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Talking Web, Memory Aids, and Solar Phones In 5 Years

Posted by samzenpus on from the in-the-year-2000 dept.

jbrodkin writes "A talking Web, solar technology embedded in windows and cell phones, and the end of forgetting will all come in the next five years, IBM predicts in its third annual Next Five in Five list, detailing innovations that could change our lives in the next half-decade. The other predictions: We will all have digital shopping assistants and, separately, 'crystal balls' to predict our future health. If IBM is right, in five years we'll forget about keyboards and use our voices to surf the Web on solar-powered laptops. DNA profiles will predict our personal health risks, and we'll get automatic reminders to perform daily tasks, generated by digital recording and analysis of our conversations."

3 of 109 comments (clear)

  1. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  2. I'm skeptical by Lunzo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I doubt any of these are going to happen in the next 5 years, if at all. Here are my thoughts on each of their predictions.

    1. Solar power
    This sounds a lot like the 50s and 60s sci-fi where every little gadget is nuclear powered. Not going to happen. I can imagine more and more portable devices switching to solar, but I think it will be closer to 10-15 years before it becomes widespread.

    2. DNA testing
    Could happen, but I don't think it will be a common practice in 5 years time.

    3. Voice input
    Speech to text is still pretty bad. Some examples of problems it still struggles with are handling different accents, background noise. I think instead of voice input we will see a lot more touch-screen interfaces similar to the Nintendo DS and iPhone. Keyboard + mouse will still rule the desktop.

    4. Robot shop assistants
    Sounds far too annoying and expensive for the retailers to catch on. Also what's the point of having a robot if a human then has to go and get the item(s) suggested by it? Why not have the human make the suggestions as is currently done?

    5. Memory aids
    I doubt people's behavior will change so much in 5 years that everything we do will be recorded. I think we are heading that way, but I'd allow longer than 5 years for it to become mainstream. I'd also suggest that a lot of work still needs to be done with how data is stored, organized, searched etc. for this to become useful. There's no point in having everything recorded if you aren't able to find the information you need at a later date.

  3. why the obsession with speech recognition? by rpax9000 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    seriously, every list of things that we can expect to see "real soon now" involves speech recognition.

    and all i can say is... why?

    who wants to work in an office full of cubes of people talking to their computers?

    do you really want to read that confidential memo out loud?

    besides, i can't imagine how awful it would be if everyone started speaking their memos and blog posts and comments &c. you think e-mail looks sloppy now... just wait until folks start yakking at their computers and pressing (or, i guess, saying?) "send".

    sheesh. the last thing i want to do is "talk" to the web.

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