Name :- Dobaria Achyut Vijaykumar

Enrollnment no:- 194510316008

Branch:- IT(Diploma)
Future technology: 17 Ideas about
to change our world
I am put together a list of some of the most exciting advances in future
technology that will change our world. Whether it’s improving health,
solving food shortages or just making virtual reality even better, these 17
ideas are sure to amaze you.
1
Artificial eyes look to the future

Bionic eyes have been a mainstay of science fiction for decades, but now
real-world research is beginning to catch up with far-sighted storytellers. A
raft of technologies is coming to market that restore sight to people with
different kinds of vision impairment.

In January 2021, Israeli surgeons implanted the world’s first artificial

cornea into a bilaterally blind, 78-year-old man. When his bandages were
removed, the patient could read and recognise family members
immediately. The implant also fuses naturally to human tissue without the
recipient’s body rejecting it.

Likewise in 2020, Belgian scientists developed an artificial iris fitted to

smart contact lenses that correct a number of vision disorders. And
scientists are even working on wireless brain implants that bypass the
eyes altogether.

Researchers at Montash University in Australia are working on trials for a

system whereby users wear a pair of glasses fitted with a camera. This
sends data directly to the implant, which sits on the surface of the brain
and gives the user a rudimentary sense of sight.
2
Flying cars

5 YEARS AWAY – You wait 50 years for a flying car, and then three come
along at once.

First up is Vahana: an Airbus project to develop battery-powered, single-

seater aircraft, designed to follow predetermined routes, only deviating to
avoid collisions. Swivelling rotors on the wings will let it take off and land
without a runway. Prototypes should be flying by the end of 2017.

Second, Dubai recently announced plans to test autonomous air taxis as a

way to beat the UAE’s notorious traffic jams. The Volocopter is an electric
multi-copter with 18 rotors and a fully autonomous control system. It’s
essentially a scaled-up drone with two seats and up to 30 minutes of flying
time.

But if you want something more like the airborne cars of 1950s sci-fi
(or whatever we were dreaming up back in the good old days), try Urban
Aeronautics’ Fancraft. The Israel-based company wants to fulfil the dream
of “an aircraft that looks like the classic vision of a flying car: doesn’t have
a wing, doesn’t have an exposed rotor, and can fly precisely from point to
point,” says Janina Frankel-Yoeli, Urban Aeronautics’ vice president of
marketing.

Earlier flying cars needed runways to take off and land which was, as
Frankel-Yoeli says, “not much better than owning a car and an aircraft.” To
go from point to point requires vertical take-off and landing, but for
decades that could only be done by helicopters or larger aircraft. Urban
Aeronautics’ solution is to use light but powerful engines, lightweight
composite materials, and automated flight controls. Their ducted fan
design – propellers housed in aerodynamic tubes – is powerful but
unstable, so the Fancraft would be challenging for a human to fly unaided.
Instead, computer-aided control tech takes over the tiny, split-second
adjustments required to keep the car stable at speeds of 160km/h
(100mph) or more.

But don’t put down a deposit yet. The main obstacle to a sky full of flying
cars is regulation. Not only will every aircraft need to pass stringent safety
tests, but a new system of air traffic control will be needed to cope with
three-dimensional traffic jams above unwitting pedestrians. NASA is
already working on that – tests have shown that multiple unmanned aerial
vehicles (UAVs) can communicate with each other to avoid collisions. In
the meantime, flying cars will mainly be reserved for emergency services
and a few VIPs.
3
Airports for drones and flying taxis

Our congested cities are in desperate need of a breather and relief may
come from the air as opposed to the roads. Plans for a different kind of
transport hub – one for delivery drones and electric air-taxis – are
becoming a reality, with the first Urban Air Port receiving funding from the
UK government.

