Is Your TV Watching You?

The new Samsung HDTV has hard-wired camera and microphone, plus face recognition and other unprecedented features.

Is Your TV Watching You? Latest Models Raise Concerns -- MSNBC

Samsung’s 2012 top-of-the-line plasmas and LED HDTVs offer new features never before available within a television including a built-in, internally wired HD camera, twin microphones, face tracking and speech recognition. While these features give you unprecedented control over an HDTV, the devices themselves, more similar than ever to a personal computer, may allow hackers or even Samsung to see and hear you and your family, and collect extremely personal data.

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My Comment: I guess CIA Director Petraeus was onto something.

Are Robot Scientists The Future Of Laboratory Research?

Eve, at Work in the Lab Automated Experimentation

From Popular Science:

There was a time when science produced robots, but a paper published recently in the Automated Experimentation Journal suggests that in the future robots will autonomously produce science. It's not just a matter of cheap labor or taking menial tasks off the hands of researchers; the authors argue that science needs to be uniform and formalized, and AI robot scientists could help us get to that point by developing their own hypotheses and carrying out experiments with minimal human input.

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The 2010s: Freakin' Awesome-With Lasers

From CBS News:

Scientists Predict Some Uncertainty, Some Unbridled Optimism, and Some Warnings to the World to Make a Course Correction.

(CBS) This article was written by Discover's Andrew Moseman and Brett Israel.

There's nothing like the round number at the start of a new decade to get everyone prognosticating (yes, we know some of you are in the crowd that says the new decade doesn't begin until 2011; OK, fine). To predict what the scientific scene will be like in 2020, the journal Nature brought in experts from 18 fields. Though the collection doesn't encapsulate the "world of tomorrow" feel of, say, the old Omni magazine, it's still packed with sunny (and scary) forecasts. Some show lingering uncertainty, some unbridled optimism, and some give warnings to the world to make a much-needed course correction. Here are five we thought were particularly telling.

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The World In 2020: A Glimpse Into The Future

'People were more connected than ever, accessing video, music, mail (the 'e' soon became redundant), the web, books, news (with no distinction between papers, websites or television) and magazines whenever they liked, wherever they liked'

From The Independent:

Ten years ago we thought wireless was another word for radio, Peter Mandelson's career was over – and only birds tweeted. So what will life be like a decade from now?

Society: The quiet life is just an illusion, by Julian Baggini

Britain will be a strangely optimistic place at the start of the third decade of the millennium. Strange, because the 2010s had become known as the Decade of Austerity, with its apt acronym, DOA.

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Top Scientists Share Their Future Predictions

Neo (Keanu Reeves) in a still from The Matrix

From Times Online:

From virtual brains and Matrix-like thought connections to disease-making bacteria, what the next decade could bring.

Nothing much is going to happen in the next 10 years. Of course, that’s not counting the diesel-excreting bacteria, the sequencing of your entire genome for $1,000, massive banks of frozen human eggs, space tourism, the identification of dark matter, widespread sterilisation of young adults, telepathy, supercomputer models of our brains, the discovery of life’s origins, maybe the disappearance of Bangladesh and certainly the loss of 247m acres of tropical forest.

As I said, just another decade really.

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Thinkers Meet To Plot The Future

From BBC:

Leading thinkers in technology, design and science are gathering in Oxford to share their ideas about the future.

TED Global (Technology, Entertainment and Design) is the European cousin of an already established top US event.

The invitation-only conferences are dedicated to "ideas worth spreading" and have seen talks by former US presidents and Nobel Laureates.

This year's event will explore questions in neuroscience, astrophysics and economics.

"It is about all the hidden, invisible, not yet discovered or fully explored parts of our lives, society and the world," said Bruno Giussani, European director of TED.

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World Faces 'Perfect Storm' Of Problems By 2030, Chief Scientist To Warn

Food and water shortages as a result of climate change and growing populations are likely to trigger mass migration and unrest. Photograph: AFP/Getty

From The Guardian:

Food, water and energy shortages will unleash public unrest and international conflict, Professor John Beddington will tell a conference tomorrow.

A "perfect storm" of food shortages, scarce water and insufficient energy resources threaten to unleash public unrest, cross-border conflicts and mass migration as people flee from the worst-affected regions, the UK government's chief scientist will warn tomorrow.

In a major speech to environmental groups and politicians, Professor John Beddington, who took up the position of chief scientific adviser last year, will say that the world is heading for major upheavals which are due to come to a head in 2030.

