Technology: The Future with IBM

IBM, the US computer giant has been busy predicting the future of technology and released its annual 'Next Five in Five' list of five innovations expected over the next five years. So, they have given us air-powered batteries, 3-D cell phones that project holographs and personalized commutes are among the forecasts.

Among the predictions are advances in transistors and battery technology that will allow our devices to last about 10 times longer than they do today. Today's lithium-ion batteries could be replaced by batteries "that use the air we breathe to react with energy-dense metal, eliminating a key inhibitor to longer lasting batteries", IBM said and, "If successful, the result will be a lightweight, powerful and rechargeable battery capable of powering everything from electric cars to consumer devices. Better yet, in some cases, batteries may disappear altogether in smaller devices, by reducing the amount of energy per transistor to less than 0.5 volts and relying on a technique known as energy scavenging. Some wrist watches use this today and they require no winding and charge based on the movement of your arm. The same concept could be used to charge mobile phones for example...just shake and dial."

Also on the fortune telling cards is 3-D and holographic cameras that fit into cellphones, which will allow video chat with 3-D holograms of your friends in real time. IBM scientist also see personalized commutes as another development and are already working on this using new mathematical models and predictive analytics technologies to deliver the best routes for daily travel. IBM said, "Adaptive traffic systems will intuitively learn traveller patterns and behaviour to provide more dynamic travel safety and route information to travellers than is available today."

This bit sounds absolutely amazing and exiting, as IBM also thinks human beings will become walking sensors that will provide valuable data to fight global warming, save endangered species or track invasive plants or animals that threaten ecosystems around the world...now that's what I call technology advancement...IBM says, "In five years, sensors in your phone, your car, your wallet and even your tweets will collect data that will give scientists a real-time picture of your environment. A whole class of 'citizen scientists' will emerge, using simple sensors that already exist to create massive data sets for research."

If that wasn't enough IBM said scientists will find ways to better recycle heat and energy from data centres to do things like heat buildings in the winter and power air conditioning in the summer. As according to IBM up to 50 percent of the energy consumed by a modern data centre goes toward air cooling and most of the heat is then wasted because it is just dumped into the atmosphere. New technology such as novel on-chip water-cooling systems developed by IBM, the thermal energy from a cluster of computer processors can be efficiently recycled to provide hot water for an office or houses!

IBM posted a YouTube video of the five predictions at IBM Video


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