As every year the Technology Review has announced the 10 emerging technologies 2008:
- Modeling Surprise
Combining massive quantities of data, insights into human psychology, and machine learning can help humans manage surprising events, says Eric Horvitz. Much of modern life depends on forecasts: where the next hurricane will make landfall, how the stock market will react to falling home prices, who will win the next primary. While existing computer models predict many things fairly accurately, surprises still crop up, and we probably can’t eliminate them.
- Probabilistic Chips
Krishna Palem thinks introducing a little uncertainty into computer chips could extend battery life in mobile devices–and maybe the duration of Moore’s Law, too. - NanoRadio
Alex Zettl’s tiny radios, built from nanotubes, could improve everything from cell phones to medical diagnostics. - Wireless Power
Physicist Marin Soljacic is working toward a world of wireless electricity. - Atomic Magnetometers
John Kitching’s tiny magnetic-field sensors will take MRI where it’s never gone before. - Offline Web Applications
Adobe’s Kevin Lynch believes that computing applications will become more powerful when they take advantage of the browser and the desktop. - Graphene Transistors
A new form of carbon being pioneered by Walter de Heer of Georgia Tech could lead to speedy, compact computer processors. - Connectomics
Jeff Lichtman hopes to elucidate brain development and disease with new technologies that illuminate the tangled web of neural circuits. - Reality Mining
Sandy Pentland is using data gathered by cell phones to learn about human behavior. - Cellulolytic Enzymes
Frances Arnold is designing better enzymes for making biofuels from cellulose.
Credit: Telegraph.co.uk
In my opinion the technology that would change things most is wireless electricity. If I stay in this imagination for a moment I could wax lyrical about it! Just think of your cell phone or laptop battery – you are no longer dependent on it. No more desperate searching for power sockets in coffee houses, at airports or railway stations. A world full of electricity … ok – stop – keep both feets on the ground. The idea is alluring but there is still a long way to go until this technology is suitable for daily use. What about the magnetic resonance radiation – are there noxious effects for example?
However, all the best wishes for Marin Soljacic and his team!