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Ten Sci-Fi Devices That Could Soon Be In Your Hands

The briefcase-sized Prism 200 from UK firm Cambridge Consultants can detect people through brick walls by firing off pulses of ultra-wideband radar and listening for returning echoes. According to the company, these pulses can pass through building materials over 40 centimetres thick, and spot activity over a range of up to 15 metres. (Image: Cambridge Consultants)

From The New Scientist:

Cast your mind back 30 years, if you are old enough, and you may just remember a rather humdrum, though retrospectively momentous, event. In 1979, the Japanese firm NET launched the first cellular phone network in Tokyo.

For decades the objects remained toys of the super-rich. Who would have thought that today there would be enough cellphones for half the world's population to have one.

That's not the only recent technological revolution. Would you have dreamed that an entire record collection could one day fit in your pocket? How about a system that helps you communicate and share information across the world instantly?

Crystal-ball gazing is a fraught endeavour, but we've decided to take the plunge. In this special feature, we assess the prospects of 10 of the coolest gadgets that in 30 years' time may change our lives as much - or maybe more - than cellphones, iPods and the internet.

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Flexible Display Technology Is Advancing Rapidly

Flexible Display Screens: Bend Me, Shape Me, Anyway You Want Me -- The Economist

Electronic screens as thin as paper are coming soon

OVER the years, the screens on laptops, televisions, mobile phones and so on have got sharper, wider and thinner. They are about to get thinner still, but with a new twist. By using flexible components, these screens will also become bendy. Some could even be rolled up and slipped into your pocket like a piece of electronic paper. These thin sheets of plastic will be able to display words and images; a book, perhaps, or a newspaper or a magazine. And now it looks as if they might be mass produced in much the same way as the printed paper they are emulating.

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Sad About The Economy? Dream About The Future

At a Web 2.0 Summit start-up mock-pitch event called Launchpad, organizer John Battelle says the companies onstage would not be fly-by-night start-ups, but rather emerging companies with solid business models and the potential to have a big social impact. (Credit: Josh Lowensohn/CNET Networks)

From CNET News:

SAN FRANCISCO--The wild days of Web 2.0 may have thrown their last sheep. Here's how you can tell that things have gotten serious: at O'Reilly Media and Techweb's Web 2.0 Summit this week, people actually showed up for breakfast.

That's because they probably weren't out as late. The party scene at tech conferences tends to be a bacchanalia--take South by Southwest Interactive, with enough events to make any little black book burst at the seams, or TechCrunch50 a few months ago, where rumor has it that a high-profile dot-commer got so drunk at an afterparty that conference organizers politely asked him to delete some intoxicated Twitter posts.

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Products (And Toys) From The Future

The link to the video is HERE.

15 New Technologies That Will Change Everything

From MSNBC:

The Next Big Thing? The memristor, a microscopic component that can "remember" electrical states even when turned off. It's expected to be far cheaper and faster than flash storage. A theoretical concept since 1971, it has now been built in labs and is already starting to revolutionize everything we know about computing, possibly making flash memory, RAM, and even hard drives obsolete within a decade.

The memristor is just one of the incredible technological advances sending shock waves through the world of computing. Other innovations in the works are more down-to-earth, but they also carry watershed significance. From the technologies that finally make paperless offices a reality to those that deliver wireless power, these advances should make your humble PC a far different beast come the turn of the decade.

In the following sections, we outline the basics of 15 upcoming technologies, with predictions on what may come of them. Some are breathing down our necks; some advances are still just out of reach. And all have to be reckoned with.

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Earth Getting 'Overcrowded'

From IOL:

Humankind will need two planets by 2030 to keep up with its demands for goods and to make space for surging populations.

This is according to the influential WWF Living Planet Report 2008, which warns that humanity is consuming the resources provided by Earth's natural systems much too fast.

Earth, it declares, is facing a looming ecological credit crunch and the current financial recession pales in comparison.

"Reckless consumption is endangering our future prosperity," writes James Leape, the director general of WWF International, in the report.

"Yet our demands continue to escalate, driven by the relentless growth in human population and individual consumption. Our global footprint now exceeds the world's capacity to regenerate by 30 percent. If our demands on the planet continue at the same rate, by the mid-2030s, we'll need the equivalent of two planets to maintain our lifestyles."

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Home Lighting Could Be Wireless Network

An illustration shows an office where LED lighting provides both illumination and wireless communication. Credit: Boston University

From Live Science:

Lights may soon do more than just shine in dark places – they might wirelessly connect your computer, phone or car to the Internet.

Sounds strange, but consider this. Remote controls already use infrared light to communicate with TVs and DVD players. Turning ceiling and reading lamps into wireless access points could allow you to get your Internet fix almost anywhere.

"We can provide ubiquitous communication if we have network access wherever there's lighting," said Thomas Little, a computer engineer at Boston University.

