Insights into technology - Five innovations that will change our lives over the next five years

Thomas P. Hughes

May 1, 2008

IBM recently revealed the "IBM Next Five in Five," a list of innovations that have the potential to change the way people work, live and play over the next five years. The list is based on market and societal trends expected to transform our lives, as well as emerging technologies from IBM's labs around the world that could make these innovations possible.

Over the next five years, you can expect to see:

1. A range of "smart energy" technologies that will make it easier for you to manage your personal "carbon footprint." As data begins to run through our electrical wires, dishwashers, air conditioners, house lights and more will be connected directly to a "smart" electric grid, making it possible to turn them on and off using your cell phone or any Web browser.

2. Technology is poised to keep traffic moving, cut pollution, curb accidents and make it easier for you to get from point A to B, without the stress. The cities you live in will find a cure for congestion using intelligent traffic systems that can make real-time adjustments to traffic lights and divert traffic to alternate routes with ease. Your car will have driver-assist technologies that will make it possible for automobiles to communicate with each other and with sensors along the road – allowing them to behave as if they have ‘reflexes' so they can take preventive actions under dangerous conditions.

3. Advancements in computer software and wireless radio sensor technologies will give you access to much more detailed information about the food you are buying and eating. You will know everything from the climate and soil the food was grown in, to the pesticides and pollution it was exposed to, to the energy consumed to create the product, to the temperature and air quality of the shipping containers it traveled through on the way to your dinner table.

4. New technology will allow you to snap a picture of someone wearing an outfit you want and will automatically search the Web to find the designer and the nearest shops that carry that outfit. You can then see what that outfit would look like on your personal avatar – a 3-D representation of you – right on your phone, and ask your friends, in different locations, to check it out online and give their opinion.

5. Your doctor will be able to see, hear and understand your medical records in entirely new ways. In effect, doctors will gain superpowers – technologies will allow them to gain x-ray like vision to view medical images; as well as super sensitive hearing to find tiniest audio clue in your heart beat; and ways to organize information in the same way they treat a patient. Your avatar will allow doctors to visualize your medical records in an entirely new way, so they can click with the computer mouse on a particular part of the avatar, to trigger a search of your medical records and retrieve information relevant to that part of your body, instead of leafing through pages of notes.

Thomas P. Hughes is territory manager, Georgia, for IBM General Business