If you want to see what technology will be like in the U.S. five years from now, just go to Seoul. My Korean-American students have been telling me this for a while, but now I see what they mean. Here are a few examples:
--the metro tag everyone has dangling from a cell phone or purse that not only pays for subways and buses with a touch, but also covers taxis and some store purchases as well-- rendering the idea of counting out coins to pay busfare a quaint American anachronism
--the sliding glass doors in businesses and offices that whoosh open at a touch
--the modern Metro stations with tracks completely enclosed behind glass walls and doors, sealing in AC and keeping out smells and noise
--the subway tunnel walls that somehow magically play animated videos as the trains speed through
--the advertising videos that constantly play wherever you look -- on small monitors hanging from the subway ceilings, on vending machines, in elevators, even on the electronic signature pads in stores -- so that it seems as if someone is constantly addressing you, or trying to et your attention, like something out of Minority Report
--the interactive touch-screen subway maps in the metro stations that act like a GPS or Google Map.
One day we'll catch up!
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