These aren't just any lights, though. Little and other researchers hope to piggyback on the spread of light-emitting diode (LED) light bulbs, which are finding favor as low-energy, long-lasting alternatives to the more conventional incandescent or fluorescent light bulbs.

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Scientist: Holographic Television To Become Reality

From CNN:

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Picture this: you're sat down for the Football World Cup final, or a long-awaited sequel to the "Sex and the City" movie and you're watching all the action unfold in 3-D on your coffee table.

It sounds a lot like a wacky dream, but don't be surprised if within our lifetime you find yourself discarding your plasma and LCD sets in exchange for a holographic 3-D television that can put Cristiano Ronaldo in your living room or bring you face-to-face with life-sized versions of your gaming heroes.

The reason for renewed optimism in three-dimensional technology is a breakthrough in rewritable and erasable holographic systems made earlier this year by researchers at the University of Arizona.

Dr Nasser Peyghambarian, chair of photonics and lasers at the university's Optical Sciences department, told CNN that scientists have broken a barrier by making the first updatable three-dimensional displays with memory.

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10 Future Shocks For The Next 10 Years

From InfoWorld:

As InfoWorld turns 30, a look back at the changes wrought by technology since 1978 boggles the mind. The extended InfoWorld family predicts the shocking developments we can expect between now and 2018

The past 30 years of InfoWorld's existence have seen a series of future shocks, from the ascent of the personal computer to horrifying strains of malware to the sizzling sex appeal of the iPhone. In honor of InfoWorld's 30th anniversary, we've decided to take a playful look ahead at the future shocks that could occur in the next 10 years (30 years seemed a little too sci-fi).

An all-points bulletin went out to InfoWorld contributors, the replies to which we culled into 10 future shocks -- ranging from radical changes in IT's responsibility to "1984"-ish scenarios where privacy is a quaint notion. No doubt you've considered many of these possibilities yourself. Even more likely, you have just as many interesting scenarios to bring to the party, and we urge you to share them in the comments section of this article. Dream big -- given the drama of the past 30 years, the next 10 are anyone's guess.

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Futurologist Predicts The Trends That Will Shape The Next 50 Years

From The Telegraph:

What's going out and what's coming in?

2010
Going out: • Letter writing • The idea of 'normal' weather • Personal privacy • Ashtrays • Milkmen

Coming in: •Truth sensors • Wearable computers • Dream machines

2015
Going out: • Getting lost • Thank-you letters • Landline telephones

Coming in: • A human settlement on the moon • Disposable mobile phones • Intelligent cosmetics • Hotels just for sleeping

2020
Going out: • Post offices • Free parking • Survivors of the First World War • Unfenced beaches • Secretaries • DVDs • Democracy in Russia • Telephone directories • The idea of a proper retirement • An independent Taiwan • State pensions •

Coming in: • Surgery carried out by robots • Artificial eyes

2025
Going out: • Proper spelling • Driving on the road for free • Desktop computers • Work-free weekends • The Maldives • Paris Hilton

Coming in: • Hydrogen-based fuel stations • Offshore prisons • 'Mindwipes' to remove the memory of a bad day at the office • Sensory internet

2030
Going out • Reality TV • The Great Barrier Reef • Trade unions • Inheritance tax • Taking a proper lunch • Wrinkles, thanks to cosmetic surgery

Coming in • Robots to take care of young children • Virtual holidays • A ladder into space • Artificial memory enhancers • Self-driving cars • Artificial bacteria

2035
Going out: • Children playing without supervision • Coins • Oil • Microsoft • The middle class • Low-cost travel • Bangladesh

Coming in: • Self-repairing roads • Diets based on your individual genome • 3-D printers • Virtual reality windows

2040
Going out: • Banknotes and wallets • Petrol engines • Addiction and deafness - both will be cured • National currencies • Free public spaces • The idea of saying 'sorry' • The European Union

Coming in: • Factories in space • A single global currency • Wallpaper that plays videos • Countries used entirely as prisons

2045
Going out: • Any remaining monopolies • Ties • The British monarchy • Natural childbirth

Coming in: • Individual taxes based on the amount you pollute • Invisibility cloaks • A man on Mars

2050
Going out: • Household chores • Belgium as a unified country • Incurable blindness • Google • Any survivors of the Second World War

Coming in:

• Tiny robots for pest control • Brain transplants • Downloading of memories • Global ID cards, elections and taxes • Warp drive • Robot policemen

and beyond...

Going out: • The idea of ugliness • Nation states • Death - unless you want it

Coming in: • Artificial brains • Mining asteroids • Web 4.0 • Clothing that monitors and controls your stress levels