It’s being built in Coventry. The hub will be a pilot scheme and hopefully a
proof of concept for the company behind it. Powered completely off-grid
by a hydrogen generator, the idea is to remove the need for as many
delivery vans and personal cars on our roads, replacing them with a clean
alternative in the form of a new type of small aircraft, with designs being
developed by Huyundai and Airbus, amongst others.

Infrastructure is going to be important. Organisations like the Civil Aviation

Authority are looking into the establishment of air corridors that might link
a city centre with a local airport or distribution centre.
4
Energy storing bricks

Scientists have found a way to store energy in the red bricks that are used
to build houses.

Researchers led by Washington University in St Louis, in Missouri, US, have

developed a method that can turn the cheap and widely available building
material into “smart bricks” that can store energy like a battery.

Although the research is still in the proof-of-concept stage, the scientists

claim that walls made of these bricks “could store a substantial amount of
energy” and can “be recharged hundreds of thousands of times within an
hour”.

Red brick device developed by chemists at Washington University in St.

Louis lights up a green light-emitting diode © D’Arcy laboratory/
Washington University in St. Louis
The researchers developed a method to convert red bricks into a type of
energy storage device called a supercapacitor.
This involved putting a conducting coating, known as Pedot, onto brick
samples, which then seeped through the fired bricks’ porous structure,
converting them into “energy storing electrodes”.

Iron oxide, which is the red pigment in the bricks, helped with the process,
the researchers said.
5
Robotic guide dogs

A student at Loughborough University has designed a “robotic guide dog”

that will help support visually impaired people who are unable to house a
real animal.

The product, designed by Anthony Camu, replicates the functions of a

guide dog as well as programming quick and safe routes to destinations
using real-time data.

Theia, named after the titan goddess of sight, is a portable and

concealable handheld device that guides users through outdoor
environments and large indoor spaces with very little input.

Using a special control moment gyroscope (CMG), Theia moves users’

hands and physically “leads” them – much like holding the brace of a guide
dog.

The device is designed to process real-time online data, such as traffic

density (pedestrians and cars) and weather, to guide users accurately and
safely to their destinations.

It will have a fail-safe procedure for high-risk scenarios, such as crossing

busy roads – pushing the user back into a “manual mode”, similar to using
a cane.
6
Sweat powered smartwatches

Engineers at the University of Glasgow have developed a new type of

flexible supercapacitor, which stores energy, replacing the electrolytes
found in conventional batteries with sweat.

It can be fully charged with as little as 20 microlitres of fluid and is robust

enough to survive 4,000 cycles of the types of flexes and bends it might
encounter in use.

The device works by coating polyester cellulose cloth in a thin layer of a

polymer, which acts as the supercapacitor’s electrode.

As the cloth absorbs its wearer’s sweat, the positive and negative ions in
the sweat interact with the polymer’s surface, creating an electrochemical
reaction which generates energy.“Conventional batteries are cheaper and
more plentiful than ever before but they are often built using
unsustainable materials which are harmful to the environment,”
says Professor Ravinder Dahiya, head of the Bendable Electronics and
Sensing Technologies (Best) group, based at the University of Glasgow’s
James Watt School of Engineering.

“That makes them challenging to dispose of safely and potentially harmful

in wearable devices, where a broken battery could spill toxic fluids on to
skin. “What we’ve been able to do for the first time is show that human
sweat provides a real opportunity to do away with those toxic materials
entirely, with excellent charging and discharging performance.
7
Self-healing ‘living concrete’

Bacteria growing and mineralising in the sand-hydrogel structure ©

Colorado University Boulder/PA
Scientists have developed what they call living concrete by using sand, gel
and bacteria.

Researchers said this building material has structural load-bearing

function, is capable of self-healing and is more environmentally friendly
than concrete – which is the second most-consumed material on Earth
after water.

The team from the University of Colorado Boulder believe their work
paves the way for future building structures that could “heal their own
cracks, suck up dangerous toxins from the air or even glow on command”.
8
Living robots

© Douglas Blackiston/Tufts University/PA

Tiny hybrid robots made using stem cells from frog embryos could one
day be used to swim around human bodies to specific areas requiring
medicine, or to gather microplastic in the oceans.

