Category: Emerging Technologies

The Pondering Primate writes:

Microsoft, using a mobile phone, is actually starting to link objects in the physical world, to the Internet.
…
In the last few months Microsoft has introduced a:
speech recogntion browser
1d barcode scanner
2d barcode scanner
mobile image recognition engine and an
RFID browser

Is Microsoft developing the operating system for the “Internet of Things”?

Business Week writes:

The glimmers of a real metaverse are coming into focus. You can see it in the popular online role-playing game World of Warcraft, which is revolutionizing online games with sophisticated graphics and complex team strategy.

Virtual worlds such as There, Entropia Universe, and Second Life let you create avatars, buildings, and even virtual classrooms and businesses. With Google Earth and Microsoft’s (MSFT) Virtual Earth 3-D, you can transcend the map layout and zoom into satellite-mapped locations around the world.

All these developments have one thing in common: They suggest that before long, the Internet of the future, and the vast wealth of information and services on it, will look different: slicker, more realistic, more interactive and social than anything we experience today through the Web browser.

Technology Review picks 10 for 2007: “Some, such as optical antennas and metamaterials, are fundamental technologies that promise to transform multiple areas, from computing to biology. Our reports on peer-to-peer video, personalized medical monitors, and compressive sensing reveal how well-designed algorithms could save the Internet, simplify and improve medical diagnoses, and revamp digital imaging systems in cameras and medical scanners. Nanohealing and quantum-dot solar power demonstrate the potential of nanotechnology to make a concrete difference in our daily lives by changing the way we treat injuries and helping solar energy deliver on its promises. Precise neuron control could help physicians fine-tune treatments for brain disorders such as depression and Parkinson’s disease. And single-cell analysis could not only revolutionize our understanding of basic biological processes but lead directly to predictive tests that could help doctors treat cancers more effectively. Finally, by combining location sensors and advanced visual algorithms with cell phones, mobile augmented reality technology could make it easier to just figure out where we are.”

News.com writes:

The Internet in 2016 will be an all-encompassing digital playground where people will be immersed in an always-on flood of digital information, whether wandering through physical spaces or diving into virtual worlds.

That was the general picture painted in a draft report obtained by CNET News.com that summarizes the conclusions of several dozen pundits who met at the first Metaverse Roadmap Summit last May to prognosticate the “pathway to the 3D Web.”

Within 10 years, the report suggests, people may wear glasses that record everything around them. They will likely see little distinction between their real-world social lives and their interactions in digital, 3D virtual worlds. And they’ll increasingly turn to services like an enhanced Google Earth that are able to present data on what’s happening anywhere, at any time, as it unfolds.

Paul Kedrosky has a list, via TheDeal.

1) Cellulosic – Mascoma, Celunol, Range Fuels, 1 stealth startup

2) Future Fuels – LS9, Gevo, Amyris Biotechnologies, Coskata Energy

3) Efficiency – Transonic Combustion, GroupIV Semiconductor, 1 stealth startup

4) Homes – Living Homes, Global Homes

5) Natural Gas – Great Point Energy

6) Solar – Stion, Ausra

7) Tools – Nanostellar, Codon Devices, Praj

8) Water – 2 stealth startup

9) Plastic – Segetis, 1 stealth startup

10) Corn/Sugar Fuels – Altra, Cilion, Hawaii Bio

Business 2.0 writes:

Powercast and its first major partner, electronics giant Philips, are set to launch their first device powered by electricity broadcast through the air.

It may sound futuristic, but Powercast’s platform uses nothing more complex than a radio–and is cheap enough for just about any company to incorporate into a product. A transmitter plugs into the wall, and a dime-size receiver (the real innovation, costing about $5 to make) can be embedded into any low-voltage device. The receiver turns radio waves into DC electricity, recharging the device’s battery at a distance of up to 3 feet.

InfoWorld writes:

In what has become an annual Silicon Valley ritual, leading venture capitalists have made their predictions about which technologies will thrive and which will take a dive in the near future.
…
The iPhone will be a hit, but not world changing. The hot Web 2.0 market will cool, or it may keep bubbling. There wasn’t always consensus.

The coming iPhone from Apple, a combination cellphone, music or video player, and Web device, is going to be popular but there is some debate about whether it will dominate the mobile market or just help sales of all device makers.
…
Other predictions debated by the VCs ranged from green technology to the movement of media content and ad revenue online to advancements in biotechnology.

The New York Times writes:

In their new incarnation, cellphones become a sort of digital remote control, as one CBS executive put it. With a wave, the phone can read encoded information on everyday objects and translate that into videos, pictures or text files on its screen.
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The most promising way to link cellphones with physical objects is a new generation of bar codes: square-shaped mosaics of black and white boxes that can hold much more information than traditional bar codes. The cameras on cellphones scan the codes, and then the codes are translated into videos, music or text on the phone screens.

Read/Write Web writes:

Jeff Hawkins made a name for himself in the tech industry as the founder of Palm Computing and inventor of the Palm Pilot. He later founded Handspring, where he invented the Treo. If you were a fan of his work then, you are going to love what Jeff is up to now. He is currently pursuing his life-long passions, neuroscience and intelligence. His latest work made quite a splash a few years ago when he published On Intelligence. In this thin volume Jeff Hawkins elegantly summarized his theory of how the brain gave rise to intelligence. Disputing conventional wisdom that the brain is complex, or that intelligence is inseparable from other human qualities such as emotions, Jeff put forward a proof that human intelligence is a function of the neocortex and that it is temporal in nature.

To prove his theory, Jeff founded Numenta – a company dedicated to developing algorithms and software based on the ideas put forward in the book. This spring Numenta released its first product, an experimental software aimed at researchers and advanced developers which embodies the algorithms and techniques pioneered by Jeff and his crew. Numenta is presenting here at ETech today and so it’s a great opportunity to familiarize you with these exciting new developments. Has the age of Artificial Intelligence arrived?

Stephen Johnston writes about a talk Mark Anderson of SNS delivered at Nokia:

Mark’s 2007 Predictions
1. ePhones: Phones will be used to pay for things
Japan already does this. Nokia has been testing this for years.
“Carriers have been the bottleneck” – but why wouldn’t carriers do this. Qualcomm are investing in startup payments. Carriers are changing their mind about this.
Many technologies, but security clearly the main issue. Authentication is required.

2. Authentication everywhere.
ID theft is so important, that authentication will be required everywhere. Biometric will be big. Voice is one idea, would be great if it does work. Phones could have a bio swipe, and reduce theft – it costs about $9 to install. Could do this in conjunction with insurance companies – never worry about phones being stolen. This then would allow the phone to be used in conjunction with keys for phones. “Phone” is not the right term for what this is – it communicates more with systems than people. 50% increase in data.