What new technologies can we expect to see in the near future?
Friday, October 23rd, 2009 at
9:42 pm
The technology we have today is just outrageous compared to just 20 or even 10 years ago. What are your predictions or insights into the the future? Are robots/machinery/wireless technologies going to run the show?
Tagged with: 10 years • future • insights • robots • Technology • today • wireless technologies
Filed under: Tech News
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Mechatronics – Mechanical systems are combined with electronic components and software which can identify and correct flaws in real time to ensure the overall system functions as intended. Though already found in aircraft and photocopiers, the falling prices of both microprocessors and sensors make them ready for prime time in the automotive world.
Grid computing – The Internet links computers. Hypertext links documents. Grid protocols link everything else – databases, simulation tools, and underutilized computing power. Computer grids function analogously to the electric grid. Widely dispersed on-line resources become available to focus on the problem at hand.
Molecular Imaging – Multiple imaging techniques – magnetic, nuclear, and optical – are combined with computer analysis to observe molecular interactions underlying biological processes. Molecular signals may indicate cancer growth, for example, long before the cancers are detectable by conventional means.
Nanoimprint Lithography – Like a printing press, a hard mold is stamped into a material momentarily softened by a laser flash, creating reproducible features smaller than 10 nanometers across in less than a microsecond. The commercial challenge is to etch nanopatterns into silicon for microchips.
Software Assurance – Software bugs and computer crashes are a pervasive fact of life. New tools are being developed which model and test a software design before the programmers write the code, in much the same way a bridge design is tested before the bridge is built. Another analogy is the quality movement in industry during the 1970s and 1980s, which replaced sampling and testing all products and rejecting those not meeting specifications with building quality into the product at every step of design and manufacture.
Glycomics – Glycomics is the effort to understand and harness sugars that are naturally made by the human body, in order to improve health by bolstering the immune system or by arresting disease processes. Sounds easy, but there is, as of yet, no code that determines the structure of the sugars.
Quantum Cryptography – Commonly used encryption of messages is based on fixed "public keys," whose codes have not been broken yet, but they will be someday. Quantum encryption creates a unique "key" for each message, and any attempt to intercept the message irrevocably alters the signal, making the message unreadable to anyone.
Brain-Wireless Sensor Networks – Small (AA battery sized) devices called motes combine a processor, memory, and sensors to monitor their local environment, and have just enough radio power to transmit snippets of data to nearby motes to pass along to other motes, thereby creating a self-organizing network. Applications include traffic, buildings, and ecosystems.
Injectable Tissue Engineering – Joints, such as hips or knees, are injected with mixtures of polymers, cells, and growth stimulants that solidify and form healthy bone and cartilage. Injectable systems are less invasive and less costly than surgical replacements.
Nano Solar Cells – Tiny nanorod semiconducting crystals are added to electrically conductive polymers to create very thin sheets (200 nanometers thick), which are then sandwiched between electrodes to carry away electricity generated when struck by sunlight.