Future For All - Today's Technology

   Home > What's Now

A Layperson's View of Future Technology and Society   

Future For All

  The Future

 

What's Now?

 

What's Coming?

 

What's Possible?

  The Future Of...

 

Artificial Intelligence

 

Biotechnology

 

The Brain

 

Communication

 

Computers

 

Earth

 

Electronics

 

Energy

 

Home

 

Medicine

 

Nanotechnology

 

Physics

 

Robotics

 

Society

 

Space

 

Transportation

 

Virtual Reality

 More Links

 

About Us

 

Contact Us

 

Using content
from this site

 

Disclaimer

Students! Thinking about your future?
Click here for a special section of our site made just for you. Tons of career and homework resources..

What's Now

High-Tech Pitfalls

New technologies can make our lives easier, but they can also distract, mesmerize and make you a couch potato. Here are a few ways to keep fit using the latest body conscious technologies.

Exergaming


Exergaming
-
Get Fit by Playing Your Favorite Video Games

XR STATION is a video game console that burns calories and builds muscle with isometric resistance.

Dance Dance Revolution® (DDR) a popular arcade game, is now available at home. This game features a platform with four arrows: up, down, left, and right. Players move their feet to the instructions they receive on the machine.

EyeToy® technology (for PlayStation 2), features motion tracking, light-sensing technology and a built-in microphone to record and detect audio. It can function as a photo and video camera, snapping photos, recording video and placing players on the TV.

Guitar Hero® - Strap on your custom guitar shaped controller and find out how much energy it takes to be a rock star.

Robotic Pets

Robotic pets have the potential to be useful in many ways. Some robot pets are used to remind the elderly to take their medication. In Japan, robot pets are being used as companions for humans and for real pets.

Robotic pets

Printable Power

Solar cells convert light to electricity. Until now, solar cells have been developed mainly on glass, making them easily breakable and expensive.

Konarka Technologies, Inc. has developed organic photovoltaic cells on lower cost, lightweight, flexible plastic substrates rather than on glass.

Power Plastic®

Meet Nobel Prize Winners

This web site presents original video interviews of Nobel Laureates in physics and chemistry. Learn first hand of their achievements and what they could mean for the future. The site could be an inspiration to any student interested in physics or chemistry and the one minute video section was perfect for my limited knowledge and short attention span.

Honeywell Nobel Interactive Studio

Inspired by Nature - Biomimetics

Nature is the ultimate engineer. Billions of years of
“natural R&D” have resulted in effective, optimized
biological solutions that really work. By studying and mimicking nature’s processes and structures, scientists and engineers can develop nature inspired
solutions that are far more effective than solutions conceived and developed exclusively by man.

This field of study is called biomimetics, which falls
into two distinct areas:

1) mimicking of natural creation of chemical compounds

2) imitating mechanisms found in nature.

Other examples of biomimetics:

Velcro® – inspired by seeds' clingy burrs
Low-friction ship hulls – inspired by shark skin
Morphing aircraft wings – inspired by bird wings
Temperature-adapting fabric – inspired by pinecone
Dirt and water-resistant paint – inspired by the lotus flower
Neuromorphic computer chips – inspired by neural networks

Source: Qualcomm

Time to Invade Your Privacy

Designed with a built in voice recorder, an innocent looking wrist watch can secretly capture hours of conversation.

Spy Equipment

Technology Breakthrough Links

12 Highly Anticipated Science and Technology Breakthroughs of 2008

Virtual worlds are 2008’s ‘breakthrough technology’

Eight technology breakthroughs to watch in 2007

 

Young Innovators

Technology Review honors young innovators whose inventions and research they find most exciting. "The TR35 is a list of technologists and scientists, all under the age of 35. Their work--spanning medicine, computing,  electronics, communications, nanotechnology, and more--is changing our world."

Young Innovators Under 35

Ten-Minute Cancer Test

This article is about a 10 minute oral-cancer test in development that could be administered at the dentist's office.

Ten-Minute Cancer Test

The SmartPill

The SmartPill is an ingestible capsule that measures pressure, pH and temperature from within the entire GI tract and wirelessly transmits that information to a data receiver worn by the patient.

The SmartPill

Let The Games Begin

Marny Skora, Langley Research Center

The number of jobs requiring science and engineering skills in the U.S. labor force is increasing by five percent annually. However, today’s students are generally not performing well enough in math and science to take firm command of their own futures.

Enter a diverse group of Hampton Roads professionals who have decided to do something about the downward trend. They have agreed to work together to ensure the ability of Virginia students to compete in our increasingly complex global world. Their weapon of choice – games.

“Games are part of our social and cultural environment,” says Dr. Christine Darden, director of Strategic Communications and Education at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton. “Today’s children grow up playing computer, video and Internet games. Let’s engage them via their own interests."

Let the Games Begin

Hollywood's Latest Favorite Villain

Science and technology are often portrayed as villains in science fiction movies because, well let's face it, any other way would be boring. What are the effects on society when technology is depicted negatively in the media? 

Future of Media

It's 11pm, Does Your Cell Phone Know Where You Are?

A project at MIT called Reality Mining used cell phones and other devices to collect data on 100 test subjects. Their goal was to discover insights on individual and group behavior. Researchers could tell where the subjects were, when they slept, who they called and more. Once enough data was collected, they were able to predict what people would do next and be right up to 85 percent of the time.

Reality Mining

MIT Scientists Create Fiber Webs That See

In a radical departure from conventional lens-based optics, MIT scientists have developed a sophisticated optical system made of mesh-like webs of light-detecting fibers.

MIT scientists create fiber webs that see

Technology and the Arts

The activities of the new Center for Contemporary and Digital Performance at Brunel University, U.K., centers on the integration of creative arts, performance writing, and performance design with digital technologies.

Centre for Contemporary and Digital Performance

Headphones That Really Move You

A special headset turns a reporter into a remote control toy.

A remote control that controls humans

 
 

References

Article

Sources

High-Tech Pitfalls

Image is a licensed photo from iStock.com

Printable Power

Article by futureforall.org, image from Konarka

The SmartPill

Image and text courtesy of The SmartPill Corporation

Warning: Many of the articles found on this web site are from non-technical, amateur writers that couldn't tell you the difference between hydrochloric and high colonic. We try our very best to provide you with useful, accurate information, but we don't always get it right. Please read our full disclaimer before quoting us at work, school or world conferences.

All trademarks / logos are the property of the respective owners
© Copyright 2005-2008, Future For All