Wi-Fi.  If other cable operators follow Comcast, mobile customers in those covered areas may not eliminate voice plans altogether, but moving down to the lowest cost-voice plans (fewest minutes) could be a reality.

There is one benefit for mobile providers, however.  If individuals become more adept at switching back and forth between free Wi-Fi and cellular networks, it may relieve network congestion and alleviate the need for further cellular infrastructure buildout.

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For the past year we have written about the move of manufacturing back to the United States.  For technology companies, one of the roadblocks to such a move has been finding enough component suppliers nearby.  However, if enough technology companies such as Google begin experimenting with U.S. manufacturing, the component suppliers will soon follow, creating the potential for a virtuous circle.

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