All in one Communication.....

We are entering in a new age where communication is taking another format. We are in a era where communication is not the TV, Radio, Internet, Magazine or other thing. The future of communication will be everything together in just one thing. Mobile phone. Today you can do everything in its phone. With the mobile you can talk with your costumer any time anywhere. Location is not the problem. There is one statistic that shows in 2012 the number of people using mobile in the world will be 50%. Companies like Nokia and Apple saw the opportunity in this trend to increase your results. There is one sector in Nokia called insight and innovation. They search new social potential of mobile technology and trends in mobile design. They developed the Nokia lifeblog, a digital photo album tool designed with mobile phone photographers and bloggers in mind, and Nokia Sensor, a spontaneous, sociable application - for spontaneous, sociable people. Sensor is a totally new way of communicating with people within your vicinity, for example in cafés, get-togethers, buses and trains. No matter where you are, connect and communicate with other Sensor users around you and widen your social circle. With Sensor you can create your own personal pages - called a folio - on your phone. You can also check out the folios of other Sensor users nearby, exchange messages, and share files.

Apple created the I-phone with a revolutionary design and including all your computer programs. The mobile phone is a mix of I-pod and Mac book. You can download music, movies and TV shows from i-tunes direct for your I-phone.

Many companies in Japan saw the opportunity to use the mobile phone as a way to pay the public transportation. Other companies are creating partnership with other sector to offer discounts in some stores. For example in Europe if you walk with your Bluetooth on, you have a huge chance to receive a SMS with discount in some Mc Donald’s. Now all mobiles phone are coming with GPS system and this make this kind of communication easy to do. In Brazil a Health Care company use the SMS to communicate with its brokers. The company sends a message showing how much money the broker has to receive after he sells a health plan. Now the company is searching a new way to communicate with the doctors by the mobile. We are just in the beginning of this new kind of communication, many things will be discovered but now is the time to start using this technology as a way of marketing action.

Trend.....

Welcome. Here you will see all about New Ideas and Trends. Stop...Look...Reflect... and make your own Conclusion..


Trend is... What people do...Trend is the future... trend is the present...Trend is the past...Trend is second... Trend is minute...Trend will be tropical... Trend will be chilly...Trend dosen't exist if we don't create...Trend is what you see...Trend at this time..Trend in one day..Trend in the sunset...Trend will involve passion... Will future be a trend?...Trend will catch you...Ohh my god.Is this a trend?...You will catch a Trend...Trend will be???The next Trend will be repeated...Trend exist...Trend in anywhere...What is Trend?...Trend has many eyes...Trend could be stupid...Trend is a journey...Hey What's up Trend?...Trend will nock your door...If you see a Trend don't be in panic...Trend is nature...Trend is water...Trend in one word...Trend is the world...Trend is funny...Trend is gorgeous...Trend is a hit...Trend is air...Trend is waiting...Trend is time...Trend is money...TREND in the near future!

Samsung SDI unveils 31-inch organic display screen

Samsung says it has developed a 31-inch ultra-thin organic screen, raising the stakes in an accelerating worldwide race for organic displays.

Reuters SEOUL - South Korean display screen maker Samsung SDI Co said on Thursday it had developed a 31-inch ultra-thin organic screen, raising the stakes in an accelerating worldwide race for organic displays.

Samsung SDI's announcement comes after Sony Corp began sales of 11-inch OLED TVs in November. The Japanese company has showcased a 27-inch prototype OLED TV in the past.

Flat screen makers are increasingly looking at active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AM-OLED) as a growth driver because they produce brighter images and use less power.

Samsung SDI officials declined to say when the company's 31-inch OLED screen would be mass-produced, saying the decision depended on TV set makers' plans.

But they said Samsung Electronics, the world's largest maker of liquid crystal display (LCD) TVs, would showcase a 31-inch prototype TV set at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in early January.

Samsung SDI is also planning to mass-produce 14-inch screens in 2008, Yoo Eui-jin, head of Samsung SDI's AM-OLED team, said at a press conference introducing the display.

Although Yoo declined to name the companies that would use the AM-OLED screens, he said a number of companies had expressed interest.

Samsung SDI said its 31-inch module is only 4.3 mm thick, or one-tenth of a typical liquid crystal display panel, and consumed less than half the electricity needed for a 32-inch LCD screen.

Samsung SDI also said the lifespan of its display was 35,000 hours, the best performance among existing AM-OLEDs.

While small AM-OLED displays are already in use on premium mobile phones and media players, large-sized models are particularly difficult and costly to make. Shipments of Sony's 11-inch OLED TVs have been limited to 2,000 units per month.

LG Introduces New R200 Notebook PC

LG has enhanced its notebook range in the innovative series with the launch of R200 notebook India's first notebook PC with a revolutionary 2.5-inch auxiliary LCD display on the top. The company will now increasingly focus on introducing more such technology products frequently.

The R200 is targeted at the high-end home segment and boasts of aspirational looks and innovative technology. The notebook sports a functional innovation called Sideshow, which provides the unparalleled convenience of enjoying slideshow, listening to music, and even access windows mail without actually booting the system. It has an original piano black design with aesthetic red touch sensitive buttons on glossy black background, which gives it a stylish look. You can now play the hottest new games featuring DirectX 10 and also enjoy the ultimate HD movie experience with easy-to-carry mobility.

According to Mr. R. Manikandan, Business Group Head, IT Division, "We strive to create new and innovative products that allow people to give the customer delight. We at LG believe that R200 model laptop will revolutionize the way people perceive technology."

The R200 has a unique and easy interface in the form of 2.5" LCD window at the top panel of Notebook as an Auxiliary which gives an in instant access to wide range of data stored in R200. It also supports the latest audio technology for cinema quality sound and enhanced virtual surround sound.

Price and Availability: The R200 is available in the market for the consumers at a price tag of Rs. 79,990/-

17 Easy Ways for Teens to Go Green

Youth Will Inherit the Future, and Are Often Eager to Make a Difference. Here's How.

Today's teens are more wired up, plugged in, worldly and savvy than ever. Many care deeply about the threats facing our environment, and are committed to making difference. But it's not always easy to know exactly what to do. Here are some suggestions to get started.

