As we discuss in our nVision trend The Quantified Self, smart technology has made consumers better positioned than ever before to monitor their day-to-day behaviours and understand the impact of their choices – and typically in real-time, seamless ways.

One area where we’ve seen particularly strong growth here is in the sporting arena. From Swimtag to Xperiathon to Nike’s FuelBand, so many tools and devices now promise to track a participant’s performance and inject a fun / competitive / self-improving angle. And to this (quickly-growing) list of  “Quantified Sports”, we can now add Tennis – with Babolat presenting a prototype of what it called the first ever connected tennis racquet during the French Open in May.

Used in a series of organised demonstrations featuring both amateur and professional players (including Rafael Nadal), the “Babolat Play & Connect” features sensors in the racquet handle which allow individuals to record data without interrupting their game.

Subsequently, players can transfer data to a computer, smartphone or tablet via a USB or wireless connection and then analyse specific information about their game – including service speed, qualification of strokes and ball spin. In addition, players can monitor their progress over time, set goals and, if they wish, post details to a specific social network to compare their performance or compete with others.

As the 10s progress, then, we have to expect ever more sporting activities to include a Quantified Self angle. But, perhaps just as importantly, must we also imagine that it will transform the process of spectating – making it a much more informed and interactive affair? By the 2016 Olympics, will we be able to receive instant assessments of how our favourite athletes have performed? We’d love to hear your thoughts.

The 2012 Budget was in many ways fairly predictable and did not represent any radical departure from the Government’s existing deficit reduction plans – tax cuts were offset by tax rises elsewhere.

The facts and figures reveal that the economy is flat; inflation is falling but is still higher than earnings growth  -  it needs to fall further to secure recovery; risks from the Eurozone have lessened (though not disappeared); UK GDP contracted 0.2% in Q4 2011 -a second consecutive quarter of negative growth would place the UK in a double dip recession; and the unemployment rate stayed at 8.4%, the highest for 16 years; interest rates remain at 0.5%.

What interests us particularly is the current flavour of social debate – much of the Budget debate, response and analysis has centred on the issue of fairness and whether or not the wealthy have gained at the expense of the majority. While the top rate of income tax was cut from 50% to 45%, there has been a big increase on stamp duty for expensive homes and a series of measures targeting tax avoidance. The income tax personal allowance has been increased substantially, but the higher tax allowance for pensioners will be phased out.

The Government insists that thanks to these measures, the rich will pay more. But the symbolism of reducing the top rate of income tax while age-related income allowances are phased out for pensioners has sparked fierce debate.

We also see some manifestations of our trends.  The state pension age will now be reviewed periodically so that it stays in line with rising longevity  -  a manifestation of our Ageing, but increasingly Ageless, Society.  The proposal to send each household a summary of their own contribution to government spending, broken down by sector, is not a revolutionary new release of data (it can be calculated easily from publicly available documents), but personalises the statistics and contributions to each taxpayer, as seen in our Transparency and The Quantified Self trends.  And as consumer market regulation grows with the above-inflation increase in tobacco duty and the new duty on gambling machines, are we seeing a steeply growing Assault on Pleasure?

Early 2012 saw the NHS announce that GPs in Hertfordshire would be asking obese patients to lose weight in order to receive routine surgery.

In justifying the decision, the trust claimed that overweight individuals had a much higher risk of picking up infections and suffering from heart, kidney and lung complications. In addition, it said they also had a greater chance of dying during such procedures and were likely to need a longer period of recovery.

According to a spokesperson for the NHS, “A relatively small weight loss can reduce the risks of surgery quite dramatically and we will be looking for that first, but the more you lose the better it will be - not just for when you have surgery but for long term good health”.

Although access to emergency operations remains unaffected, if this scheme is successful it is bound to be implemented by other trusts across the country - and will thus fan the flames of our Assault on Pleasure trend (in which we argue that potentially unhealthy consumption patterns will become subject to greater legislation and growing social disapproval).

At present, nVision Research tells us that about a quarter of the country are in support of such restrictions (2011). Will this creep upwards if the measures being adopted in Hertfordshire deliver results? Very likely, we think.

Earlier this month, LG unveiled its ThinQ refrigerator – a so-called “smart” fridge retailing at around £2000 which the company claims can act as a dietician.

Users simply enter their BMI, diet preferences and desired level of weight loss (the latter being optional), with the ThinQ then able assess the impact that various foods inside it might have and suggest options which will best match an individual’s personal targets (using voice recognition technology to distinguish various members of the household).

In addition, the ThinQ can alert owners when products are about to reach their expiry dates – displaying information on its in-built screen – and also allows users to see the contents of the fridge via their mobiles (thus removing the need for shopping lists).

Such a product chimes with a number of the trends we track here at nVision - touching everything from the Networked Society and Healthy Hedonism to The Quantified Self and the End of Inefficiency – and gives a glimpse of how much smarter are homes will become as the current decade evolves.