Wanting to better understand the term ‘speculative design’ I chanced upon this Medium article (https://uxdesign.cc/speculative-design-for-the-real-world-551130b22827) which had some really good pointers, namely:

We should ask ourselves what kind of society we prefer, rather than devise a crisis management plan for 10 years down the road.

So my choice of device to work on would be the Autism Glass by Stanford University, as I feel its medium has great potential to be worked on. And it originated from the tried and failed Google Glasses, which is a speculative design in a way.

Autism Glasses:

What I would like to see in the future: A future where we are able to travel or teleport to back into a memory of our own.

Speculative Design: Travel Glasses

These glasses activate your senses of sight and hearing, and have saved memories from experiences you have had if you choose to record that moment. You are then able to relieve that moment again and replay a scene in time from your very own point of view!

This idea takes slight inspiration from Black Mirror episode: The Entire History of You. In this episode, everyone has a memory chip implanted in their heads which they can use to replay past memories on a tv screen.

Especially in the midst of a global pandemic whose end is not yet in sight, people who are aching to travel again can now revisit precious memories from previous trips to relive them. Experiences can also be sent to your friends and family so they can relive your memory of walking through the streets of Korea, and experience it for themselves if they have never been.

The sharing of memories between loved ones can also help bonds grow stronger as they literally step in the shoes of one another. If you have a loved one who lost their memories in an accident or due to old age, you can also share moments you have had with them, so they can remember how they used to be like.

Next steps…

Involving more senses
More senses can start to be activated like smells or touch in the future, to truly help a user recreate an experience from scratch.

Google Maps
Other ways this can continue to be innovated on, is instead of just experiencing memories, Google Maps View can be incorporated to allow people to explore the world from a first person POV, even if they have never been. This can be done by allowing people from all over the world to upload their own experiences in a place (content to be vetted) so others have a chance to glimpse at how the other side lives

Convenience
Last but not least, the most far fetched one would be remaking them into contact lenses instead of glasses to avoid the clunky design of smart glasses that would discourage users from wearing them.