10 technologies to watch in 2004

Business 2.0 / CNN ^ | David Pescovitz

[Walkin Man]

Ultra-wideband: Imagine a television that can wirelessly send three different programs to separate monitors. Low-power, low-cost, and with roughly 45 times the data transmission speed of run-of-the-mill Wi-Fi, this wireless technology is finally ready to debut in the living room.

[Walkin Man]

(Gecko tape)applications include gloves that allow a person to climb a glass wall...cool! (I'm easily amused.) :)

[MarkeyD]

I thought it was GEICO?

[dts32041]

Yeah but will it still allow him to drive his car.

[Lunatic Fringe]

The Wright Brothers flew almost 4 years after the turn of the century... What new invention in the next 2 or 3 years will change the world?

Neat stuff... exciting times.

[Walkin Man]

LOL!

[eno_]

OLEDs will be "ink jetted" onto all kinds of surfaces. Huge displays - wall sized. Very cool tech.

[RightWhale]

What new invention in the next 2 or 3 years will change the world?

and most important, how to invest in the winner beforehand?

[hoosiermama]

Kust finished reading a new book "WINGS OF THEIR DREAMS" by John Norton. It tell of the history of flight through the eyes of Purdue University. PU co-ordination from the Wright Brothers to the current space program. Really emphasizes how fast the changes took place, and how if influenced everything (particularly the demands on education) Great read!

Talked to the author over the week end....He asked the same question....What new invention...will change the world in the next 100 years?

[Rebelbase]

"Neat stuff... exciting times."

Look how far we've advanced in 100 years. The next 100 boggles the mind.

[hunter112]

The next 100 boggles the mind.

The next ten makes me tingle! There are great things in this list, if even half of them make it to the market anytime soon, it will be great!

[At _War_With_Liberals]

Fake ID

[Libertarianize the GOP]

ping

[Radioactive]

The advancement in digital TV chip by Intel Corporation will make 57" flat screen TV's drop in price to around $1,200.

The only problem is that on these 57" screens, the stuff you can see on them will still be mostly CRAP!

[AZLiberty]

What happens in the next ten years may help us live long enough to see the next one hundred.

[Elliott Jackalope]

I've been telling people for a while now that OLED will be THE television technology of the future, making the current crop of plasma and LCD televisions look as old-fashioned as a 13" black-and-white tube. Why?

Two major factors. First, OLED allows for stacked pixels, with every pixel on the screen capable of displaying a full spectrum of color. This allows for an immediate 3:1 advantage over the current technology, which still requires red, blue and green pixels to display color. The second factor is as you already described, OLED technology will be able to be fabricated using techniques that will not only drastically lower costs, but will allow for screens to be created in a manner that will allow an unprecedented degree of fabrication flexibility, as well as actual physical flexibility.

Imagine buying a new display/television in a couple of years, and taking it home in a cardboard tube, then unrolling it onto your wall. Then you plug in the control box, and there is your new T.V., right there on the wall. Brighter than anything currently available, three times the current resolution, and cheaper than anything else. OLED is going to the THE display technology of the future. Next year? Probably not, but certainly within the next five years, count on it.

[jude24]

I don't know.... I've heard rumors that there's degredation issues with OLED -- that the researchers in at least one major company working on it are having trouble with some of the dyes breaking down within 2 or 3 months.

[Servant of the 9]

Tech PING

So9

[discostu]

Oooh I love these tech lists, most of them make the tabloid "psychics" look positively... well psychic. My answers:

Ultra-wideband: Hmm sound interesting, but not many uses. Also will face push back from both the cable and dish networks who like to charge per TV. Cool tech, might have a market future but not next year.

RFID: The tinfoil hatters hate it, everybody who actually knows what they're talking about loves it. Well on the way to mass distribution. They got one right (which immediately makes this watch list better than 90% of the tech watch lists ever made).

802.16: A very impressive security nightmare. Their application they mentioned has to answer two big questions: do the people in these areas actually want broadband, are they already getting it from cable companies. Could be big, but again not next year.

Micro fuel cells: Might have been really cool 5 years ago. The laptop battery wars seems to be over. And "fuel cell" just sounds dangerous. Probably not a big deal.

Gecko tape: this is probably the niftiest thing invented in the last 5 years. Problem is it almost completely lacks practicle use, who actually needs to climb glass walls and would they really want to.

Antispam software (that works): The cure for the common cold, if somebody comes up with one that works it will be a license to print money... if somebody somebody comes up with one that works. Challenge response doesn't sound real good to me, but it might be.

OLEDs: Trying to be LEDs with fuel efficiency is like trying to beat wood with natural looks. Gonna be hard to convince the world this niche exists.

LED lightbulbs: The old fashioned Edison lightbulb has supposedly met its match many times and has beaten all challengers. The problem with any new light is that it has to go against the most entrenched product in the world. There's not a home in America that doesn't have the old fashioned sockets filled with old fashioned bulbs, even if no new sockets get made using the old tech starting tomorrow it will still be decades before the old fashioned bulbs stop having a majority of the market.

MRAM: Yeah modern memory is so slow, this is like the OLED for memory. As for nonvolatile who remember EPROMS? My point exactly.

Bioinformatics: Cool, sound promising, limited market but a highly competitive market. I'll say this one is right.

So that's 2 right, 3 maybes and 5 losers. Actually a very good set. I'm frightened.

[Revolting cat!]

The more things stay the same! I liked it more when Vanna had to actually push and turn the cubes with the letters on them. Now, the latest and the greatest in technology on the Vanna Show serves only to show that you really don't need a Vanna, and she's nothing more than a live prop. Go figure it out...

[Elliott Jackalope]

I'm aware of this problem, which is why I don't see OLED being a big deal in the next year. However, within the next three to five years I'm confident these issues will be resolved. You did nail the one big problem with the current state of the art in OLED, that being the dyes. Give them time, they are working hard on this problem.