The Lady Geek's Topic of the Day: Future Tech

Tales of the  Lady Geek

The Lady Geek's Topic of the Day:  Future Tech

Greetings dear readers, the Lady Geek here with news from the wonderful world of technology! As I write this, I am returning from a very wonderful journey through the mega sale that my favorite IT shop holds twice a year.  I can not tell you how thrilling it is to walk into this place, smelling that 'New Gadget" smell, knowing that I'm about to make a killer deal. 

I must admit, I got some great deals on products that weren't even near my budget just six months ago, but that's the thing about the computer world, isn't it?  Every six months something newer, better, speedier and more expensive hits the market, making the last "Big Thing" the embarrassingly obsolete and significantly less pricey "Old Thing".  That goes for computer components to televisions and even toilets in this day and age.  This brings me to my topic of the day: Future Tech.

 

During the research for my last article, "Classroom Tech", I journeyed down memory lane and saw how far we, as a technological society, have come and changed from the old chalk tablets to IPads in the classroom.  While shopping at this IT store for the "next big thing", I discovered that while I still make my living mainly with computer hardware repair/replacement, somewhere during the course of my professional life, I also picked up such handy skills as network technician, security consultant, IPad/IPod repair expert and all around "Computer Consultant".  

Very handy, very lucrative,.  So then my editor asked me where I think we'll be in the next ten years with all the technology advances to come and I had to think hard and do a lot deeper research than I had in years to discover the science behind the technology. Once I discovered what was in development, I was left in awe at the possibilities, here's a sampling of what to expect in my future technological Utopia.

Classroom Tech:

I know, I already covered a lot in my previous article, “Classroom Tech: The Evolution”, but I can’t start an article about the technological future without including the basics. Classroom technology has certainly come a long way already.  With the introduction of the IPad to kindergartens around the country and the growing presence of cyber schools, I can’t help but dream of the classrooms of the future.

Right now, as far as we’ve come towards getting our younglings prepared for the technological future, I’d like to ponder the college rooms of the future. As of today, it’s not unusual to see students with laptops, tablets and smart phones. In class, they can video lectures to view later, while collaborating on class assignments.  There are also an awesome amount of free education, accredited degrees and short term certification programs available via the internet from such schools as Harvard and MIT to name a few.  

What it Means to Future Tech:

The college education of the future looks very promising to this Geek Girl, transitioning from a place of pressure and learning to a place of experiencing.  It will be a place of syndicated and shared space where experiences of value are just as important as theories.

I don’t know about other people, but this Geek Girl spent the entire time she attended itching to stretch her wings and go straight into the ‘real world’.  A college education was ‘this thing’ I did in between real learning, and for me at the end of the day, I use the people skills and hands on experience I picked up from working with my friends in the IT Department in combination with a six month technical certification I picked up from a Welfare to Work program to earn a better living that I ever have using my English Degree.  

Smartphone Tech:

At Google’s I/O presentation in June, we were introduced to a pair of glasses that weren’t just any glasses. They were a model of Google’s new interactive Smart Phone of the future, and part of Google’s project glass. Project Glass is an attempt to make wearable computing mainstream.  They will use a transparent LCD or AMOLED display to bring up information in front of your eyes utilizing GPS, voice recognition and a camera…sort of like the Terminator’s targeting system, only way less “Must kill Sarah Conner” and more “I wonder where I am now?”

The thing about Project Glass is that according to the promotional video and presentation from the Google presentation, it is a hands free cloud synced Android compatible unit that doesn’t seem like it’s going to be just a new fad, they’re already making the first prototypes (at a cost of about $1500) available by 2013 and plan to make it fully available at a lower cost to all consumers in 2014.

What it Means to Future Tech:

If Google’s Project glass takes off, it could fast change the Smart Phone game.  Right now, these glasses intend to allow you to read text messages, get directions, take photos and videos and listen to music in addition to being a hands free headset.  In the future, it could really be the first step towards total hands free control and a change to how we receive information, use the internet and interact with our world.

My business minded friends, imagine a week spent outside of the office walls while completely getting your business handled.  Instead of sitting behind our desks all day, we can live as ‘outside the box’ as they keep telling you to think.  

To my fellow Geeks, well, imagine an awesome system straight out of “Iron Man” or a headset like Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Geordi LaForge. Heck, this could end up being a stepping stone to a future of low cost health care visits.  Imagine going into the doctor’s for a routine physical that takes exactly as long as the doctor can look at you and take your read outs?  Remember some of our greatest inventions once started out as Star Trek tech.

Cars:

We’ve seen the future and it is now! Well, not really, but we’ve had glimpses of the dreams of the future other people have seen. Remember that movie, “Time Cop”? Jean-Claude Van Damme was a Time Enforcement Agent that’s main job was keeping people from using time travel to mess with the past.  Well, if we have achieved time travel, this Lady Geek hasn’t heard of it yet, but what sets that movie as one of my all time favorites are the cars.

The “Time Cop” cars are able to navigate by themselves with voice recognition systems and advanced GPS, allowing the ‘driver’ to literally just sit back after a long day at work, preventing evil villains from messing up the space/time continuum and just kick back with a beer as they’re whisked away to their home.  

Well, at the Google I/O presentation I was just talking about, they unveiled what I see as the first step to that wonderful car. On March first of this year, Nevada passed a law concerning the operation of driverless cars and issued the first license for a self-driven car in May. The license was issued to a Toyota Prius modified with Google’s experimental driver-less technology.

So far, Google’s team has equipped eight vehicles with its technology: six Toyota Prius’, an Audi TT and a Lexus RX450h and has driven 1,000 miles without any human intervention in addition to 140,000 miles with occasional human intervention.  

What it Means to Future Tech:

Well, for one thing, it adds a +1000 to the coolness factor of life in general.  However, technology is only movie tech unless it provides a purpose and this one will, if it gets adopted, have a very specific plus beside it.  The driverless car promises to help reduce the number of traffic-related injuries and deaths while using energy and space on roadways more efficiently.  That’s a pretty cool feature.  Imagine a highway with no pile-ups, slowdowns or traffic jams. Imagine having one too many and no need to forget where you parked, just hop in your car and head home without others on the road dying for your stupidity.  I’d say that’s worth the tech.

The Take Away:

The future of technology is always fast approaching and awesome in its possibilities.  One day perhaps we’ll master the art of space travel, of teleportation, of flying cars and hover boards.  Right now, I’ll settle for the driverless car and a headset that doesn’t look like an alien mind control device from Star Trek.

Riker wearing alien mind control device...

Written By: MaryAnn Paris

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