• 1. When You're Done Surfing and IMing, Turn Off. If you shut your machine off before bedtime, you'll save an average of $90 worth of electricity a year — tell your parents that, and ask for a raise in your allowance! If you must leave your computer on, tell it to go into "sleep" or "hibernate" mode, which saves power. Save even more juice by unplugging your computer (or flip the switch on a surge protector) to stop the "phantom load" problem.
• 2. Put Together a Cool Vintage Outfit. Impress your friends with your fab style sense when you show up to a party in a vintage Betsey Johnson number (you can find gently used clothing for a steal at thrift stores and garage sales). Go glam by raiding your parents' closet for 1970s and '80s pants, vests and jackets.
• 3. Instead of Insisting on Driving, Catch the School Bus. No, it may not be as cool as driving yourself, but it is a lot safer, according to the National Academies of Science and Engineering. Buses are also much more fuel efficient than cars, saving gas and lowering emissions that cause global warming.
• 4. Get Involved! Most schools have environment or Earth Day clubs, so give them a chance! It's a great way to meet nice people, and you can learn so much from your peers. Many clubs convince their schools to recycle, start a garden or hold an Earth Day fair.
• 5. Turn Off the Lights Behind You. Remember that riddle about the tree falling in the forest when no one is around? Well, why leave a light on when no one is around? It's just plain waste. Your parents may even bug you about it because they have to pay the energy bills, and they know lighting accounts for an average of 11% of that total.
• 6. Join the "Virtual March." Founded by eco-warrior Laurie David, Senator John McCain and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Stop Global Warming Virtual March is a Web-based effort to bring people together to take a stand against climate change. So far nearly 900,000 people have joined up to demand that our leaders begin reducing carbon dioxide emissions now.
• 7. Help Lose the Litter. Littering is a blight on our landscape that chokes wildlife and releases toxic chemicals when it breaks down. Plus it's just plain ugly! Many neighborhoods hold regular cleanups, so volunteer! It's an easy way to get some exercise while making a difference and meeting new people.
• 8. Go Veggie Once Per Week. The commercial meat industry takes a huge toll on our environment. It takes 4.8 pounds of grain (fed to cattle) to produce one pound of beef, as opposed to serving those grains directly to hungry people. One pound of wheat can be grown with 60 pounds of water, but a pound of red meat requires 2,500 to 6,000 pounds of water. In a world where water, land and energy are premiums, making a small cutback in the meat you eat is healthy for the planet, as well as your body.
• 9. Instead of Buying Bottled Water, Get a Refill. Ever see an empty water bottle tossed by the side of the road? Less than 20% of those single-use containers make it to the recycling bin. They also waste fuel for shipping — water is heavy! Get a cool metal bottle instead and fill it up when you're thirsty, and cut down on the expense and waste.
• 10. Get a New Shampoo — and Make It Natural! Typical drugstore shampoos can have some pretty scary-sounding chemicals in them (just look at the labels!), but why take the risk of putting all those lab compounds on your sensitive scalp? Lots of companies make more natural shampoos from plant extracts and even organically certified ingredients. They smell great, and are less toxic to make.
• 11. Download (Legally!) the Latest Album from an Eco-friendly Star. John Mayer. KT Tunstall. Dave Matthews Band. Kanye West. A number of today's hottest musicians are also going green in big ways, by running tour buses on clean-burning biodiesel and recycling all their show waste. Do your part by buying music online, which cuts out waste from shipping and all those CDs and cases.
• 12. Ask Potential Colleges About Their Eco-Practices and/or Check Out a "Green Collar Career." College can be the best time of your life, but you don't want to be dragged down by a school that doesn't get your green values. Fortunately, many colleges are leading the way with exciting recycling and reuse programs and even eco-friendly dorms! Whether you seek higher ed or not, think about a career that makes a positive difference: not just park rangers, but also teachers, government workers, organizers and media.
• 13. Buy a Comfy Organic Cotton T-Shirt. Cotton is one of the most pesticide-intensive crops, and millions of gallons of toxic residue runs off cotton fields into rivers and lakes, poisoning wildlife. Plus, why put something that had been treated in harsh chemicals so near your skin? Organic cotton is now widely available (from H&M to Wal-Mart to boutiques), in the cutest styles and graphics.
• 14. Take Friends and/or Family to See The 11th Hour. Leonardo DiCaprio's recent doc is a heavy hitter, but it's also inspiring and gorgeous. It just may be the push to get your dad to start recycling his papers, or your friend to stop littering. And it's pretty entertaining.
• 15. Make Your Next Cup of Coffee Organic and Fair Trade. Coffee may pep you up, but it may have been grown under chemical-intensive conditions that destroy rainforest and poison poor workers. Organic means no industrial chemicals are used, and fair trade means growers are given incentives to protect local forest and tend plots sustainably. They are paid a decent living wage, so you can feel proud about what you're buying.
• 16. Earn Great Grades (Mother Nature Needs Smart People to Help Protect Her). Sure, you've heard it a million times before: it pays to stay in school. Here's one more reason: human population, and consumption rates, continue to swell, while habitat for wildlife shrinks. Global warming, ozone damage and acid rain are scary stuff. Humankind can right a lot of our wrongs and invent new technology to live lighter on the Earth, but it will take a lot of smarts.
• 17. Green Your Boyfriend or Girlfriend. Everyone knows that a significant other can influence our behavior in major ways. So way not encourage your honey to cut down on unnecessary trips, turn the water off while brushing his/her teeth and other common-sense tips? You'll grow closer together as you share in protecting the Earth.

Mobile Phone of the Future

It is always fun to talk about feature-packed gadgets. As 2007 starts lets take a look at the future of mobile phones. A recent BusinessWeek report presents some interesting views about mobile technology and its drivers. Also see some other interesting futuristic slides here, Nokia’s aeon concept phonebased on Wibree protocol and Google’s idea of a free mobile phone with ads.

So lets put together a wish list of an ideal phone / gadget of the future … music, high resoultion pictures and video, chat, speech-to-text, unified messaging, games, organizer, browser with intelligent alerts, e-commerce capable, location-aware (GPS) - did I miss anything? Oh yes these gadgets have to be reliable (no crashes please), light weight with much better battery technology (it tops the wish list in surveys worldwide) and it has to be “cool”. Another desirable feature is if your phone could keep your information secure in case of theft or loss - or better yet - somehow fights against snatching or stealing.

As BW article aptly puts it: “Ultrafast networks and whizzy features are about to turn your cellphone into—well, your right arm”. The article notes that:

The term “cell phone” certainly doesn’t do justice to today’s polymorphous handset used by early adopters in Korea and Japan. Two of the networks this phone may soon run on–Wi-Fi and WiMAX–don’t even use cell towers. That’s why Motorola Chief Executive Ed Zander refers to such gizmos, his own phones included, as “the device formerly known as the cell phone.”

Nokia now calls its Nseries of smart phones “multimedia computers.” Samsung has settled on the term “mobile information terminal” for its most phone-like products. Two relatively new technologies may be crucial to putting the mobile device on equal footing with the PC. Wimax and IMS. I think both of these deserve a few posts of their own so I won’t go in details here.

BusinessWeek puts in some words of wisdom by mentioning what happened a few years ago:

If some of this sounds familiar, it’s because the ideas go back to the early days of the dot-com boom. PocketTV and location-based marketing were two recurring themes of the telecom bubble that culminated about five years ago in frothy European auctions of “third-generation” wireless spectrum. Carriers dropped tens of billions of dollars at these auctions, expecting mobile commerce to explode. But neither the hardware nor the clever applications were ready for prime time.

It goes on to say that much has changed in five short years. For starters, wireless carriers and handset makers have made progress on hardware and software standards. That makes it easier to roll out applications involving text, voice, music, and video and have them work seamlessly with any device, whether it’s the slim Motorola Razr or Samsung’s Q1 Ultra Mobile PC.

Future is in Asia

It is well-known that South Korea and Japan have emerged as oracles of mobility. According to the BW article more than 3 million Koreans regularly use their mobile phones to log on to the giant Cyworld social networking site. Both Japan and Korea are starting to roll out speedy WiMAX data networks that can deliver wireless broadband access to entire cities.

The two countries were among the first to initiate walletless payments such as at the train station. That’s being tested now on the New York City subway and on San Francisco’s Bay Area Rapid Transit network, as well as at McDonald’s and in some grocery stores. Watching Korea and Japan “is like looking into a crystal ball” to see where the U.S. is headed, says David Meredith, senior vice-president of security company VeriSign whose technology helps protect such payments. Credit card companies like VISA have also realized this trend are jumping in to support mobile commerce.

The BusinessWeek article gives much of the credit for these shifts to the “Thumb Generation,” the twenty- and thirtysomethings who grew up with game controllers and cell phones glued to their hands. People like 21 year old Park in Korea think nothing of spending $100 a month for phone-based services ranging from talk and instant messaging to mobile satellite TV, games, and e-books.

Location based services are another field where innovative services are being offered. For instance Loopt is a service which combines mapping software with global-positioning technology and proprietary code to send out alerts when a friend in your opt-in personal network is nearby. With Loopt, you also can view photo diaries of your friends’ lives, “chirp” them with the push-to-talk feature on certain phones, and display maps that show where your friends have gathered.

New technology may clear some of the bottlenecks. High-speed data networks finally are delivering Web connections to the cell phone with speeds that rival DSL at home. This could lead to a virtuous circle: As network speeds improve, the Gang of Five handset manufacturers–Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, and LG –take a risk and build higher-end digital cameras, music players, and recording devices into their handsets knowing that consumers will find it easier to share content from their phones. At the same time, the handset makers are adding chips that not only help you figure out where you are but also allow others to find you and possibly sell something to you. Mobile Advertisement, will it be big or become another hyped feature?