“These are novel living machines,” said Joshua Bongard, a computer

scientist and robotics expert at the University of Vermont, who co-
developed the millimetre-wide bots, known as xenobots.

“They’re neither a traditional robot nor a known species of animal. It’s a

new class of artefact: a living, programmable organism.
9
Tactile virtual reality

Researchers from Northwestern University have developed a prototype

device which aims to put touch within VR’s reach, using a flexible material
fitted with tiny vibrating components that can be attached to skin.

The system, known as epidermal VR, could be useful in other cases as well,
from a child touching a display relaying the gesture to a family member
located elsewhere, to helping people with amputations renew their sense
of touch.

In gaming, it could alert players when a strike occurs on the corresponding

body part of the game character.

The team’s design features 32 vibrating actuators on a thin 15cm by 15cm

silicone polymer which sticks on to the skin without tape or straps and is
free of large batteries and wires.

It uses near-field communication (NFC) technology – which is used in many

smartphones for mobile payment today – to transfer the data.

“The result is a thin, lightweight system that can be worn and used without
constraint indefinitely,” says Professor John A Rogers, who worked on the
project.

Scientists hope that the technology could eventually find its way into
clothing, allowing people with prosthetics to wear VR shirts that
communicate touch through their fingertips.
10
Internet for everyone

Hiber microsatellite
We can’t seem to live without the internet (how else would you
read sciencefocus.com?), but still only around half the world’s population
is connected. There are many reasons for this, including economic and
social reasons, but for some the internet just isn’t accessible because they
have no connection.

Google is slowly trying to solve the problem using helium balloons to

beam the internet to inaccessible areas, while Facebook has abandoned
plans to do the same using drones, which means companies like Hiber are
stealing a march. They have taken a different approach by launching their
own network of shoebox-sized microsatellites into low Earth orbit, which
wake up a modem plugged into your computer or device when it flies over
and delivers your data.

Their satellites orbit the Earth 16 times a day and are already being used
by organisations like The British Antarctic Survey to provide internet
access to very extreme of our planet.
11
Heart monitoring T-shirt

Wearable sports bands that measure your heart rate are nothing new, but
as numerous studies have shown, the accuracy can vary wildly (especially
if you rely on them to count calories). In general, that’s fine if you just want
an idea of how hard you’re working out, but for professionals, accuracy is
everything.

Using a single lead ECG printed into the fabric, this new t-shirt from smart
materials company KYMIRA will accurately measure heart beats and
upload them to the cloud via Bluetooth. Once there, algorithms process
the data to accurately detect irregular heartbeats such as arrhythmia
heart beats, which could prove life saving.

And it’s not just athletes who could benefit. “The possibilities this product
offers both sportspeople and the general public is astonishing,” says Tim
Brownstone, CEO and founder of KYMIRA. “We envisage developing this
product to be used for clinical applications to allow those who may
already suffer with heart conditions enough warning of a heart attack.”
12
Drown forest fires in sound

Forest fires could one day be dealt with by drones that would direct loud
noises at the trees below. Since sound is made up of pressure waves, it
can be used to disrupt the air surrounding a fire, essentially cutting off the
supply of oxygen to the fuel. At the right frequency, the fire simply dies
out, as researchers at George Mason University in Virginia recently
demonstrated with their sonic extinguisher. Apparently, bass frequencies
work best.
13
The AI scientist

Cut off a flatworm’s head, and it’ll grow a new one. Cut it in half, and you’ll
have two new worms. Fire some radiation at it, and it’ll repair itself.
Scientists have wanted to work out the mechanisms involved for some
time, but the secret has eluded them. Enter an AI coded at Tufts
University, Massachusetts. By analysing and simulating countless
scenarios, the computer was able to solve the mystery of the flatworm’s
regeneration in just 42 hours. In the end it produced a comprehensive
model of how the flatworm’s genes allow it to regenerate.

