The times they are a’changin! With every passing year come innovative tech breakthroughs that continue to transform the nature of the world we live in. We’re not quite in Star Trek territory just yet, but we’re hurtling towards it at warp factor 9. In any event, the following is a list of 5 of the greatest new and upcoming technologies that you may or may not have heard of. Read on, enjoy, and live long and prosper.
Enchroma sunglasses
1 in 12 men, and 1 in 200 women suffer from some form of color blindness. Most can’t see reds or greens but people can be blind to almost any color. Anyway; this condition is apparently caused by a malfunction of the cones in the eyes rather than the brain and guess what? The good people at Enchroma have actually made sunglasses that give colourblind people the ability to see like the rest of us. Want to hit yourself right in the feels? Type “enchroma sunglasses reaction” into YouTube and watch videos of people breaking down while seeing properly for the first time in their lives.
AI graphic design services
If you’re like most good, honest and rational folks, you’d assume that professional graphic design means hiring a professional graphic designer. But that’s not strictly true. Companies like Logojoy have online logo designers that use AI enhanced software to provide bespoke but professional logos for a fraction of the cost and time you’d spend working with a human being. Like I said, the times they are a’changin.
Eye’ll pay for that!
There’s a Chinese startup called Face++ that has created tech that allows you to pay for goods with your face. You look into a camera and the algorithm compares what it sees against a database to make sure that you really are you before issuing the transaction. The only people who could steal your face are either your identical twin or Hannibal Lector so this is a pretty airtight piece of security.
Paralysis begone!
French neuroscientists are working on technology that will reverse paralysis and here’s how it works. Basically, our limbs move because of the signals they receive from the brain, but when someone’s paralysed, it’s because this connection has been severed and the two can no longer communicate. So these scientists are working on technological implants they can put into the brain and nerve cells of paralysed limbs to allow them to wirelessly correspond. This means they’re effectively using WIFI technology to bypass a damaged nervous system. In the immortal words of Dr Emmet Brown, Great Scott!
Augmented reality
Augmented reality is the process of superimposing digital images onto the real world to ‘augment reality’ and it has massive implications for society. Right now it’s used in things like Google Maps or Pokemon Go but it’s going to become a massive feature in our lives as the years progress. In the next decade we’ll be wearing contact lenses that show animated adverts leaping from billboards, signs hovering over the heads of strangers that let us know they’re a match on our dating apps and holographic representations of the people we’re video chatting physically next to us in our bedrooms. Oh what a time to be alive!