The world’s most amazing technologies are often cooler than they are practical. Skyscrapers, for example, could never be built until elevators were developed.
The same applies to many future technologies, like flying cars or necrobotics (turning dead things into robots). While these are certainly exciting developments, they may not always be practical.
10 - Flying Cars
For decades, futurists have promised that we will soon be able to skip traffic jams by soaring above them in flying cars. But the reality is that, just like the Segway, which was hailed as a revolution in transport but never actually reached the masses, the flying car has yet to add much value to our lives.
One company that has made some progress is Alef Aeronautics, which recently announced a prototype with two seats that can take off vertically and fly like a helicopter at 110 miles per hour. This kind of vehicle is called an eVTOL, and it fits into existing aviation rules because it doesn’t need jet fuel or complex engineering.
But if you have ever flown a plane, you know that it requires extensive training and certification to operate safely. That makes flying cars impractical for most people and will limit their use to those who can afford a pilot’s license. Also, eVTOLs have limited battery capacity and need to be recharged frequently. It will take a lot of research to develop new kinds of batteries that can store enough power for long trips.
9 - Touchscreens
We are all familiar with touchscreens, as they can be found everywhere from supermarket registers to ATM machines. They are great for humanizing computers and making them easy to use by anyone, even kids. Touchscreens can also increase productivity and allow users to perform multiple tasks at once.
There are several types of touchscreens: Capacitive - A screen is coated with an electrically-charged material, and when touched, the touch causes a change in capacitance. This change is detected by sensors and converted to an X-Y coordinate that can be sent to the controller. This type of screen is very durable, has excellent clarity and can be used with a stylus or finger.
Dispersive Signal Technology - Sensors detect mechanical energy during a touch and convert it into an X-Y coordinate, then send the information to controllers. This system is less sensitive to moisture and dust, but can be disrupted by a resting finger or other objects. Surface Acoustic Wave - Ultrasonic waves are transmitted by the screen and reflected off of the touch point, creating a unique combined signal. This is then compared to a list of sound profiles and digitized, which can then determine the touch location.
8 - Robots with Sentience Mimicry
Robotics is a field of science and engineering that produces machines that mimic or substitute for human actions. They are often designed to look like people and may be equipped with human-like features, including facial expressions and speech. Popular examples include R2-D2 from Star Wars and WALL-E from the film series.
Robots are currently used in a variety of ways, from testing and assembling products, to conducting medical procedures, to search-and-rescue missions following natural disasters and military operations. Some are even able to detect landmines and other dangerous explosives.
Engineers have been working to create e-skin technology that can give robots the ability to feel. Their latest success is a computational e-skin that allows robots to register pain. This is a key step in enabling robots to learn through trial and error, as humans do.
Software robots (also called softbots) are computer programs that perform a certain task, such as weld a door on an automobile assembly line or generate a blockbuster film script. Collaborative robots, or co-bots, work in tandem with humans and are becoming increasingly popular as they are incorporated into smart factories.
7 - 3D Movies
3D movies have become ubiquitous since Avatar came out in 2009. But what most people don’t know is that this technology was already fairly commonplace just a decade ago.
There are several different ways that 3D films work, but they all use the same basic principle: your eyes see two different images and then the brain puts them together to create a three-dimensional image. This is called stereoscopy.
Older 3D movies required special red and blue (or sometimes green and red) glasses that send each eye different perspectives of the same image, Wired explains. Newer 3D movies use polarized lenses that skew the light at different angles to overlay two images on your screen. The remainder is handled by your brain.
A company called RealD has a technology that allows you to watch 3D without the glasses. But it’s only available in smaller consumer screens like TVs, not cinemas. A more practical and organic 3D technology would be to develop cameras that capture the illusion of depth. IGN reports that one company’s prototype uses parallax barriers—like a series of mirrors and lenses—to create an immersive experience for the viewer.
6 - Virtual Reality
The term ‘virtual reality’ (VR) is probably best known for immersive films and video games. However, the potential of this technology goes far beyond entertainment. It can be used in fields as diverse as medicine, training, and design.
VR headsets isolate the user from the real world and create a simulated environment that can be explored in 360 degrees. When it works correctly, this enables a sense of immersion that is similar to being there in person.
AI is making great strides in the realm of natural language processing, with Google’s autocomplete software and smartphones offering predictions of what you are trying to type. The advancement of visual AI may take this even further, enabling computers to interpret data and solve problems better than humans. This includes using image and video processing to identify objects by blob detection, scale space, template matching or edge detection. It can also be used to perform a number of tasks including creating images and full-length conversations. The results can seem almost human, although it hasn’t mastered humour yet.