There’s so much which can be added here. Lets check back in six months to see what has happened in this fast changing world of mobile phones.

The Mobile History

The future is hard to predict, and trying is asking to be proved wrong.

So here goes...

Growth

The biggest and most obvious change is the rapid take-up of mobile phones. Twelve years ago, they were only for the wealthy, and had a "yuppie" image. Seven years ago they were still rare. Now there are more mobile phones than households in the UK, and numbers are still growing fast.

We are approaching the time when it will be considered unusual not to have a mobile phone. Projections suggest that the majority of voice calls will be mobile-mobile within a few years, and fixed lines will mostly be used for data connections. The logic is clear: why would you phone a building when you want to speak to a person?

New costs

All this depends on pricing, of course. HSCSD was booming on Orange, then they changed the pricing structure. The cost of calling a mobile phone from a fixed phone is prohibitive to many people. A small marketing decision to alter charges can have a big effect on how services are used.

SMS text messaging has become the communication medium of choice for many in their teens and twenties, despite the very high cost, and is the only really new form of communication to have emerged in decades.

New services

As price competition forces margins down, the mobile networks are moving to offer additional services to increase revenue and customer commitment. Internet access, information by SMS and WAP and services such as Orange's Wildfire are applications for existing technology, but provide new services. We have HSCSD and GPRS (giving faster data speeds), though priced rather too high for widespread use. Just arriving are mobile videophones, built in PDAs and email clients, and probably much more than that, following from 3G networks being launched.

New technologies

Mobile phones are evolving fast. Today's latest handset model is new for just a few weeks, and obsolete in a few months. The network technologies used are moving on as fast.

The next generation of mobile phone systems has reached the point where the five UK licences for the "third generation" (3G) frequencies have fetched over £20,000,000,000 for a 20 year allocation. This new Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) network will offer much faster data access, more capacity and more. It is likely that it will supplant some of what we have taken as the work of fixed-line phones, as well as mobile phones. However, the huge price paid for the licenses suggests that these facilities won't come cheap!

Cell Phone: The Past, the Present and the Future

You are on your way out of your home. Suddenly, you turn around and dash inside. You left something you definitely can't go out without! Is it your wallet? Well, that may top the list, but what comes next is indisputable - your cell phone.

MOst adults nowadays have a cell phone. This is one of the needs that the modern world now has. And with all of the innovations that now flood the market, sometimes you are dazzled at how far the cell phone technology has gone.

The cell phone could be traced as far back as 1947 when the researchers observed the use of car phones. So, technically speaking, the crudest form of cell phone was the first mobile car phone. And in a way, a cell phone is much like a two-way radio. In the past, there was a massive community of mobile radio users who sort of popularized the technology that would give birth to the modern cell phone.

Back then, these researchers thought that they could develop a more 'mobile' phone by the use of small cells but The Federal Communications Commission would not free the airwaves - yet. AT&T wanted to develop the technology but FCC limited the frequencies. The development of cell phones had to be shelved.

It was not until 1968 that the FCC reconsidered everything. They proposed a challenge that when a mobile phone system that really works is introduced, then they would increase the allocation of frequencies. It did work and the rest, as the saying goes, is history.

Although the history of the cell phone could be attested to this, perhaps the first known inventor of a mobile handset was Dr. Martin Cooper. Cooper worked for Motorola as a General Manager for the Systems Division and was able to develop the cell phone technology along with this colleagues Richard W. Dronsuth, Albert J. Mikulski, Charles N. Lynk, Jr., James J. Mikulski, John F. Mitchell, Roy A. Richardson and John A. Sangster.

Although it is Dr Cooper who is widely recognized for fathering the cell phone usage, it wasn't entirely an original idea of his. His rival, Joel Engel who was then the head of the researches at AT&T Bell Labs was the first to develop the electronic components of cellular technology.

It was in 1973 that the first cell phone call was made. Despite the demand for this type of technology, it took 37 years before the United States had commercial availability. By 1987, there was a bottleneck of communication. The users were simply too numerous for the existing allowed frequencies.

There are 3 known generations to the cellular technology:

The First Generation - the first mobile phone to make contact was the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. This was a development from the same phone that Dr Cooper used to make the historical 'first cell phone call'. It was in the 1980's that cell phones made use of networks with several closely located base stations. Analog systems were then used. Back then, mobile phones were more like 'car phones' basing on the size and the use of the gadgets. Not long after, these car phones were designed to fit a carrier the size of a briefcase. This innovation made the phones become more ‘mobile'.

The Second Generation - the second wave presented the introduction of GSM cell phones. The very first digital cell phone was introduced in the United States in 1990. Europe followed with the establishment of a digital network in 1991.

The Third Generation - or what is popularly called the 3G. This paved the way for the development of such technologies as live streams of television and radio feeds. These are just two of the many known developments that we have today.

Now that you know where your cell phone originated from and what it can offer you now, the next thing to know would probably be the future. It is currently predicted that by the year 2010, wirelines will be near extinction and cell phones will take over. Another forecast is that overseas calls would be uninterrupted and that would be made possible by the massive development on reception and areas of coverage. And guess what? You might be able to operate your dishwasher in the future with the use of your cell phone!

The possibilities are endless. This is not only true with cell phones but all other forms of technology as well. With the gifted minds that are always turning impossible to possible, the future will surely be a much better and more exciting place to live in!

Innovation Into Action This 2008

March 2008 sees a brand new event set up to attract scouts and potential investors with the opportunity to discover new products, ideas and technologies, to meet developers and to make deals, as Cardiff hosts Innovation into Action at the National Cricket Centre, Sophia Gardens on March 10 and 11.

Wales is a land of innovation, and delegates will have access to over 70 mainly Welsh exhibitors who will gather to showcase their ideas, many for the first time, as we discover the commercial potential of a range of products from high to low tech. A key feature of the two day event will be the innovation brokerage, with pre-arranged one-to-one sessions for potential deal making.

Innovation into Action is the brainchild of the Welsh Assembly Government, and allows exhibitors the chance to showcase their wares to an audience of investors, venture capitalists, business angels, technology scouts, distributors and retailers, giving businesses the opportunity to engage in partnerships and strike deals that can bring bright ideas to market.

Phil Allen, Senior Programmes Manager with the Welsh Assembly Government said: "With Innovation into Action, we are gathering together the professionals who are able to turn new products, ideas and technologies into viable business propositions and we are confident that effective collaborations will emerge from it. We'll start the event in 2008 with mainly Welsh-based opportunities, but we hope to expand in future years to offer a showcase to big ideas from across the UK."

Big ideas such as LaddaLimpet® invented by Ian Menelaus - an award winning, easy-to-use ladder stabiliser which prevents ladders from slipping, twisting or moving sideways. And Snorekil, a simple, effective and user-friendly device that puts an end to sleep disruption due to snoring. Snorekil was invented by Paul Cattell, a dental technician with 35 years experience, and developed by North Wales based Sleepworks Products and their bright idea has recently scooped the 2007 MediWales Innovation Startup Award.

With half of the UK population snoring, this causes significant disruption to them and their bedfellows. Necessity really is the mother of invention in this case, and Snorekil's low cost, over-the-counter solution, which requires no surgical treatment or special fitting, is a great idea that has benefited from the expertise of the Welsh Assembly Government to bring it to market.

As with many of the ideas on show in March, inventor Paul Cattell was supported by the Wales Innovators Network (WIN), who have been showcasing Snorekil at various awards and exhibitions, including medal-winning appearances at the Geneva International Exhibition of Inventions, and the British Invention Show in London. In January they will explore the potential market in the Middle East with an appearance at the Arab Health Exhibition with International Business Wales.

