My Top Ten Predicted Future Trends

The following are the ten trends which I believe we are most likely to be using and be seeing more of, in ten years time.

More wired applications. For me it is not surprising that the world is moving towards a world where almost everything is connected to the internet. We already have, in what feels like a short time, phones, TV’s, e-books, computers etc which can connect to the internet. My imagination goes wild with the endless possibilities of what else, of the stuff around my home, could be connected to the internet – microwaves, the refrigerator, my bed? The blog entry at Digital Pacific also has this same view “By 2020, it is expected that almost every device will be wired to the internet – from microwaves to sofas. Furthermore, more applications will be specifically designed to be net friendly.”

I am also remembering the video clip we were given to watch – A Day Made of Glass. I don’t believe that in 10 years time this will be the world we live in but I think we will be a lot closer to it.

Mobile internet will be more common than browsing via the computer. Having internet on the go and being able to connect just about anywhere at any time on your mobile phone is a much easier, more convenient way to browse the web than turning on a computer, which unless you have an internet stick (or something similar) you would have to wait until you got home or to an internet cafe etc. Most people like convenience.   

On the Digital Pacific Company Blog, their blog entry “Top Ten Future Trends- The Internet by 2020” they also mentioned that their number 8 trend was that they think Mobile internet technology is will be the most popular way to browse the web by 2020 and as a result many sites will be specifically catered towards mobile devices.

I do not think it will be strictly phones either and looking at Cisco’s IBSG post on Ten Technology Trends That Will Change the World in Ten Years, on slide 4, there is a graph which shows internet growth and underneath the images of the people there is ‘Connected Devices Per Person’ which shows there was 0.08 devices connected per person in 2003, 1.84 in 2010 and they predict in 2015 there will be 3.47 and 6.58 by 2020. Which show that the number of connected devices is on the rise and is it no wonder when we now have phones, kindles laptops, iPads and even computer type games like Wii which can all be connected to the internet?

Solar power. As power is becoming more expensive for the average household I think more and more people will be turning to alternative means of powering and heating their homes.

With looking at using alternative sources of power, we will need to look at the technology we use. We already have solar powered gadgets such as garden lights, calculators and torches but we need to be looking at our every day gadgets and how to make them solar powered. I found a website which has great solar powered inventions – Smashing Hub – it has solar powered camera straps, chairs which you can sit in and charge your electronic gadgets, barbeque grills and even boats.

Just a few days ago a solar powered airplane completed its 4,000-mile journey, making the first solar-powered intercontinental round-trip air journey. You read the article here.

By trawling the internet you can come across many examples of new solar powered gadgets which, to me, is proof that there is only going to be more and more solar powered gadgets emerging in the next 10 years.

Cars which are not reliant on petrol. Petrol is getting more and more expensive and you can’t help but wonder when the world is going to run out and how are we going to travel from A to B when it does. There are already many alternatives to fuel and I am predicting that in the next 10 years this is going to rise. At Web Ecoist they have written an article on the 7 alternatives to fuel that have already been developed – compressed air, vegetable oil, hydrogen fuel cells, ethanol, water, electric power and wood pellets . With so many alternatives it is just a matter of time before people turn to these alternatives to running their vehicles but to do this they will also need to purchase cars which are able to be run on these alternatives. For example, the electric vehicle which was used in the early 1900’s and Fuel Cell vehicles which run on fuel cells, which is electricity from a catalyst-facilitated chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen ions in a cell. Fuel cell busses are being trialled at Sun Line Transit in Thousand Palms, Alameda-Contra Costa Transit (AC Transit), and Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (Santa Clara VTA).

Although there seems to be a pattern between the price of fuel and the sale of fuel alternative cars, it does seem that the sale for the fuel alternative car is rising. According to a table I found on Ev World, The Future in Motion, on the 1^st, January 2012, in the USA, when fuel was at $3.38, alternative fuel car sales were $14,902. When fuel was at its peak on the 1^st, April at $3.89, sales were $29,799 and last month when fuel was $3.54, sales were $23,778. These figures show that sales for fuel alternative cars are definitely on the rise.

More technology in schools. As the world is fast becoming a world surrounded in technology, it only makes sense that schools get on board and use more technology to assist in the learning of their students.

When I went to primary school there was only one computer in the classroom which sat in a corner and was hardly ever used. We had to wait until we went to high school before we had any real access to a computer and then it was only the geeks and nerds who used them. But these days, schools are supplying more computers and netbooks etc, for their classrooms which the children seem to love using and it is not just the schools with money. The school my 6 year old daughter goes to, does a lot of fundraising to pay for the netbooks and computers which are in each classroom and the children love the time and learning they get to do on them. They get to use them every day for playing math and reading games.