5 - Video Calling
Video calling is one of the most popular communications technologies, and it’s become a key part of our work lives. It’s especially useful for remote workers, who can rely on video meetings to keep up with their teams.
Video chat services like Skype, FaceTime, and Google’s Hangouts are available on most desktops and mobile devices with an embedded camera. They work on a set of technologies called Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), which allows you to communicate with other users over the Internet without using traditional telephone connections.
While the technology is not new, it has only recently become more practical thanks to advances in codecs and broadband Internet service. Even then, many people still complain about the quality of video calls. For example, one recent study found that participants can suffer from “latency,” which results in a delay between what is heard and what is seen on screen. This makes it difficult to follow a conversation or convey emotions over the phone. Moreover, it can feel frustrating for customers who are trying to get help from customer service representatives.
4 - Public Transit Systems
A major advantage of public transit systems is that they can reduce traffic congestion by removing a significant number of vehicles from the road. This also cuts down on carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to global warming, as approximately 85% of daily greenhouse gas emissions come from transportation.
Transit systems have the advantage of operating on a larger scale than individual private vehicles, and can operate at high frequencies to meet travel demand. They can be arranged to run at regular intervals throughout the day (known as clock-face scheduling) and can coordinate services to minimise travel time between routes, or at interchange points.
Increasing the frequency of service is one of the most effective ways to improve public transit satisfaction, as shown by surveys of 3,000 individuals in 17 metropolitan areas. Additionally, incorporating multi-modal options and partnerships with ride-hailing services can boost transit options when frequency is lacking. Additionally, walking to and from public transport stops can increase physical activity for commuters, which helps to address the growing problem of modern obesity.
3 - Light Speed Travel
Despite what you might have heard, light doesn’t really travel faster than it does in our universe. According to Einstein’s laws, it takes about eight minutes for the Sun to send a photon of Earth back to itself, and it will take four years for light to reach Proxima Centauri, our nearest star. That’s a lot of time to get there, and it won’t help us explore space very much.
So physicists are working hard on ways to go faster, especially the kind of fast-than-light travel we see in Star Trek. One way is by deforming spacetime with something like a wormhole or an Alcubierre drive, which supposedly works by pulling you forward while you remain stationary.
But the problem is that these drives require near-infinite energy, which scientists don’t have. So they need to work out other ways to push a spacecraft to high speeds, such as using magnetic or electric forces, or fusion engines. This is work that doesn’t receive a lot of funding from the DARPAs and NASAs of this world, so most of it happens in scientists’ spare time.
2 - Heads-Up Displays
Heads-Up Displays are designed to project important driving information right onto the windshield, above a driver's line of vision. This minimizes the need to glance down at infotainment screens and dials, which can be distracting and force a driver's attention away from the road ahead.
A HUD can show a variety of things including speed, navigation directions, and warnings. It's a useful feature that can greatly enhance a driver's safety, especially at highway speeds. However, as with any new technology that is added to cars, it's important to use this feature responsibly and not allow it to become a distraction or a replacement for safe driving practices.
Head-up displays can be divided into two types: a display style and a projection style. A display-style HUD utilizes a projector to create the image on the windshield, and it requires a special coating or windshield in order to work. It also doesn't work well with polarized sunglasses, and the reflection of light off the glass can be distracting.
The first head-up displays were used in fighter jets, where split seconds of extra concentration and visibility can make the difference between life and death. Adapted for cars, the systems are now standard in many luxury vehicles and an option on most models.
The best head-up displays will be collimated, meaning they will be properly aligned and appear as a hologram that is easy to see in bright sunlight or at night. They can also be customizable, allowing drivers to choose what information they want to be displayed.
1 - Brain Implants
To have such a device, you need to undergo surgery, typically two operations. The first is to position between 50 and 100 electrodes embedded in silicon sheets or “grids” under your dura. The second operation removes the grids and lets scientists study the signal that decodes imagined movement trajectories or backward counting (Ritaccio et al, 2013). The new electrodes are much smaller than those used in previous research—they’re just 1 percent of their size. They’re also far less likely to displace native neurons, and they capture a much larger part of the cortex.
These new implant probes are designed to survive as long as possible in the brain’s warm, humid, and inhospitable environment. They have sensors that track and record the activity of individual cells and neural circuits, and they send data to a computer for processing. Researchers are analyzing the data to learn more about how neurons fire and communicate with each other, and the effect of these interactions on brain function. Then, they can design implants that reach deeper into the brain with less impact on tissues and do more useful work.