Paul says: "I am very grateful for the help we have had from the Welsh Assembly Government - it has really jump started our success and provided us with incredible contacts and connections for the future."

LCD Projector Cell Phone

According to The Korea Times, we can expect projector embedded cell phones as early as next April. Created by Iljin Display, the Single LCD Panel technology should be able to project up to a seven inch full-color screen. The LCD panel itself is only .24” wide, and is able to operate on just one panel (as opposed to the standard three panels found in older technology) by switching rapidly between the three necessary colors: red, green, and blue. Iljin Display is already working with Korean manufactures Samsung and LG Electronics.

Siemens researchers have developed a cell phone featuring a built-in projector system. A laboratory model was presented at CeBIT 2005 in Hanover. The system makes it possible to project a complete keypad or display onto a surface. With a special pen, users can write on the virtual keypad and operate the phone’s functions.


At first glance, the mobile phone looks exactly like a conventional cell phone. On the side of the housing there is a swivel bracket that holds the projector unit. The light source is a tiny semiconductor laser that emits monochrome light to project a real-time image of the display. Depending on the position of the bracket, the image can be projected onto a surface in front of the phone or onto a wall. The projector system can even be used to give presentations and slide shows for small groups.

The pen for writing and telephoning is kept in the side of the bracket and features a built-in microphone and speaker. The signals are transmitted via Bluetooth. A distance sensor recognizes when a user is holding the pen to his or her ear and automatically reduces the volume. To write with the virtual keypad, the user simply “types” with the pen on the projected image. Sophisticated sensor technology recognizes the pen’s position in real time.

To obtain this measurement, the researchers from Siemens Communications use a combination of ultrasound and infrared. The pen point continuously sends infrared flashes to a sensor in the phone's housing, and these flashes form the basis for the starting point of the measurements. The pen point simultaneously emits ultrasound signals that are registered at two locations in the housing. A software then determines the exact position of the pen based on the time difference between the two signals.


The demonstration model isn’t a fully functional cell phone yet. At CeBIT, a laptop was used to handle the telephone functions. It hasn’t yet been decided whether Siemens will further develop this technology and launch a mobile phone equipped with this system on the market.

Body and Mind

The Riddle of Einstein's Brain


Dr Martin Brookes

No-one doubts the genius of Einstein. Together with Mozart, Newton, Copernicus and Shakespeare, he's been granted the accolade that history reserves for just the special few. But what exactly do we mean by 'genius'. Like the theory of relativity, it's one of those concepts that everyone seems familiar with, but few can pin down. How do you identify a genius? Are their brains different? Are they born or bred? The Victorians, 150 years ago, believed you could tell a genius by feeling the head. Today, scientists probe the inside of the head for answers, but despite their best efforts hard facts remain elusive. Do geniuses actually exist then or are their achievements just a fluke of circumstance? Is the whole concept just a man-made construct?

Recipe for genius

Some people equate genius with a supercharged IQ. But high IQ turns out to be a weak predictor of groundbreaking accomplishment in life. Academic achievement is also an unreliable guide. While it's true that Einstein excelled at mathematics, physics and music, the school records of other so-called geniuses are often far less impressive.

Genius, it seems, demands the expression of qualities often denied by traditional schooling and intelligence tests. Though exceptional ability may be a key ingredient, you must also throw courage and creativity into the mix. Top that off with a talent for visualising problems from new and original angles, and you may be getting somewhere towards that elusive formula.

But there seems to be no single recipe for genius. Instead, it manifests itself in various forms and flavours. Take the case of the award-winning musician Tony DeBlois, for instance. DeBlois is outstanding by anyone's standards. He can play 20 instruments and has an astonishing 8000 songs committed to memory. He also suffers from a rare form of autism known as savant syndrome, in which an exceptional ability in one area is often matched by a corresponding deficiency in another. The condition was made famous in the 1988 Hollywood film, Rain Man, in which Dustin Hoffman played a man blessed with extraordinary mathematical abilities but weak language and comprehension skills.

Search for hallmarks

The idea that genius manifests itself in a measurable physical form is not a new one. In the 19th century, the pseudoscience of phrenology was drawing all sorts of extravagant conclusions based on nothing more sophisticated than a gentle head massage. Essentially a cerebral version of palm-reading, phrenology was built on the idea that a person's character could be divined through the shape of their head and the bumps that covered its surface.

The Victorian polymath Francis Galton spent much of his life looking for the hallmark of genius. This search led to his own groundbreaking work in anthropology, psychology and the study of human fingerprints. Galton, of course, had a vested interest in his quest. As the founder of the eugenics movement he was looking for a biological barcode that could distinguish the good breeding stock from the bad. While Galton was ultimately unsuccessful in his search, he did give genius a statistical face when he became the first person to use the bell curve to describe the variation in human intelligence.

Fellow Victorian Paul Broca, a French anthropologist, did much to popularise the idea that big brains and big skulls go hand in hand with greater intelligence. But Broca's work seemed fuelled by racism and bigotry as much as hard science.

After the atrocities of the Second World War, the search for a physical stamp of genius went cold, and only recently has it been revived. A 1994 study of healthy adult females showed a weak but significant correlation between brain volume and IQ scores. Einstein's brain, however, is no bigger than normal. Weighing in at 1230 grammes, it turns out to be slightly below the average weight of 1400 grammes.

Predicting Future Timeline Upto 2100 Quite Interesting

The future looks ever more exciting each year. Technology development is
still accelerating and an increasing number of new fields are being created
and exploding new ideas onto the market.

The future is a hard to predict but here at BTexact we have always believed
that inventing the future is the best way to create it. One thing is
certain in the distant future - the world will be a very different place.
One tool we produce to help alleviate uncertainty about the future is our
BTexact technology timeline. Paul McIlroy produced the first timeline in
1991 and it has been updated about once every two or three years. This is
the 5th edition, and the biggest yet. A new editor Ian Neild has joined me
on this edition and brought a welcome freshness to the timeline.

The timeline is produced mainly to give BT researchers and managers a view
of what the operating environment is likely to contain at any future date,
so that our products and services can be better targeted to the needs of the
customer. But we have also found that many people outside the company find
it useful too, so we always try to make it as free of technical jargon as
possible. What must be remembered by anyone preparing for the future is that
technology change isn't very important in itself.What matters is what this
change enables or destroys.

Timeline targets include our business customers, government, media and many
private individuals. Extracts of previous versions have appeared in numerous
books.

Several sources of information are used for the timeline. The largest single
source is the previous edition, where most of the entries are still in the
future and still valid.We have only had to change a few of the dates, which
we hope is an indication that we were guessing well. Many items from our
last edition have happened on cue, and have therefore been removed, but many
more new developments have come into view that weren't so obvious last time
round.We obtain these new entries from industry journals and bulletins,
scouring the Internet, chatting to experts, and some just by relaxing and
thinking about the future. The arguments that the timeline has produced in
the past have often proved to be useful to us and we hope that this will
have the same affect on you.

Experience has shown us that telecomms and computing industry companies see
the future in quite different terms, so this time we are grateful to Jeff
Harrow, formerly of Compaq, whose newsletters have provide us with a view
from the computing industry and a number of the new entries.

We have also modified and extended the 'wildcard' section, based on John
Petersen's excellent work in his book 'Out of the Blue'. Although wildcards
are defined as events that can happen at almost any time, for most there is
a date before which they couldn't happen, since their mechanisms do not yet
exist.We have estimated the dates at which each wildcard becomes feasible.We
have also changed the focus of this to illustrate the acceleration of the
downside of the technology development. Each new technology brings many
benefits but also has a price. It is clear from this section that we are
rapidly inventing new ways of destroying ourselves, and that the risk to
mankind is increasing exponentially. Of course, the far future is much
harder to imagine than the near future, so the number of dangerous
technologies listed actually drops off in our list after a couple of
decades, but we could reasonably assume that by the time we get there, we
will be able to see many more potential dangers. Such a trend is cause for
concern. Even though the problems are mostly soluble by even more advanced
technologies, there will generally be a time lag between a problem arising
and a solution being implemented, so the overall risk still increases with
time. Technology timeline

However, the intention of the timeline as always is to illustrate the
potential lying ahead for beneficial technologies. Not all will be
successful in the marketplace. Some won't ever be implemented at all, but as
the rest come on stream, our lives will improve in many ways.We will have
more variety of entertainment, better health, greater wealth, and probably
better social wellbeing. We will have more time saving devices and
ultrasmart computers will do most of our admin, but the future world will
offer so much more opportunity to be productively and socially busy that we
will have even less free time than today! If we think of this as living life
to the full rather than in terms of stress, then the future looks good.

