Imagine this for a second. The year is 2020 and you enter an office, similar but different from the one you may be in right now. Structurally, the features are similar to his 2009 office, there is a desk, chair, and a window with a view. However, there are notable differences. Your clunky PC is over. The phone is also nowhere to be seen. Books? No. Newspapers? Journals? No. No. Instead, wearing a handheld device on your finger conjures up a hologram of a blank screen on your desk.
“Computer on,” you say. Before you appears a virtual computer. It uses voice demand technology to open documents, send emails to friends, write reports, and check actions on the Internet. So you decide to read a copy of the January 2020 issue of Exec Digital and relax. Welcome to the not too distant future.
LAPTOP
The above scenario is an idealistic vision of the future created from the mind of a 23-year-old sci-fi fan (sincerely yours). While predicting future technology is never an exact science, I went into the minds of people who might have an idea of what technology will look like in 10 years.
While my potential tech may be a bit idyllic, it’s not too far from MIT’s Wear Ur World. The WUW is a perfect example of potential future technology, much inspiring my own story. Developed by the MIT Media Lab and known simply as ‘Sixth Sense’, the user uses a small projector, a webcam and a mobile phone, ultimately allowing the user to turn any flat surface into a computer.
Using hand gestures, you can do anything from telling the time to making a phone call. (For example, drawing a circle will cause the WUW to display a clock.) To get a feel for WUW, imagine Tom Cruise using the standard UI in Minority Report. Of course, WUW is a bit more high-tech than Cruise’s SUI.
Smaller, faster, and much more efficient is very much the ideal of tomorrow’s computers, as is mobility. Several industry experts say the idea of more mobility technology is almost certain in 10 years. A Pew Internet Research report that surveyed 1,000 technology executives indicates that by the year 2020, mobile technology will be our primary access to the Internet. Furthermore, the same experts say that most communication devices will come with voice-demand technology.
CARS
Smaller, faster machines with greater mobility and efficiency are not just the topics for the computers of the future. Those qualities also represent the cars of 2020. Mitchell Joachim, co-founder and partner of Terreform 1, the New York-based nonprofit eco-design collaboration, designed a car for urban societies conceptualizing this very thinking. Joachim designed the City Car and the Stackable Car as strictly city transport.
“One concept of the car was a soft body, where it could cling to a soft stuffiness. It wouldn’t roll around in a shiny, precious metal box. It would be more human-like, moving in flocks or herds where it’s okay to brush up against your neighbor.” “We also thought about stackable cars that stand up and interlock in weirdly directional ways. There’s also a great social aspect of Honda to the City Car. It doesn’t tell you things like miles per hour. You don’t need to know that in the city,” says Joachim .
Designer Stefan Mathys led a team of visionaries to design a car of a similar type. The City Transport Cell is a battery-powered, zero-emission car that can easily navigate an urban society. It was specifically built for the year 2020 and comes with removable parts. It should be noted that most of these cars are the size of carts.
ROBOTICS
In every futuristic vision, there are always robots present. From the Jetsons to the Terminator, robots have always been a part of our envisioned future. Therefore, no article on technology in 2020 would be complete without a mention of robotics. A few years ago, Japan’s Ministry of Trade and Industry (METI) set out a plan to introduce intelligent robots by 2015.
The Japan Robot Association released a report stating that robots of all kinds will be in the home and office by 2020. The Japanese, the leader in robotics technology, have predicted that robots will be used to help humans with everyday tasks and keep them company. They will also be used for business purposes. By 2020, robots may even be placed in outer space to explore the moon and beyond. The Japanese government has developed a program to achieve this very goal.
Whether it’s robotics, cars, or toys, there’s really no telling where the technology will land in 10 years. Think about the turn of the millennium. Flat screens, iPods, DVR technology, and commercialized GPS were still mostly unconceptualized visions. Mass-market commercial hybrids were still in their infancy and most people were unaware of digital technology. It is not known where we are going.