Today the Cool Toys Conversations group (links at the end) is meeting to talk about the newest Horizon Report. We do this every year, looking at the forecasts of technologies that will be important in higher education. That is one source of important tech trends, but I’ve been collecting a boatload of other reports and resources that synthesize emerging tech developments of note, either those reviewing the past year, or forecasting for the coming year. ‘Tis the season and all. I’ve been pondering how to share some of this info. I had the idea of making a giant mindmap collecting all of them into one, but that turned out to be more complicated and time-consuming than I expected. I saw one today that I simply MUST share, so I am just going to point you at the cool list, and maybe collate pieces into something coherent after I’ve thought about them for a while.
Here are two posts from My Science Academy, both of which include lists of new emerging tech innovations. I need to add My Science Academy to the blogroll, because it is another one of those great places to track ETech/EmTech. They collect information from many of the same places I am already checking, so their collections typically confirm in my mind that I am looking in the right places for the right things. In these posts, while I’m just replicating the lists, they include brief descriptions, photos, and links to the original sources. Yes, there are overlaps between these two related lists. That tells you this really is a topic worth further attention. Go check it out!
10 Future Technologies that Already Exist: http://myscienceacademy.org/2013/01/25/10-future-technologies-that-already-exist/
1. Printing human organs
2. Dynamically stable quadruped robot
3. Thought-controlled prosthetics
4. Wireless power
5. Retinal implants
6. Hologram TV
7. Cloaking devices
8. Hover cards
9. Exoskeletons
10. Force fields
27 Science Fictions that Became Science Facts in 2012: http://myscienceacademy.org/2013/01/03/27-science-fictions-that-became-science-facts-in-2012/
I knew 24 of the 27 before I read the article. How many are new to you?
1. Quadriplegic controls robotic arm with thoughts
2. DARPA robot can traverse an obstacle course
3. Genetically modified silk is stronger than steel
4. DNA photographed
5. Invisibility cloak technology
6. Spray-on skin
7. Man reached the deepest point in the ocean
8. Stem cells could extend human life by 100 years
9. 3D printers to print full size houses
10. Self-driving cars now legal in 3 states
11. Voyager 1 leaves the solar system
12. 3D printed custom jaw implant
13. Rogue planet
14. Chimera monkeys
15. Artificial leaves generate electricity
16. Google goggles
17. Higgs-Boson particle
18. Flexible, inexpensive solar panels challenge fossil fuel
19. Diamond planet
20. Eye implants give sight to the blind
21. Wales barcodes DNA of every flowering plant in the country
22. 1st unmanned commercial space flight docks with ISS
23. Ultra-flexible glass allows curved electronic devices
24. NASA using robotic exoskeletons
25. Human brain is hacked
26. 1st planet with four suns discovered
27. Microsoft patents the holodeck
Interested in the Cool Toys group? You can join our email list (low volume) or track us via these online spaces.
Cool Toys U: http://cooltoysu.wordpress.com/
Cool Toys Conversations (Google Plus): https://plus.google.com/communities/102172117521499999829
Cool Toys Conversations (Facebook): https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cool-Toys-Conversations/207967015909461
Emerging Technologies Librarian 