We hope you enjoy reading our timeline as much as we enjoyed producing it.

Ian Pearson Ian Neild
email: ian.d.pearson@bt.com email: ian.neild@bt.com

Artificial Inteligence & Artificial Life

AI doctors 2001
Virus aimed at toys released 2002
Chat show hosted by robot 2003
Computer agent personal shoppers 2003
First synthetic (but organic) life form 2003
Domestic appliances with remote (networked) intelligence 2003
Smart Barbie insists on allowance for clothes and accessories 2003
Real time language translation 2004
Toys with network based intelligence 2004
Confessions to AI priest 2004
AI teachers in school 2004
Action man toys engage in war games over networks 2004
Security Barbie used for locating lost offspring 2004
Shopping Barbie acts as personal shopper for children 2004
Machine use of common sense inference 2005
Behaviour alarms based on human mistake mechanisms 2005
Computers that write most of their own software 2005
Intelligent robotic pets 2005
AI chatbots indistinguishable from people by 95 % of population 2005
First artificial electronic life 2006
First organism brought back from extinction 2006
Software trained rather than written? 2006
Domestic appliances with personality and talking head interface 2007
Systems to understand text and drawings (e.g. patent information) 2007
People have some virtual friends but don't know which ones 2007
AI students 2007
AI models used extensively in business management 2010
Artificial Nervous System for autonomous robots 2010
Highest earning celebrity is synthetic 2010
Smart Barbie with personality chip and full sensory input 2010
AI houses which react to occupants 2010
25 % of TV celebrities synthetic 2010
Expert systems surpass human learning and logic abilities 2011
Most software written by machine 2011
Home manager computer 2011
Machine use of human-like memorising, recognising, learning 2012
Computer agents start being thought of as colleagues instead of
tools 2013
Satellite location devices implanted into pets 2015
Office Automation systems using functions similar to brain functions
2015
Machine use of human-like creativity 2015
Leisure activities for intelligent software entities released 2015
Human knowledge exceeded by machine knowledge 2017
Electronic pets outnumber organic pets 2020
Electronic life form given basic rights 2020
Artificial insects and small animals with artificial brains 2020
Remote control devices built into pets 2020
Ubiquitous embedded intelligence 2020
Virus wipes out half of the electronic pet population 2021
Learning superseded by transparent interface to smart computer 2025
Robots physically and mentally superior to humans 2030
Living genetically engineered Furby (TM, Tiger Electronics) 2040

Biotechnology, health & medical

Electronic implants used to stimulate muscles in disabled people 2001
Complete genome sequence of 5 individuals 2003
Kitchen food tester that identifies presence of food poisoning
bacteria 2003
Smart pills with chip dispensing drugs 2003
Instant electronic diagnosis of illnesses 2004
Retinal implants linked to external video cameras 2004
Telepresence extensively used in rural clinics 2004
Brief human suspended animation 2005
Determination of whole human DNA base sequence 2005
Electronic patient records become valuable data mines 2005
Electronic prescriptions reduce fraud and improve speed 2005
Synthetic retinal implants for simple vision 2005
Designer babies 2005
All patients tagged in hospitals 2005
Expert systems used extensively in GP surgeries 2008
Hospitals use virtual queuing systems 2008
Neural networks used for patient appointment management 2008
Artificial heart (lab-cultured or entirely synthetic) 2010
Devices roaming within blood vessels under own power 2010
Multimedia patient records 2010
Genetic screening widely used 2010
Lifestyle monitoring and insurance linked to medical records 2010
Operations videoed and stored as part of medical record 2010
Use of human's own tissues to grow replacement organs 2010
Widespread genetic intervention programmes for animals and plants 2010
Direct electronic pleasure production 2010
Online surgeries dominate first line medical care 2010
Orgasm by email 2010
Quiz shows screen for implant technologies 2010
Artificial senses, sensors directly stimulating nerves 2012
Some implants seen as status symbols 2012
Fine particle beam gene engineering 2013
Shower body scan 2015
Artificial kidneys 2015
Artificial lungs 2015
Custom (GM) foods for particular medical conditions 2015
Gene-gel stimulation of regrowth of natural teeth on demand 2015
Genetic links of all 90% of diseases identified 2015
Individual's genome part of their medical record 2015
Artificial brain cells 2017
Artificial liver 2020
Electronic memory enhancement 2020
Many new forms of plants and animals from genetic engineering 2020
Only 15% of deaths worldwide due to infectious diseases 2020
Nanobots in toothpaste attack plaque 2020
Fully functioning artificial eyes 2024
Artificial brain implants 2025
Artificial peripheral nerves 2025
Genetic, chemical and physiological bases of human behaviour
understood 2025
Artificial legs 2025
Intelligence enhancement by external means 2030
First Bionic Olympics 2030
Brain 'add-ons' 2033
Artificial brain 2035

Business & education

Pull advertising dominates over push 2003
Half of government services delivered electronically 2005
Paperless working (at least internally) the norm in most UK business
2005
Products widely customised 2005
85% of American management personnel are knowledge workers 2005
80% of US homes have PCs 2005
3rd world teleworkers with clockwork PCs and LEO satellite
communications 2005
Virtual reality used to teach science, geography, art and history 2005
Widespread use of virtual reality for education and recreation 2005
B2B market worth $8.5 Tn 2005
Nomadic information companies paying no corporation tax 2006
Activators make any household object 2006
Lifestyle brands dominate 2007
Network based learning causes polarisation in classes - streaming is
essential 2007
Global classes used for multicultural immersion 2007
All government services delivered electronically 2008
Universal monitoring of business transactions 2008
Email used to communicate with most social service claimants 2008
Inter-business financial transactions all electronic 2010
Virtual companies and virtual co-operatives dominate 2010
Superstar teachers use telepresence to lecture to dispersed classes 2010
Personalised degrees quantised to individual lectures 2010
95% of people in advanced nation computer literate 2010
Telematics market hits $50Bn 2010
AI Entity passes GCSE 2010
AI Entity passes A Level 2011
Purely electronic companies exist - minimal human involvement 2012
AI Entity gains Degree 2013
AI companies illegally cloned 2013
Academic learning is argued to be unnecessary in the age of smart
machines 2013
AI Entity gains Masters Degree 2014
Spread of nomadic information companies leads to global taxation 2015
Integrated taxation in all transactions 2015
More people using telework centres than home working 2015
Telework centres double as community resources 2015
Police force privatised in many nations 2015
AI Entity gains PhD 2016
AI teachers get better results than most human teachers 2017
AI Entity awarded Nobel Prize 2018
Less than 10% of UK workforce in manufacturing 2020
AI Entity sets up higher level prize 2020
Learning superseded by transparent interface to smart computers 2025

Demographics

Asia-Pacific overtakes US in internet users 2005
Worldwide deaths due to HIV/AIDS peak at 1.7 million 2006
Less than 20% of UK workforce in manufacturing 2010
25% of UK workforce teleworking at least 2 days a week 2010
World population reaches 7 billion 2011
India population hits 1.2 billion 2015
population growth slows to 1% (1.3% today) 2015
400M people live in megacities of over 10M inhabitants 2015
China GDP overtakes EU GDP 2015
Retirement age raised to 70 2020
60% of the world's population living in cities 2025
70 million over 65s in USA (20%) with 9 million over 85s 2030
3Bn people water stressed (<1700 cu m per capita per year) 2030
3.5 Bn people water stressed (400M in 2001) 2040
1.42 billion over 65s in the world 2050
World population reaches 10 billion 2065