I don’t believe it will be strictly left at just computers and netbooks either. At Howick College, a Ministry of Education pilot programme urged students to use their cellphones in the classroom and use them for learning, rather than keep them at home. You can watch the One News report here. On the same report it was mentioned that at Wellington High, paper was on the way out and that two thirds of the year nine students have netbooks and every student has their own blog and high tech programmes which let students work like professionals. Teachers were also creating lesson online.

Robots. The invention of robots has been around for centuries, starting back to when Henri Maillardet made Automaton in the 1800’s. But robots have come a long since then and they are being created not just for entertainment but for actually being very useful. For example, the swumanoid which is a human-like robotic swimmer that they are hoping will help athletes swim faster.

There is also the Rescue robot (you can read about it by clicking on a link underneath the swumanoid article) which was created to help rescue miners who were trapped.

There is no shortage of new articles, on the internet, about new types of robots being created so, to me, this is proof that, in the next 10 years, there is going to be more and more robots being created to do a variety of tasks from social experiences to being the ones put in danger to save a human life. I feel we are still at the beginning of discovering the possibilities of what a robot can do.

Smartphones. This is an obvious prediction because statistics show that the use of smartphones is already on the rise. Devin Coldewey wrote an article which backs up my prediction on this.

He says

“In 2009, smartphones only made up 18 percent of mobiles bought. But late 2011 saw their numbers increasing, up to almost half. Now, just seven months later, it's up to two out of every three.”

And with iPhone 5 already in the making and being released in the very near future (rumoured to be in October) it looks as though the future in smartphones is very high.

Text by thinking. According to FutureTimeline.net, by the year 2020 we will be able to text by thinking which is achieved by a sensor-mounted headset worn by the user. The device contains brain-machine interface technology which analyses brain waves, converts them into digital signals and displays the resulting letters on-screen.  This I think is a real possibility and it would be great for the times when you are driving and you need to send a text to someone to say you are going to be late or that you will pick them up in 5 minutes.

5g Network. As, with all technology, there is always a new technology on the horizon as soon as the last one is released and since 3g came out in 2001 and 4g came out in 2011 I can predict that by 2020 there will be 5g and according to FutureTimeline.net they agree. They are saying that some of the new features of the 5g are wearable devices with AI technology, IPv6 and High-altitude stratospheric platform station (HAPS) systems.

Holographic TV. There has to be something new with the TV by 2020 and as every TV is already going digital and some even having 3D, it only fair to think that we will be getting holographic TV’s. According to Peter Pachel, Japan's Communications Ministry has set a goal for creating holographic TV by 2020.

Bibliography

Alternative Fuel Vehicles (N.A.). Consumer Energy Centre. Retrieved 29^th, July 2012 from http://www.consumerenergycenter.org/transportation/afvs

Cisco (July 13^th, 2011). Retrieved 28^th, July 2012, from http://www.slideshare.net/CiscoIBSG/ten-technology-trends-that-will-change-the-world-in-ten-years

Coldewey, Devin (13^th, July 2012). Two out of Three Phones Bought in the US are Smartphones. Retrieved 29^th, July 2012, from http://www.gadgetbox.msnbc.msn.com/technology/gadgetbox/two-out-three-phones-bought-us-are-smartphones-879330

DesMarias, Christina (28^th, July 2012). iPhone 5 and Everything You want to Know, PCWorld.  Retrieved 29^th, July 2012, from http://www.pcworld.com/article/260005/iphone_5_and_everything_you_want_to_know.html

Digital Pacific (Monday August 15^th, 2011). Retrieved 28^th, July 2012, from  http://www.digitalpacific.com.au/blog/top-ten-future-trends-the-internet-by-2020/

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Hybrid, Electric Car Sales Soar Despite Falling Fuel Prices (). Ev World. Retrieved 29^th July, 2012 from http://evworld.com/news.cfm?newsid=28372

Nancy Atkinson (23^rd, July 2012). Solar-powered plane comes home after 4,000-mile odyssey. Retrieved 29^th, July 2012, from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48311607/ns/technology_and_science-innovation

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Quyinn, Ali (2012). 10 Great Solar Powered Inventions, Smashing Hub. Retrieved 29^th, July 2012, from http://smashinghub.com/10-great-solar-powered-technology-inventions.htm

Roach, John (2012). Swumanoid Robot Help Future Olympians Go for Gold, Future of Tech. Retrieved 29^th, July 2012, from http://www.futureoftech.msnbc.msn.com/technology/futureoftech/swumanoid-robot-help-future-olympians-go-gold-913877