IEEE: 2016 will be the year of the drone, but there's bad news for MP3 players, digital cameras, and wearables
43 percent of UK consumers expect drones to be the most influential technology in 2016, according to IEEE’s annual survey, with smart phones (38 percent) and 3D printing (31 percent) close behind.
The online survey, conducted in November 2015, questioned over two thousand adults to find out what technology they expected to see more/less of. While the list of devices predicted to fall from favor included obvious tech like digital music players, standalone digital cameras (both 15 percent), and ebook readers (9 percent), some 8 percent of respondents declared wearables had had their day.
Microsoft and Rambus team up for quantum computing research
Researchers at Microsoft are partnering with Rambus in order to evaluate the future memory requirements of quantum computing.
The two technology firms will share their resources and expertise in order to determine the types of computer architecture that will provide the biggest improvement to memory capabilities and overall system performance. Gary Bronner, vice president of Rambus Labs said that existing architectures are struggling to meet the increasing demands of real-time data consumption.
Remember Hyperloop? It's getting ready for testing
A while back Elon Musk, of Space X and Tesla Motors, as well as a founder of PayPal, drew up designs for a futuristic mode of travel that he dubbed Hyperloop. It's essentially a super-speed rail system running in a vacuum-like tube. At the time, it drew some derision as not being possible, both physically and economically.
Despite that, Hyperloop Technologies Incorporated was born and it has slowly grown. How far? Well, the company is now ready to set up a test run. The company has found space in North Las Vegas, Nevada at the Mountain View Industrial Park. The site it obtained is approximately 50 acres.
Li-Fi wireless transfers are 100 times faster than Wi-Fi
Li-Fi, the technology which uses light instead of radio waves to transmit data has been tested outside the laboratory environment. The result? Possible Internet speeds a hundred times faster than what we currently have.
So how does this technology work? An LED flicks on and off at speeds imperceptible to the naked eye which can be used to write and transmit information in binary code. It’s basically Morse code, only for computers.
Young people don't consider automation issues when choosing a career
Indeed -- the world’s largest job site -- has just launched a new research study that determines that almost half (49 percent) of young people in Britain are not taking the issue of job automation into account when choosing their career.
Furthermore, Indeed’s study reveals that 17 percent are not aware of the industry trend towards automation and the effect it will have on future employment both at the low and high end of the skills market.
Mobile technology in the next 30 years
The year was 1985 -- a-ha were racing to the top of the music charts with their smash-hit "Take on Me", Roger Moore was appearing in what was to be his final outing as James Bond, and a young high-school teenager inadvertently stumbled across time travel with his much older scientist friend.
This year of course marks the 30th anniversary of Back to the Future which, as we all know, is one of the most iconic and celebrated films of the 20th Century. Starring Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly and Christopher Lloyd as Dr. Emmett Brown (or Doc for short), the film was celebrated for its ingenious and fun take on time travel and later went on to spawn two sequels. Most notable was the 1989 follow-up Back to the Future II in which our plucky heroes travel to the year 2015 in a world which is dominated by hoverboards, self-tying shoes and tablet computers -- remarkably all of which have come to fruition (sort of). Naturally some of the films’ more outlandish predictions haven’t yet left the realms of cinema imagination, like flying cars and power clothing, but nonetheless these are still some amazing technological advances that have helped shape the world we live in today.
This app lets you see the invisible Wi-Fi signals all around you
People worry about everything these days, and new technology is often a big cause for concern. Wireless charging, which is starting to appear in appliances, cars, and furniture, has some people fretting that it will microwave their internal organs while they sleep, and it wasn’t that long ago that people were stressing over the possible side effects of Wi-Fi too.
A BBC investigation a few years back found that RF radiation levels in some Wi-Fi-enabled schools were up to three times higher than the levels emitted by a typical mobile phone mast, leading to suggestions that Wi-Fi should be banned in places of education in the UK until its possible dangers had been fully investigated. Of course Wi-Fi hasn’t been banned in schools, or anywhere else for that matter, and it’s become far more ubiquitous. A new iPad app by Dutch designer Richard Vijgen uses augmented reality to visualize the network of radio waves that surround us, and it provides a truly fascinating glimpse into the invisible world that we now rely so much on.
Confirmed: Apple is working on a self-driving car to rival Google
Apple's Project Titan is not only real, but the self-driving car is further developed than previously thought. Documents obtained by The Guardian show that the company is currently looking for secure locations in the San Francisco bay area that could be used to test the vehicle.
The newspaper made a public records act request to unearth correspondence that revealed that the Special Project group from Apple met with representatives from the GoMentum Station. This former naval base is in the process of being transformed into test track for self-driving vehicles.
Hello, walking billboards -- wearable displays are coming
Researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have created a fiber-like LED that can be directly woven to create wearable fabric.
In plain terms, Korean scientists have created bendable wearable displays.
New 'yolk and shell' battery technology could fully charge a smartphone in minutes
A new form of battery technology is being developed that could see smartphones charged in just a few minutes.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in partnership with China’s Tsinghua University, have designed a "yolk and shell" battery that overcomes existing design flaws.
Kids can now create and customize their own prosthetic arm from Lego
Lego is something that is most often used to build models. The versatile little bricks have been keeping children (and adults) entertained for generations, and there have also been plenty of instances of the toy being used for more than just playing. Now, thanks to the work of designer Carlos Arturo Torres, children with a missing limb could build their own from Lego.
It's an idea that merges the worlds of play and entertainment with practicality. The Colombian designer has come up with a modular system which can be used by inventive kids to create elaborate arms that are as functional, as advanced, or as silly as they want.
Robots are becoming self-aware
Smartphones might be getting smarter, and the Internet of Things becoming increasingly important, but a large part of the technological future is owned by robots. Human-replacing robots have existed in factories and manufacturing processes for years, but the dream has long been to create a humanoid robot that is 'intelligent' enough to act like a human.
Three robots have been put to the test at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York, and scientists showed that one was able to demonstrate self-awareness. We're not quite at the stage of a robot uprising, but it is an important step on the road to improving reasoning and problem-solving in future robots.
Over a quarter of IT workers believe Terminator's Skynet will happen one day
According to a recent YouGov poll, 13 percent of IT decision makers believe technology could destroy the Earth, with the leading causes of our demise including the prevention of evolution (74 percent), military and warfare (66 percent), artificial intelligence (44 percent), and environmental issues (38 percent).
And 27 percent of those polled believe the Terminator plot and Skynet (which deploys the army of Terminators against us) could become a reality in the future.
Samsung technology will double battery life
Samsung's flagship devices already have great battery life, hitting well over 10 hours of usage without a problem, but the company wants to double the numbers with a new technology being worked on in-house.
The prototype adds a graphene layer on top of silicon anodes, adding 1.8 to 1.5 times greater density to the battery. In early tests with large scale batteries, Samsung is noting double the amount of life.
You'll be able to buy this jetpack for $150,000
The dreams of science fiction fans could be about to come true after the world’s first commercially available jetpack was unveiled.
The Martin Jetpack has been in development for 35 years and will be available next year for $150,000 (£95,000).
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