Displays

1.5m flat screens for ’2000 2002
Personal display tablets for TV, magazines etc. 2002
Holographic animated or video advertisements (few second video
clips) 2003
Roaming displays (accepting input from many different mobile
sources) 2003
Net access using touch sensitive displays in kitchen white goods 2003
Cybersphere 'holodeck', using giant 'hamster ball' on air bearings 2003
Displays with image quality comparable to paper 2004
Polymer screen advertising billboards 2005
Video walls - single screens 2m across 2005
Personalised adverts on TV and Radio 2005
Voice control of many household gadgets 2005
Separate volume controls for different people in room 2010
3D TV without need for special glasses 2012
Holographic displays for continuous video 2015
3D video conferencing 2015
Holodecks using box room lined completely with polymer screens 2018
Use of free space holograms to convey 3D images 2020
Holographic TV 2025

Energy

Large area amorphous solar cells with efficiency > 20% 2001
Home fuel cell based 7kW generator 2001
LiMnO2 batteries with 200Ah/kg storage 2002
Solar chimney power station (1.5km tall) 2004
Clothes collect and store solar power 2005
Most portables powered by fuel cells 2005
Multi layer solar cells with efficiency over 50% 2008
Button sized gas turbine generators for portable device power 2010
Solar reflector satellites bringing sunlight to major Northern
cities 2010
Nuclear power plants supply 16% of energy in Russia and Eastern
Europe 2010
Worldwide energy consumption 50% greater than 1993 2010
Commercial magma power stations 2012
Catalytic water decomposition by sunlight 2015
Seabed gas hydrate crystals used as fuel source 2015
Worldwide oil consumption is 100M barrels of oil per day 2015
Systems based on biochemical storage of solar energy 2020
Space solar power stations 2030
Wave energy providing up to 50% of UK requirements 2040
Use of nuclear fusion as power source 2040

Environment & countryside

Satellite policing of farming subsidies 2003
Totally managed world logistics systems 2005
Complete list of 1.5 million known species available on web 2005
Growth of scientific environmentalism 2005
Rural databases for animals and crops 2005
Effective management of the organic environment 2005
New engineered organisms used to produce chemicals 2005
Virtual farming co-operatives 2007
Extensive remote sensing use in environmental management 2010
Effective prediction of most natural disasters 2010
Out-sourced vegetable plots 2010
All domestic animals tagged 2010
Landfills in London and surrounding region full 2012
Insect-like robots used for crop pollination 2012
Deep underground cities in Japan 2020
30% of world's arable land will be salty 2020
Widespread use of sensors in the countryside 2020
70% of landfills in USA full 2025
Carbon dioxide fixation technologies for environment protection 2030
Artificial precipitation induction & control 2035
Global environmental management corporations 2040
Another 10% of the world's forests lost 2050
50% of world's arable land will be salty 2050
Ozone hole disappears 2050
Between 15 and 95cm rise in sea level 2100

Home & office

Positioning sound at any point in space 2001
Doorstep videophone allowing remote interaction with callers 2001
Electronic notebook with contrast as good as paper 2002
Electronic paintings 2003
Chips on food packaging tell when food is at its best 2003
Devices registered in homes and won't work if stolen 2003
Hydraulic chair for VR games 2003
Garden audio systems 2004
Smart paint available (contains chips) 2004
3d fax 2005
Video photo frames 2005
Fibre optic plants in gardens 2005
Video tiles 2005
Emotional objects, switches etc around home 2007
Digital bathroom mirror 2008
Magazine tablets 2008
Electronic newspapers 2008
Personalised response from household gadgets 2008
Mood sensitive light bulbs 2010
Anti-noise technology built into homes 2010
Homes made in prefabricated modules 2010
Electronic wallpaper 2010
Chips in packaging control cooking 2010
Neighbourhood video surveillance networks 2010
Washing machine aware of contents and selects cycle 2010
Domestic positioning systems 2012
Kitchen rage caused by electronic gadgets 2013
Electronic response based on conversational inference 2013
Windows with holographic coatings to re-direct sunlight 2015
Virtual windows 2015
Nanotechnology toys 2015
Robotic plant care with health monitoring chips on plants 2015
Traditional pubs using technology to enhance illusion of tradition 2015
Kaleidoscopic windows using OLEDs 2015
Air quality monitoring in homes 2018
Kaleidoscopic flowers using electronic inks 2020
Patio display panels and slabs to simulate beach 2020
Insect sized robots banned in gardens due to effects on wildlife 2020
Anti noise technology in gardens 2020
3D home printers 2020
Nanotechnology plants 2025

Life & leisure in a cyberspace world

Hybrid rollercoasters using real and virtual effects 2001
Automatic music composition in any style 2002
Software Lego (Individual bricks contain software objects) 2002
Use of talking head technology for conferencing 2002
Avatar cosmetic surgery 2003
Cyberspace make-up 2003
Various forms of electronic addiction 2003
People have cyberspace wardrobe 2004
Frequent use of multiple Net identities causes personality disorders
2005
Cheap miniature cameras cause social backlash 2005
Plane zorbing, jumping out of planes in inflatables 2005
Toy soldiers with video camera eyes enrich play 2005
Theatres gain extra revenue by allowing internet attendance 2005
Living area use of virtual reality scenes 2005
Conferencing technology for remote socialising in public places 2005
1Bn internet users 2005
People reduce tax liability by being partially paid in information
products 2007
On line voting in UK 2007
Net chat sites insist on proof of identity 2008
Replacement of people leads to anti-technology subculture 2008
Automated real life highlight channels on digital TV 2008
VR overlays on real world 2008
Video surveillance of neighbours becomes social problem 2010
Government introduce legislation to protect local community IP 2010
Loneliness in aged population greatly reduced by network communities
2010
National UK decisions influenced by electronic referenda 2010
Worldwide population of over 65s increases by 1 million monthly 2010
Cybercommunity with 100 million people 2010
Make-up by numbers 2010
Social software, organising functions etc 2010
Holodeck' meeting room 2010
1st Xtreme Olympics 2012
Shadow democracy used in community networks 2012
Orgasmatron 2012
VR escapism is a major social problem 2015
Dual geo/cyber-nationality recognised internationally 2015
Use of virtual environments for proxy space exploration 2015
Most towns echoed in cyberspace 2016
Major pensions crisis 2019
Digital bore filter technology 2020
Emotion transmission and conversion (feel love or anger) 2020
Digital image overlays enhance relationships 2020
Global voting on some issues 2024
Network based telepathy 2025
Creation of The Matrix 2025
VR extensively used in retirement homes 2025
Restricted capability home genetic engineering kits 2030
Experience recording 2035
Real' toy soldiers using nanotechnology 2035

Machine input/output

Robotic kitten interface 2002
One chip, multi-speaker voice recognition 2002
Air mouse and air typing 2003
Tactile sensors comparable to human sensation 2004
Odour and flavour sensors comparable to human 2005
Full voice interaction with machine 2005
Voice synthesis quality up to human standard 2005
Talking head technology used in public terminals 2005
TV internet users overtakes computer-based users 2005
emotionally responsive toys and robots 2006
Smelly telly using chips with small reservoirs of chemicals 2010
Voice interface for home appliances 2010
Highly integrated biosensors 2017
Biosensors capable of processing information 2008
Computer link to biological sensory organs 2018
Odour and flavour sensors comparable to dog 2020
Thought recognition as everyday input means 2025
Full direct brain link 2030

