Afternoon Listers... Thought i would share this with you... Five Innovations that Will Change Our Lives in the Next Five Years Whether it’s rising energy costs, the daily impacts of a more urban and crowded world, or staying in touch with friends in today’s fast-paced society, people around the globe face a unique set of challenges. Within the next five years, though, a host of technologies will provide novel solutions to some of today’s toughest problems. In some cases, these innovations harness existing infrastructures and technologies in clever new ways. In other instances, they provide new approaches to meeting everyday needs. But within the next five years, these innovations will help improve the way the world works. People won’t need to be scientists to save the planet Not everyone is a scientist, but every individual is a walking sensor. In five years, sensors in phones, cars, wallets, and even tweets will collect data that scientists can use to paint a real-time picture of the world. People will be able to contribute this data to fight global warming, save endangered species, or track invasive plants or animals that threaten ecosystems around the world. Making simple observations, such as when the first thaw occurs in a town, available over a network of other computers will give scientists access to bits of data that they never had before. By combining all of this data together, they will make sense of events on a wider scale. For instance, IBM recently patented a technique that enables a system to accurately and precisely conduct analysis of seismic events, such as earthquakes, as well as provide early warnings for tsunamis, which can follow earthquakes. The technique also makes it possible to rapidly measure and analyze the damage zone of an earthquake to help prioritize the emergency response needed. People will have the opportunity to meet their friends in 3-D In the next five years, 3-D interfaces – like those in the movies – will let people see and talk with 3-D holograms of their friends. Movies and TVs are already embracing 3-D, and as 3-D and holographic cameras get more sophisticated and miniaturized to fit into cell phones, people will be able to interact with photos, browse the Web, and chat with friends in entirely new ways. Scientists are working to improve video chat so that it can include holography chat -- or "3-D telepresence." The technique uses light beams scattered from objects and reconstructs a picture of that object, a similar technique to the one the human eye use to visualize its surroundings. But the new opportunities in 3-D will go beyond just chatting with friends. Scientists are working on new techniques of visualizing 3-D data that will let people step inside designs of everything from buildings to software programs or run simulations of how diseases spread across interactive 3-D globes. Batteries will breathe air to power devices In the next five years, scientific advances in transistors and battery technology will allow devices to last about 10 times longer than they do today. Instead of the heavy lithium-ion batteries used today, scientists are working on batteries that use air to react with energy-dense metal. If successful, the result will be a lightweight, powerful and rechargeable battery capable of powering everything from electric cars to consumer devices. Better yet, batteries may disappear altogether in some smaller devices. By rethinking the transistor, the basic building block of electronic devices, IBM is aiming to reduce the amount of energy per transistor to less than 0.5 volts. With energy demands this low, some devices such as mobile phones or e-readers could be charged using energy scavenging, a technique that could make it possible to charge a phone simply by shaking it. Commutes will be personalized Advanced analytics technologies will provide personalized recommendations that get commuters where they need to go in the fastest time. Adaptive traffic systems will intuitively learn the travel patterns and behavior of every individual, proving more customized travel safety and route information than is possible today. By combining predictive analytics with real-time information about current travel congestion from sensors and other data, traffic systems can recommend better ways to get to a destination, such as how to get to a nearby mass transit hub, whether a train is predicted to be on time, and if parking is available at the train station. New systems can learn from regular travel patterns where each individual is likely to go and then integrate all that available data and prediction models to pinpoint the best personalized routes. Computers will help energize cities What if the energy poured into the world's data centers could be recycled for a city's use? The groundwork is already being laid to make this goal a reality. Innovations in computers and data centers are enabling the excessive heat and energy that they give off to do things like heat buildings in the winter and power air conditioning in the summer. Up to 50 percent of the energy consumed by a modern data center goes toward air cooling. Most of the heat is then wasted because it is just dumped into the atmosphere. Using new technologies, such as novel on-chip water-cooling systems, the thermal energy from a cluster of computer processors can be efficiently recycled to provide hot water for an office or houses. For instance, a pilot project in Switzerland involving a computer system fitted with the technology is expected to save up to 30 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year, the equivalent of an 85 percent carbon footprint reduction. These five innovations are based upon market and societal trends expected to transform our lives, as well as emerging technologies from our labs around the world that can make them possible. Kind Regards Maureen Muthua 2nd Floor, Africa Re Center (Embedded image moved to file: pic06922.gif) Territory Hospital Rd, Upper Hill, P.O. Marketing and Box 35475 00200 Communications Manager IBM East Nairobi, KENYA Africa Phone: +254 20 2834 000 Mobile: +254 722 740 884 e-mail: maureenm@ke.ibm.com