If you happen to visit Washington, D.C. in the near future, be sure to stop in at the Whole Foods Store in the Glover Park neighborhood and experience Amazon’s “Just Walk Out” approach to grocery shopping. You scan your palm; the scan links to your Amazon account. As you put items into your grocery basket, the price is automatically added to your bill. How? Each item has a sensor under it that records your activity. When you are done, just walk out of the store, bypassing the checkout lines and your Amazon account is billed. (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/28/technology/whole-foods-amazon-automation.html)
Or, perhaps you would like to hear your house plants make music? Using how water moves around in a plant, the developers of an app called Plant Wave have converted plants’ biorhythms into music. It’s pretty amazing… Have a listen!
Meanwhile, Toyota is building a futuristic city near Mount Fuji called Woven City. Toyota describes this area “… as a “living laboratory,” the Woven City will serve as a home to full-time residents and researchers who will be able to test and develop technologies such as autonomy, robotics, personal mobility, smart homes and artificial intelligence in a real-world environment.” (https://global.toyota/en/newsroom/corporate/31171023.html). Would you like to experience this scenario of the future now?
There is certainly a lot to ponder and imagine as we think about our digital lives 10 years hence.
In 2000, I attended an educational conference where the keynote speaker explained where the internet was going and how our digital devices might evolve. Most of the attendees were a bit skeptical, but indeed his predictions have become reality. Internet searching has become instantaneous and highly simplified. So what’s next?
We at BoomerTECH Adventures searched out future trends in the digital world. Here’s what we found…
- We probably should learn about the Internet of Things (loT). What? This term comes up over and over when reading about the future. Here’s a definition, “system of interrelated computing devices, mechanical and digital machines, objects, animals or people that are provided with unique identifiers (UIDs) and the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction.” It seems systems for collecting data are only going to become more sophisticated. (https://internetofthingsagenda.techtarget.com/definition/Internet-of-Things-IoT)
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) use will grow in manufacturing, businesses, and the home. Maybe we are becoming the Jetsons and will all have a robotic Rosie to do our house cleaning (-: However, it is likely that a future stop at Starbucks will find us being served by a robotic barista.
- Cybersecurity will continue to be an issue. Personal and company reputations can be destroyed when misinformation is spread through social media or the myriad of so-called news sources. Cybersecurity software will continue to evolve, and all of us need to become more vigilant about our personal information and how it can be accessed.
- Our cell phones are going to become even smarter (https://www.makeuseof.com/exciting-future-of-smartphones/):
- Charge our phones over the air.
- Nano batteries will make charging faster.
- SIM cards will be replaced by virtual SIM cards (eSIM) so that one can update or change networks from home rather than going to a store.
- Improved screens that provide better graphics and videos, plus make it easier to read in the bright sunlight.
- The “cloud” is not going to go away. More and more data will be stored and accessed from different cloud sources. If you are a bit unsure about the nature of the digital cloud, perhaps this blog post will help. In the Cloud. Just What Does That Mean?
- Maybe we won’t even carry a smartphone with us because ambient computing (https://www.theverge.com/22749341/smartphones-future-predictions) will be the standard of the digital world. Ambient computing means there will be screens and speakers connected to networks everywhere. Send a message by tapping a local screen in your bedroom lamp or the lampost outside your office.
Sometimes it seems like the world of Flash Gordon and Star Trek are closer than we think! What’s for sure is that we need to acknowledge that technology is going to continue to evolve and become more sophisticated. That’s both an exciting and sometimes a bit of a scary proposition.
Meanwhile, back here in 2022, we hope you will consider joining us for our exciting spring Explorama in Kennebunkport, Maine (May 3-5).–especially if you like to eat and take pictures! Watch this short video to learn more.
Find all of the details here: https://boomertechadventures.com/bta-explorama-iphone-ipad-photography-meets-foodies-delight/
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