Materials & electronic devices

1cm inertial accelerometers built into electronic devices 2002
Optical inter-chip connection 2002
All polymer flexible integrated circuits 2002
Spherical silicon integrated circuits 2003
Number of PCs sold, 160 Million 2003
Chips with clock speed of 10GHz 2003
Polymers with lower resistance than copper at room temperature 2005
Composite materials based on carbon nanotubes 2005
Semiconductor devices based on 0.01 micron technology 2005
Integrated logic devices with switching speed below 1 picosecond 2005
1Bn Bluetooth devices worldwide 2005
Material with refractive index variable by 0.1 in electric or
magnetic field 2007
Self organising adaptive integrated circuits 2007
Chips with 1 billion transistors 2009
Use of polymer gels for muscles, bioreactors, information processing
2010
Quantum effect interferometer for flux measurement 2010
Use of carbon fullerenes for on chip interconnect 2010
Molecular sized switches 2010
Chips with 10 billion transistors 2013
Atomic customisation of materials 2015
Intelligent materials with sensors, storage and effectors 2015
Use of nanotechnology 2015
Single electron technology devices 2015
Membranes with active transport and receptors 2017
Chips with 100 billion transistors 2018
Materials exhibiting superconductivity at room temperature 2020
Smart skin for intelligent clothing and direct human repair 2020
Manufacture of long diamond fibres 2020

Processing, memory and storage

200GByte hard drives 2002
Disposable Paper Cellphone ($10) 2002
Room temperature reconfigurable molecular switch 2002
22 hours of CD quality audio on a CD (MPEG4 format) 2002
Single sheet PC or TV with processing built into display 2002
Notebooks with P4 chips 2002
Use of molecular computing 2003
Integrated circuits on 1mm silicon spheres 2003
Memory with access time of 1 ns 2003
11 terabytes credit card sized storage for $50 2003
37GByte DVD 2004
Holographic storage with 1 terabyte capacity and 1 Gbit/s retrieval
rate 2004
100 TFLOPS computer 2004
200 companies with petabyte storage requirements 2004
Sony GS3 chip, 250M transistors, 2000 bit internal bus,
2.6Gpixels/sec 2004
1terabyte per cu cm storage density 2005
Solid State replacement for CD 2005
IBM Blue Gene computer with 1 petaflops power 2005
ANT based operating system 2005
Retrieval from 1TB database within 10 seconds 2006
10GHz chips 2006
Cell PDA and games machine chip, <0.1 micron, 1TeraFLOPS 2006
Optical neuro-computers 2007
Quantum computer 2007
Computers used for creativity enhancement 2010
Supercomputer as fast as human brain 2010
1 Terabit memory chip 2010
DNA storage device 2010
Optical card storage - replaces CD,VHS, audiotape, magnetic disk 2010
Quantum dot memory using 20nm dots, 50MBytes in a full stop 2010
Supercomputers with speed exceeding 1 ExaFLOPS 2010
Use of analogue co-processors in PCs 2010
MP3 Net downloads dominate over CD distribution 2010
1.8 billion transistor, 30GHz chips, 1TIPS 2010
DNA computer 2012
Desktop computer as fast as human brain 2015
100GB non volatile erasable RAM in few cm square 2015
1 Petabit memory chip 2018
AI technology imitating thinking processes of the brain 2018
Molecular memory with density of 1 TB/sq. cm 2020
Parallel computer with 1000 million processors 2020
National Library of Congress available in sugar cube sized device 2030

Robotics

First Robolympics held in Japan 2001
Electronic fish in aquariums 2001
Robotised space vehicles and facilities 2005
Fractal shape-changing robots 2005
Fire fighting robots that can find and rescue people 2006
Totally automated factories 2007
Autonomous robots with environmental awareness sensors 2008
Anthropomorphic robots used for factory jobs 2008
Robotic security & fire guards 2008
40% of paid workforce will be women (worldwide) 2010
Insect-like robots used in warfare 2010
Robotic dolls and pets account for 10 % of domestic telecomm traffic
2010
Self monitoring infrastructures using smart materials and sensors. 2010
Robots for almost any job in home or hospital 2012
Fleet of garden robots for plant and lawn care and tidying 2014
Housework robots - fetch, carry, clean & tidy, organise etc. 2015
Robots for guiding blind people 2015
Reconfigurable buildings 2015
Cybernetic use in sports 2015
Housework robots for cleaning, washing etc 2016
Self diagnostic self repairing robots 2017
Actuators resembling human muscles 2019
Robotic mail delivery 2020
Robotic exercise companion 2020
Micromechanical gnomes 2020
More robots than people in developed countries 2025
Cybernetic gladiators 2025
Micro-Mechano fractal construction kit 2028

Security, law,war

Automatic hacker detection using pattern matching 2001
Face recognition in public video surveillance systems 2001
Fire detection by odour or vibration 2002
Almost all transmissions encrypted 2003
Peoples courts on internet for minor disputes 2004
Crime and terrorism mainly computer based 2005
Use of quantum cryptography 2005
VR use in courtrooms for evidence 2005
Soldiers weapons fired remotely 2005
War fought over water supply 2005
Cracking of public key cryptography within a few seconds 2006
Data mining use in trials 2007
First net war between cyber-communities 2007
Remote override capability on planes 2007
Logic checkers highlighting contradictory evidence 2008
Household access by facial recognition 2010
Universal ID cards in UK 2010
Jargon translators 2010
Computer advice to jurors on probability issues 2010
Criminal tagging augmented with video and audio sensors 2010
Extensive use of electronics to monitor police behaviour 2010
Most weapons attack systems rather than injure people 2010
Most fighters and bombers flown remotely 2010
Gene dependent weaponry 2010
Attacks based on facilitating natural disasters 2010
Phasers issued to police, using laser/taser hybrid 2012
Automated stenographers 2014
Plastic stealth tank 2015
ID cards replaced by biometric scanning 2015
Emotion control chips used to control criminals 2030
Asteroid diversion used as weapon 2040

Shopping & money

Automatic measurement of body using laser scanning booths in shops 2002
Automated catalogue shopping using Calling Line Identification 2002
Laser body scanning units in clothes shops 2002
Cash badges 2004
Net bring and buy exchanges 2004
Local warehousing for local distribution systems 2004
Shopping lists automatically compiled by supermarkets 2005
Personal shopping tablets 2005
Global electronic currency in use 2005
Paper and coins largely replaced by electronic cash 2007
Shops start being paid by manufacturers as try-on outlets 2007
Electronic cash from internet migrates onto high street 2007
10% of UK shopping is electronic 2008
Personal banking replaced by agents 2012
Global barter sub-economy 2012
Most tickets electronic 2012
In-store positioning systems enable personalised guides 2013
Personal taxation at point of sale 2015
25% of UK shopping is network based 2015

Space

First all woman space crew 2002
Sub-orbital space tourism 2002
Mars robotic aircraft flight celebrating Wright Brothers' 100
anniversary 2003
Supercollider to create and study Higgs Boson completed 2003
X38 'Lifeboats' on international space station 2003
Europa orbiter launch (search for water on Europa) 2003
Cassini reaches Saturn & releases Huygens lander into Titan's
atmosphere 2004
Space tug to take satellites into high orbits 2005
Private space mission to examine asteroid with a view to space
mining 2005
Next generation space telescope launch 2007
Mars lander returns soil samples to Earth 2008
Weapon systems based on Ionespheric heating 2010
Helium 3 mining on moon 2012
First manned mission to Mars 2015
Space hotel for 350 guests, using recycled Shuttle fuel tanks 2015
Near Earth space tours 2015
OWL (Overwhelmingly Large Telescope) completed with 100m mirror 2016
Regular manned missions to Mars 2020
Production, storage and use of antimatter 2025
Space factories for commercial production 2025
Start of construction of manned Mars laboratory 2030
Use of human hibernation in space travel 2030
Moon base the size of small village 2040
Orbiting international space station completed 2003- 2006
Return of Keo satellite 51998

