Trying to predict which future technological developments will become commonplace is a bit like trying to predict the weather. Sometimes you get it right, other times you’re completely wrong.

Many of the technologies that will find their way into our daily lives are just beginning their long journey through the R&D labs of the world’s technology giants. Some will fall by the wayside, but others will eventually become products that could profoundly affect our lives in the distant and not too distant future. Here are 10 technologies to keep an eye on.

Human 2.0
News that an artificial pancreas has been developed, which could help millions of diabetes patients, is only the tip of the iceberg as far as augmentation of the human body goes. We can already grow skin, cartilage, bone, ears and bladders.

Preventative medicine is also looking at technology as a means of identifying problems long before symptoms appear. The Verichip is an implantable RFID (radio frequency identification) physiological monitoring chip that’s already here, but expect this kind of technology to develop rapidly as a diagnosis tool over the next decade.

Research is under way to construct a ‘spray on’ nano-computer that would consist of particles that could be sprayed onto a patient to monitor heart rate for instance, communicating wirelessly to other machines.Amputees are also gaining from the latest robotic technology as demonstrated when the world’s first ‘bionic woman’ showed her new replacement prosthetic arm, developed by the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.

Links www.verichipcorp.comwww.ric.org/bionic

Quantum computers
Quantum computers are so different from the PCs we know, it’s hard to get your head around how they work, let alone what impact they could have on our society. Traditional computers all use a system of switches that can be either on or off.

Quantum computers are different in that they can be in both of these states at the same time – it’s called superposition, and the ‘switches’ are referred to as quantum bits or qubits. This ability to be in two states at the same time is what makes quantum computers so fast.

Qubits operate through what is called a quantum gate, which causes them to change their state. The bit that bends the mind is that each element of the superposition states is said to exist in two different universes. The quantum computer works on the problem in parallel in each universe until an answer is presented.

No-one will put a date on when a working quantum computer will appear, but it’s likely that some form of rudimentary system will be built by around 2020. Several new avenues of research are being looked at, including ‘liquid computing’. Another promising technology is ‘quantum dots’, which traps a single electron in a cage of atoms.http://tinyurl.com/y5akgk

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