Although humans still need to feed the AI with information, the machine
in this experiment was able to create a new, abstract theory
independently – a huge step towards the development of a conscious
computer, and potentially a landmark step in the way we carry out
research.
14
Car batteries that charge in 10 minutes

This picture shows a fast-charging battery invented by Chao-Yang Wang

Group © Chao-Yang Wang Group

Fast-charging of electric vehicles is seen as key to their take-up, so

motorists can stop at a service station and fully charge their car in the
time it takes to get a coffee and use the toilet – taking no longer than a
conventional break.

But rapid charging of lithium-ion batteries can degrade the batteries,

researchers at Penn State University in the US say. This is because the flow
of lithium particles known as ions from one electrode to another to charge
the unit and hold the energy ready for use does not happen smoothly with
rapid charging at lower temperatures.

However, they have now found that if the batteries could heat to 60°C for
just 10 minutes and then rapidly cool again to ambient
temperatures, lithium spikes would not form and heat damage would be
avoided.

The battery design they have come up with is self-heating, using a thin
nickel foil which creates an electrical circuit that heats in less than 30
seconds to warm the inside of the battery. The rapid cooling that would be
needed after the battery is charged would be done using the cooling
system designed into the car.

Their study, published in the journal Joule, showed they could fully charge
an electrical vehicle in 10 minutes.
15
Self-driving trucks

We’ve almost got used to the idea of driverless cars before we’ve even
seen one on the roads. The truth is, you might well see a lot more
driverless trucks – after all, logistics make the world go round. They’ll be
cheaper to run than regular rigs, driving more smoothly and so using less
fuel. Computers never get tired or need comfort breaks, so they’ll run
longer routes. And they could drive in convoys, nose-to-tail, to minimise
wind resistance.

Companies like Mercedes and Peloton are already exploring these

possibilities, and if the promised gains materialise, freight companies
could upgrade entire fleets overnight. On the downside, it could put
drivers instantly out of work, and even staff at the truck stops set up to
service them, but many companies have said the trucks will still need a
human passenger to ensure their cargo is safe.
16
Artificial neurons on silicon chips

One of the artificial neurons in its protective casing on a fingertip ©

University of Bath/PA
Scientists have found a way to attach artificial neurons onto silicon chips,
mimicking the neurons in our nervous system and copying their electrical
properties.

“Until now neurons have been like black boxes, but we have managed to
open the black box and peer inside,” said Professor Alain Nogaret, from
the University of Bath, who led the project.

“Our work is paradigm-changing because it provides a robust method to

reproduce the electrical properties of real neurons in minute detail.

“But it’s wider than that, because our neurons only need 140 nanowatts of
power. That’s a billionth the power requirement of a microprocessor,
which other attempts to make synthetic neurons have used.

Researchers hope their work could be used in medical implants to treat

conditions such as heart failure and Alzheimer’s as it requires so little
power.
17
Floating farms

The UN predicts there will be two billion more people in the world by
2050, creating a demand for 70 per cent more food. By that time, 80 per
cent of us will be living in cities, and most food we eat in urban areas is
brought in. So farms moored on the sea or inland lakes close to cities
would certainly reduce food miles.

But how would they work? A design by architect Javier Ponce of Forward
Thinking Architecture shows a 24m-tall, three-tiered structure with solar
panels on top to provide energy. The middle tier grows a variety of veg
over an area of 51,000m2, using not soil but nutrients in liquid. These
nutrients and plant matter would drop into the bottom layer to feed fish,
which are farmed in an enclosed space.

A single Smart Floating Farm measuring 350 x 200m would produce an

estimated 8.1 tonnes of vegetables and 1.7 tonnes of fish a year. The units
are designed to bolt together, which is handy since we’ll need a lot of
them: Dubai, for instance, imports 11,000 tonnes of fruit and veg every
day.