Telecommunications

Cordless home networks using Bluetooth, Piano or Jini 2001
Photonic crystal fibre 2001
Go-anywhere personal numbering 2002
70M European computers connected to Internet 2002
Use of passive picocell 2003
1 billion cellular users worldwide 2003
10 Terabit/s on single fibre 2003
ANT based services 2003
Home intranet 2003
Global terabit network 2003
UMTS launch in U.K. 2003
1 Gbyte optical fibre loop memory 2005
Video download over network at 10 x normal speed 2005
Global broadband fibre based network 2005
ANT based network management 2005
Intranets dominate over Internet 2005
Neighbourhood intranets 2005
1 billion mobile communication devices worldwide 2005
Video surveillance built into phone boxes 2005
60% of internet accesses from mobile devices 2005
50% of traffic on mobile networks will be data 2005
Domestic demand reaches 100Mbit/s per home 2010
90% of calls tetherless 2010
All optic integrated logic, switching below 1 ps 2010
Use of high density wavelength multiplexing for trunk 2010
Use of WDM in local access 2015
Internet achieves 75% penetration in UK 2015
Electronic ATM switches largely obsolete & replaced by photonic
versions 2020
Simultaneous data delivery in the City 2020
Cyberspace covers 75% of developed world 2020

Transport & travel

Intelligent cruise control keeping distance automatically 2001
Automated highway prototype 2002
Intelligent cat's eyes with built in speed cameras 2002
Integrated RTI system 2003
Blimp cargolifters, carrying 160 tonnes, 6000 miles at 60mph 2004
Cars powered by hydrogen fuel cells 2004
Cellular phone locations used in traffic management system 2004
Ships with super conductive electromagnetic thrust 2005
Hydrogen fuelled executive jets (cryoplanes) 2005
Fully automatic ships able to navigate and dock automatically 2005
Assisted lane keeping systems in trucks and buses 2005
Packetised' automatic rail transport systems 2005
Smart tickets for navigation through airports 2005
Superblimp troop carriers 800 x 250ft carrying 500 tons 2006
All new cars fitted with positioning systems as standard 2007
Pollution monitor chips built into cars 2008
Cars with automatic steering 2008
Scramjet' engine powered planes flying at Mach 10 2008
Urban car co-pilot 2010
High Speed Civil Transport supersonic jet, 300 passengers, 1500mph 2010
All new cars fitted with basic cellular comms with automated
distress system 2010
Tourism in some areas limited to net access 2010
GPS and engine management systems linked to limit speed
automatically 2010
Road trains using adhoc networking 2010
Bus routes based on star and ring architectures 2015
Automatic driving makes car pooling feasible 2015
Number of air travellers passes 5 billion 2017
Driverless truck convoys using electronic towbar 2018
Total world travel passes 50 trillion passenger km 2020
Need to book time slots to use some key roads 2020
1 Billion cars worldwide 2025
Total world travel passes 100 trillion passenger km 2050

Wearable technology

Smart clothes that can alter their thermal properties 2001
Emotional jewellery 2002
Audio jewellery 2002
Camera on flexible mounting linked to toolkit headset 2002
Video jewellery 2003
Comm-badge linked to virtual retinal display 2003
Wide range of wearable electronic devices 2003
Virtual retinal displays, glasses based 2003
Folding watch computers 2003
Cameras built into glasses recording what we see 2004
Polymer video screens built into clothes 2005
Emotion badges 2005
Jewellery that changes shape and colour 2005
Portable translation device for simple conversation 2007
Kaleidoscopic clothes using materials with embedded pigment
micro-capsules 2007
Video tattoos 2010
Active contact lens 2010
Alpha-wave induction sets 2012
Micro-actuators built into clothes for sensory feedback from
computers 2012
Thought recognition used in sleep enhancement 2015
Computer enhanced dreaming 2020
Emotion control devices 2025
Dream link technology 2030

Addendum:Wild cards (that could happen almost anytime)

(by Earliest potential occurrence)

Asteroid or comet hits earth BC
Massive solar flare wipes out life on earth BC
Natural evolution of superbug BC
Climatic Instability, Turn For The Worst BC
Extraordinary US West Coast Natural Disaster BC
First Unambiguous Contact with Extraterrestrial Life -- The Arrival
of ETs BC
Human Mutation BC
Ice cap breaks up -- Oceans rise one hundred feet BC
Mass Migrations BC
Return of the Messiah AD
Another Chernobyl 1950
Collapse of the United Nations 1950
Global nuclear war 1960
Environmental pressure causes evolution of superbug 1980
Aids or similarly deadly disease mutates and becomes transmittable
by air 1990
Bugs resistant to all known antibiotics 1990
Rules Change: Economic and/or Environmental "War Criminals" Are
Prosecuted 1995
Terrorists Go Biological 1995
US Economy Fails or collapse of the dollar 1995
Civil nuclear war 2000
Global economic collapse causes mass starvation and conflict 2000
Global civil war 2000
Space exploration creates superbug 2000
Civil War Between Soviet States Goes Nuclear 2000
Collapse of World's Fisheries 2000
Computer/Chip/Operating System Maker Blackmails Country or World 2000
End of Intergenerational Solidarity 2000
Gulf or Jet Stream Shifts Location Permanently 2000
International Financial Collapse 2000
Large-scale lengthy disruption of national electrical supply 2000
Major Break in Alaskan pipeline - Significant ecological damage 2000
Major Chaos in Africa 2000
Nuclear Terrorist Attack on United States or Europe 2000
Rise of an American Dictator 2000
Social breakdown in US or Europe 2000
Stock market crash 2000
Human Cloning Perfected, Human Genetic Engineering Arrives 2002
Accidental creation of lethal organism during research 2005
Antitech backlash destroys systems – chaos and starvation 2005
Deliberate biotech self-destruct by malicious biotech researcher 2005
Major genetic engineering accident 2005
Terrorism rises beyond capability of government systems 2005
Transgenic accident 2005
Encryption Invalidated 2005
Hackers Blackmail Federal Reserve 2005
Biotech terrorist attack goes wrong 2010
Evolved crime destroys human systems 2010
Global civil war between cybernations 2010
Hackers wipe out networks, causing chaos and mass starvation 2010
The hostile arrival of ETs detecting our transmissions 2010
Viruses become immune to all known treatments 2010
End of the Nation State 2010
Foetal Sex Selection Becomes the Norm 2010
Computers and robots become superior to humans 2015
Self-aware machine intelligence 2015
Third world exodus destabilises global system 2015
Computers/Robots think like humans 2015
Collapse of the sperm count 2020
Global epidemic with high speed travel and high population density 2020
Global famine caused by manmade environmental change 2020
Hybrid nanotech-organic creatures 2020
International social collapse - widespread civil conflict 2020
Major information systems disruption 2020
Major technology or science research accident 2020
Rise of a global machine dictator 2020
Total social breakdown in US or Europe 2020
Fuel cells replace internal combustion engines 2020
Life Expectancy Approaches 100 2020
Nanotechnology takes off 2020
Megacities cause global epidemic 2025
Nanotech development by individuals 2025
Nanotechnology accident 2025
Networks become conscious and won't co-operate 2025
Second World Nation Demonstrates Development of Nanotech Weapons 2025
Elimination by smart machines - terminator 2030
Nanotechnology war 2030
Humans access net directly, become an integral part of global
information system. 2030
No-Carbon Economy Worldwide 2030
Creation of Star Trek's Borg 2040
Fatal climatic instability 2040
Global electromagnetic communications disrupted for foreseeable
future 2040
Religious environmentalism destroys environment 2040
Political correctness creates new dark age 2050
Whole generation unable to effectively read, write, think, and work 2050
Human genetic engineering creates hostile super-race 2070
Humans assimilated into net 2075
Invention of elimination phaser 2075
Time travel invented 2075
Faster than light travel 2100
Immortality chip - people move into cyberspace 2100