The Future of Technology Tracking --Technology Promise

Smart Sensors

William Halal insight on many areas has been inspiring for innovation research for furthering technological areas. There is one area of interest that can be seen in my blog and that is the advancement of Radio Frequency Identification chips (RFID). As stated in the previous post I explained how these chips could help people in many areas from manufacturing, corporate environments, materials and health systems. Technology Promise discusses one particular area that aligns with my Socio-Technical Plan for RFID's. Smart Sensors are being actively pursued to  control manufacturing operations, monitor environmental conditions, intelligence, people movement and system failures in remote areas with out having wired systems.

Cornell Researchers are working with our armed forces to track the health of our military personnel while away in the field. This sensor will be able to relay information back to the command station to allow them to see if the person is low on water, vital signs, movements they make, wounds and other vital information to keep our military personnel safe and operating in a safe manner. RFID is advancing in more ways than we could imagine for helping people in the world.



This RFID chips was once a large piece that was or needed to be surgically implanted. Today Hitachi is producing the chip that is smaller than a strand of hair and more easily inserted under the skin. The chips that are being produced are mini computers with random access memory (RAM), just like a little flash drive we carry with us today. To note that this is the research and testing phases for implementing this type of technology to the public, RFID full implementation is still years away as stated in my Socio-Technical Plan for the next 10 to 20 years down the road. 

2011 Top Ten - The Futurist

Looking through the top ten of The Futurist from the World Future Society, there was a future outlook that I seen that really caught my eye. The number 10 on the list "We may not be able to move mountains with our minds, but robots will await our mental commands", where students at Northeastern University has successfully used brain signals to control a robot. I see this prediction as a good way for a lot of uses in the real world. Using this technology to help people with limitations can be a benefit to the future. To give some examples of the use, the university is going to be researching how they can successfully use brain input to control an artificial limb that uses just retina placement to pick up items, range of motion or to complete their normal functions that they do everyday.

There are some things that I think could affect the success of implementation. The cost of the limb could be a factor.How much would something like this cost to the general Public? The other contributing factor is what is needed to make something like this work? The hardware and software needed to move the limb to the appropriate location intended. I think once these answers have been addressed, the general public can move forward and utilize the advancements in this technology.

After reading this futurist forecast, I remember a discussion with a fellow colleague from the other day. We discussed how a person with limited disabilities can benefit in this situation. It is not just moving a limb in real life per say. I am going deeper as in retina movement and allowing handicapped people with no movement or confined to chairs to be able to move and being free again. Using a game based system like these at MMORPG , to allow people in these situation to walk, talk, fly and do other things which they are not able to do in real life.

Future Emerging Technology

1. In the next 10 years we will see implant under the skin that will hold medical information, personal passports and possible personal information (Limiting credit-ethical and legal intervention)

To look for a future innovated idea we have to look at what has already been worked on. I said from my first post that medical implants that hold personal information of people. It will also be a passport depending on the organizations reading machine. These will need security as people need to secure their own information that is readily available. To discuss what we see for the future we have to look at the past to help refine what has already been accomplished. I have ran across technology that is recent but has been in development for years. It is the artificial heart which has saved lives and keeping people alive until they can be healed. On instance it the Bionic Woman (not the TV show) that is kept alive by a battery powered heart. This heart pumps blood on one side of her heart where it has quit. She is working on a new transplant as this artificial heart keeps her alive.

2. In the next 20 years we will be able to have full skin suits which allows us to interact with the technology around us even on the screens of computers, TV's, radios, etc..

This technology can happen in the next 20 years due to articles that I have read. The article is called Virtual Immortality for Virtual Eternity by Patrick Tucker. He describes how people will be able to live in a virtual environment when their memory has been down loaded to a machine. He describes the availability that can be accessible to everyone so they can remember and interact but in a 3 D world. The article also states that these types of virtual environments already exist where people are able to be in a virtual environment and do what they would like. He specifically mentions Second Life in the article as a comparison against the possibilities of living virtual for real. It opens up new doors for research and advancements in this technology.

Horizon 2010 Report

The Horizon Report 2010 was a very interesting read. They focus on the education and the way people are learning or will learn in the future is interesting. We are now in this age and it has exploded with other universities moving to the online version of classes. The online classes gives the students and educators the ability to learn and teach at their school of choice. Reading through this report takes me back to my Masters and professors that taught my classes. We had different diversities and from many regions of the world; from our military service members serving over seas to  people that live all over the United States and all over the world.

Things come to mind on the trends that the horizon report discusses. The way people learn while working in a demanding environment. People want to keep up to date on new technology or methodology being implemented. Learning in this type of environment it has come to the reports attention that the "faster approach is the most perceived approach". I would have to disagree with faster is better, due that if you have more of a formal approach a student is able to comprehend the educators teachings. This gives the students a solid base to comprehend after they leave the classroom. Foundation is the key and the challenge is to ensure productive response and learning in a real world setting classroom.

The challenges are in mobile computing and open content for schools. Everything is becoming digital and the digital age is growing as we move to smart phones, wireless lap pads(i Pad) and nook (Book Reading). Utilizing and integrating these technologies into our educational systems will help students learn while in a demanding environment of work, home and schooling. The utilization of smart phones to access school sites for educators and students like checking or grading assignments will be big asset to schools. The challenge that comes to this area is developing universal web apps that devices are able to access on the go.

Open content is another way for educators to develop a universal learning environment. They can develop against existing code that can enhance the way students learn. One example of this is the Moodle software for online learning schools. This is a web portal where educators and students can access information and collaborate on studies virtually. They can upload and down load content on demand. Using this on a computer is easy but for it to accessed through a mobile device the administrator will need to install the plug-in for use for mobile devices. This was a brief research effort and needs to be looked into further for compatibility and functionality. The site for this Moodle plug-in can be found MLE-Moodle (Moodle for mobile phones) for further research.