Technology for the future: 9 thoughts about the future of technology that will transform our world
If you’re a fan or it is, technology is constantly progressing, and bringing forth new innovations and innovative projects every year. The most brilliant minds are working on the next piece of technology that will transform the way we live. It’s not easy to believe that technological advancement is on the rise, but we’ve been through an era of massive technological advancement in the past half century.
There are technological advances occurring right now that look directly from the pages of science fiction. For instance, robots that read minds and AI that can make images of its own or holograms, bionic eyes or any other mind-blowing technology There is plenty to look forward to from the world of the future technology. Below, we’ve compiled a list of some of the most significant and most intriguing concepts.
Artificial eyes
The bionic eye has been a staple of the science fiction genre for years but the reality of research is starting to catch up to far-sighted storytellers. A variety of new technologies are being developed to can restore vision to those suffering from various types of impairment to vision.
In the month of January, 2021 Israeli doctors implanted first artificial cornea in an 78-year old blind bilateral man. When the bandages were taken off and the patient was able to recognize family members and read them immediately. Implants also fuse naturally with human tissue without the body of the patient rejecting it.
Also in 2020 Belgian experts developed an artificial retina that can be fitted to contact lenses with smart sensors to correct various visual issues. Researchers are researching wireless brain implants that can bypass the eyes completely.
Scientists from Montash University in Australia are testing the use of glasses that are fitted with cameras. This transmits data straight to an implant which is located on the top of the brain. It gives the user a minimal sense of vision.
Energy storing bricks
Scientists have discovered a way to store energy within red bricks used in the construction of houses.
Researchers at Washington University in St Louis located situated in Missouri, US, have created a technique that can convert the basic and readily available construction material “smart bricks” which can be used to store energy as a battery.
Although the study is in the process of proving the concept .The scientists believe that walls constructed from these bricks could hold a significant volume of electricity and “be recharged thousands of times in one hour”.
Researchers have developed a method to convert red bricks to an energy storage device, called supercapacitors.
This was done by putting a conducting coating, referred to as Pedot on the bricks and then it sank through the bricks’ porous structure, and converted them into “energy storage electrodes“.
Iron oxide, the red pigment used in bricks, assisted in the process, researchers noted.
Smartwatches powered by sweat
Engineers from University of Glasgow. University of Glasgow have developed the novel type of supercapacitor with a flexible design which conserves energy and replaces electrolytes in traditional batteries by sweat.
It is able to be fully charged using only 20 microlitres of liquid and is durable enough to endure four hundred cycles of bends and flexes that it will encounter during its the course of its use.
The device operates by coating polyester cellulose with a thin layer of polymer that acts as the electrode for the supercapacitor.
The cloth absorbs sweating user’s sweat, the negative and negative ions that are present in sweat interact with polymer’s surface. This causes an electrochemical reaction, which produces energy.
“Conventional batteries are more affordable and more readily available than before, but they are usually made of unsustainable materials that can be harmful to environmental health,” states Prof. Ravinder Dahiya who is the head of the Bendable Electronics and Sensing Technologies (Best) group, which is based in the university of Glasgow’s James Watt School of Engineering.
“That makes them difficult disposal, and could be harmful to wearable devices, in which a damaged battery can leak toxic fluids onto the skin.
“What we’ve managed accomplish to the first time in history is demonstrate that human sweat offers an opportunity to get rid of the harmful materials completely which is backed by a superior charging and discharge performance.
Self-healing ‘living concrete’
Scientists have created the concept of living concrete using gel, sand and bacteria.
Researchers found that this building material is structurally load-bearing, is capable of self-healing and is also more environmentally green than concrete, which is the second most consumed material on Earth following water.
The team at The University of Colorado Boulder believe their research will pave the way for the future construction of structures which could “heal themselves of cracks,” remove harmful toxins out of the air, or even glow upon command”.
Living robots
Small hybrid robots created using stem cells from embryos of frogs could eventually be utilized to travel around human bodies to certain areas that require medical attention or to find microplastics in the oceans.
“These are new living machines,” said Joshua Bongard an researcher in computer science and robotics specialist from the University of Vermont, who created the milli-metre-wide bots called xenobots.
“They’re not a typical robot or an established animal species. It’s a novel type of artefacts, an intelligent, living organism.”
Internet for everyone
It’s impossible to live in a world without internet (how other than to browse sciencefocus.com? ) Yet, just a small fraction of the world’s population has internet access. There are many reasons behind this that can be attributed to social and economic motives, but for a few it’s simply due to the fact that they don’t have a connection.
Google is in the process of trying to resolve the issue by with balloons filled with helium to transmit internet data to areas that are not accessible, but Facebook has put aside plans to achieve similar things using drones. This means that companies such as Hiber are taking over a market. They’ve taken the opposite approach, and launched their own shoebox-sized network of satellites into the low Earth orbit. These satellites are able to wake up a modem connected into your device or computer after it has flies by and transmits your data.
Their satellites orbit Earth 16 times per day and are being utilized by organizations such as The British Antarctic Survey to offer internet connectivity to the most remote areas of our globe.
Learn more about the future of technological developments:
- Dude I’m flying, where’s my car? 11 new technologies that we’re waiting for
- A new and exciting green technology for the future
- Future technology The most exciting new technologies coming from CES 2022
Forest fires are drowned in the sound
The forest fires may one day be controlled by drones that send loud sounds at nearby trees. Since sound is comprised by pressure wave, it could be employed to disrupt the air around a flame and cut the oxygen supply for the fire. When the frequency is right the fire will simply die out, as scientists at George Mason University in Virginia recently proved with their extinguisher that sonic. Evidently, the frequencies of bass are the most effective.
Car batteries that are charged within 10 minutes
The speed of charging for electric vehicles is believed to be the key to their growth as a result, which is why motorists can go to a station to completely charge their vehicle within the time it takes to have a coffee or take a bathroom break – which will take less than a standard break.
However, rapid charging of lithium-ion batteries could damage the batteries, scientists of Penn State University in the US declare. This is due to the flow of lithium particles, also known as ions between electrodes to the next to charge the battery and ensure that the energy is ready for use , does not occur smoothly when charging at lower temperatures.
But, they have discovered that if batteries were able to heat up to 60 degrees Celsius for just 10 minutes after that, rapidly cool back to normal temperatures, lithium spikes would not develop as well as heat damages could be prevented.
The battery concept they’ve created is self-heating. It is made up of an extremely thin nickel foil, which produces an electric circuit which heats within less than thirty seconds, thereby warming up the inside of the battery. The fast cooling that will be required once the battery has been charged will be accomplished with the cooling system built for the vehicle.
Artificial neurons in silicon chips
Scientists have discovered a method to connect artificial neural cells to silicon chips that mimic the neurons that make up our nervous system, and then copying their electrical characteristics.
“Until this point, neurons have been just black boxes however, we have been able to open the box, and look into the inside of it,” said Professor Alain Nogaret of Bath University. University of Bath, who directed the research.
“Our work is revolutionary because it offers a reliable method of reproducing the electrical properties of neurons in a minute-level details.
“But it’s much more than that because our neurons require only 140 nanowatts of energy. That’s one billionth of the power required by microprocessors that others who have attempted to construct synthetic neurons have utilized.
Researchers are hoping that their research could be applied to implantable medical devices to help treat diseases like heart failure and Alzheimer’s because it requires so only a tiny amount of power.