So we’ve reached our second decade of the third millenium. The “noughties” were remembered by many as the “digital decade”, but what will this one become? Obviously it’s too early to say but here at willineedit.com we have a few predictions of how the world might change for us techies. Not all predictions are positive though!
1. Augmented Reality
Augmented reality is where the real world meets the cyber world and the two intertwine perfectly as one, in real-time. Last year we saw examples spawning as iPhone applications. Most of these applications combine real-time data captured via camera and link it with location data stored online to give users more knowledge of their immediate surroundings than their eyes would give them alone.
From this, one could imagine that Google maps with its street view feature could go one step further by adding augmented capabilities. Imagine everywhere you walk you could find out so much about a place without even stepping inside. As Android is gathering pace (a bit) it shouldn’t be too long before they take advantage of the camera and GPS hardware available on phones running the OS for this purpose.
2. Smartphone Malware
As smartphones increase in popularity amongst the general population, they are already becoming the target of malware (viruses, trojans etc…) infections. Last year we saw the very famous case of the Rick Astley iPhone worm. This exploit only worked by using the default SSH password on jail-broken phones but it goes some way to showing that only those in the know would be able to defend themselves.
In a similiar vein to the above, it appears criminals are going back to basics this year. The BBC reported earlier this week about diallers planted on phones to call premium rate numbers to rack-up huge mobile bills. This scam uses technology from the early days of the internet and now it is being recycled for use on mobile phones.
You could see threats like this become as popular and wide-spread as phishing has been. We can only hope the mobile OS developers keep their wits about them and make sure their platforms are kept tight. We may even see the mandatory use of the mobile anti-virus products…
3. 3D TV
Last year we saw a lot of 3D animated films (UP was a personal favourite) and of course Avatar 3D broke many a box office record. Soon, 3D will move from the big screen to the screen in your living room. In the UK, Sky have announced plans to introduce a 3D TV service to their customers this year. Before this Channel 4 also trialled 3D TV to existing terrestrial and digital viewers.
In both cases, the viewer requires special glasses to view in 3D but they can use their existing TV. Pricing from Sky hasn’t been announced but it can’t be much of a premium, it’s pretty easy to implement the technology. Beyond this, there is stereoscopic TV. This removes the need for glasses but requires a special kind of TV. The hardware for stereoscopic TV has been around for some time, but it will be making a splash this year (there was a buzz at CES 2010). The quality of image they produce has been known to be a bit dubious. Also the speed of HD services (in the UK at least) has been pretty poor considering how many HD TVs have been sold – will this be the same for 3D TV?
So what will rise and what will fall? What will be lurking around the corner that may wow or shock us? Let us know what you think will be big this year by leaving a few comments.
