IBM predicts future innovations that will impact on people’s lives
1 min read
IBM has announced its 6th annual 'Five in Five'; a prediction of the five innovations it believes will change people's lives over the next five years.
Based on market and societal trends and emerging technologies from IBM labs around the world, the company's predictions are as follows:
1. You will make your own energy: Anything that moves has the potential to create energy. Your running shoes, your bicycle and even the water flowing through your pipes can create energy.
2. You will not need a password: Your biological makeup is the key to your individual identity, and soon, it will become the key to safeguarding it.
3. Mind reading is no longer science fiction: Scientists are researching how to link your brain to your devices, such as a computer or a smartphone, so you just need to think about calling someone and it happens.
4. The digital divide will cease to exist: In five years, the gap between information haves and have nots will narrow considerably due to advances in mobile technology.
5. Junk mail will become priority mail: Think about how often we're flooded with advertisements we consider to be irrelevant or unwanted - it doesn't have to be that way anymore.
The prediction is based on work undertaken in IBM's R&D laboratory in the UK. According to IBM, many of its previous Five in Five predictions are already taking root, such as in 2008 when the company forecast that consumers would be talking to the web and the web would talk back.
A short video of this year's predictions is below:
