Sony's Nextep WristWatch Computers by Year 2020

Photo Credits: YankoDesign.com

YES, IT'S THE HEIGHT of uber-coolness!

Japanese designer Hiromi Kiriki has tapped Sony Nextep wristwatch computers for this breakthrough innovation slated for a year 2020 release : and what a cool sight on your wrist , indeed.

The raves ran the gamut from hush-hush whispers to all-out awe at what could be such a functional piece of digital technology. Check it out:

“As the two worlds of technology and our own personal lives become seemingly ever more connected, the demand for devices that are small, slim, and that serve a variety of internet based functions has risen over the past couple of years and that trend doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon. Sony is contemplating that very same train of thought and by unveiling the Hiromi Kiriki concept, are showing that they mean business when it comes to embracing innovation.”

Just like a lean-but-mean time machine-cum-wearable technology, making you drool at all the magic this little Sweetie can do. The device, designed to be worn as a bracelet, combines and juggles its digital tricks -- flexible organic light emitting diode or OLED displays along with holographic screen projectors, pull-out keyboards for your fingertips, and the whole hoopla of social networking variety from Facebook to MySpace, just like an all-around sleek device always keeping you in the loop within the no-limits territory of communications technology.

Industry analysts took note that this futuristic concept includes two major technologies being touted as “the big enablers of wearable computing” -- via the flexible and affordable OLED touchscreens, as well as holographic screens ( yes, ala Tom Cruise’s “Minority Report”).

When news about this beauty spread in techworld circles just last May 2010 after YankoDesign.com’s announcement, shortly after in June TED 2010 featured Minority Report’s highly futuristic data interface concept real-life inventor John Underkoffler -- and clearly a mind-blowing experience for TEDGlobal 2010’s audience.

BoingBoing.com reports:

“John Underkoffler led the team that came up with this point-and-touch interface concept innovation called the G-Speak Spatial Operating Environment. His company, Oblong Industries, was founded to move G-Speak into the real word -- building apps for aerospace, bioinformatics, video editing and more. But the big vision is ubiquity: G-Speak on every laptop, every desktop, every microwave oven, TV, dashboard.

“It has to be like this… We , all of us, everyday feel that. We build starting there. We want to change it all, “ Underkoffler says.

Interestingly, this could be what the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) , the leading United Nations (UN) agency for information and communication technology issues and the global focal point for governments and the private sector in developing networks and services, has observed years back, that more and more of our formerly “offline personal belongings” ( wristwatches, television, even our kitchens, automobiles, telephones) will make the inevitable move from offline to online: yes, the “Internet of Things”.

In an early 2005ITU statement, the agency predicted:

“With the benefit of integrated information processing capacity, industrial products will take on smart capabilities. They may also take on electronic identities that can be queried remotely, or be equipped with sensors for detecting physical changes around them. Such developments will make the merely static objects of today dynamic ones - embedding intelligence in our environment and stimulating the creation of innovative products and new business opportunities. The Internet of Things will enable forms of collaboration and communication between people and things, and between things themselves, hitherto unknown and unimagined.”

“It seems that we are standing on the brink of a new computing and communication era, one that will radically transform our corporate, community, and personal spheres. With continuing developments in miniaturization and declining costs, it is becoming not only technologically possible but also economically feasible to make everyday objects smarter, and to connect the world of people with the world of things.”

State-Of-The-Art JobHunting Via Online Video Resumes

SHE FIDGETS, STAMMERS, ROLLS HER EYES IN NERVOUS FASHION , and blabbers incomprehensible self-declarations, making it quite difficult to understand what she wants to put across. Meantime, he, on the other hand, pauses and squirms, as if eating his words, his haf-smiles revealing his own nervousness and self-conscious babbles.

And they start all over again, from the top.

Nope, they’re not auditioning for TV role screenings, and it’s not even a movie bit role rehearsal. “First impressions last, and so we’re making them good ones,” they say.

Both are composing their own online video resumes, making sure they perfect their video presentations , eyeing their goals of landing a job at the corporate organization of their dreams.

When industry analysts tagged the phenomenon of video resumes as “already popular” in First World countries which makes text resumes as “obsolete”, not a few observers agreed. Hong Kong-based internet company Konek.com’s human resources manager Jeff Sabordo enthused that video resumes online is “the latest craze in the corporate world.”

“The technology is already available, with video resumes easily uploadable in online facilities, giving more chances for jobseekers to get started in their chosen careers. Fresh graduates, and all the other applicants should avail themselves of this innovation in job applications,” says Sabordo.

He further added that job applicants’ personalities are more easily assessed through video resumes than through text resumes. “Even if the applicant practices his or her speech, the real person will come out in their online videos. But in paper resumes, what you see is what the person wrote about himself—yet, more often than not , the applicant’s perceived personality is so detached from his real personality when you see him in person.”

In the Philippine set-up, research group IBON Foundation gives statistical data giving a bleak scenario for the labor and employment ballgame. Their studies show the latest figures: a total of at least 10.6 million jobless and underemployed Filipinos in January 2009, revealing an unemployment rate of 7.7% early this year.

And more of IBON Foundation’s figures : job losses number to some 122,000 in the manufacturing sector from last year’s figures, 39,000 job losses in the construction sector, and some 28,000 job losses in the financial intermediation sector.

The IBON Foundation report says: “The latest unemployment report underscores the deep problems of the economy: its weakened internal ability to grow, create jobs, provide incomes , and cope with the crisis… The country faces greater joblessness in the coming months, and the worst is yet to come especially with the government’s inadequate response to address the country’s severe unemployment.”

Amidst what looks like a grim labor and employment scenario, enter VidRes.Net --- giving a glimmer of hope for the country’s current economic and financial slump.

The VidRes group , an all-Filipino team expressed optimism that one of the “answers” to the country’s unemployment problem is already here with their company’s novel online search engine : matching jobseekers and employers with its online video resume facilities which provide win-win solutions for both parties.

“Our site serves to expedite hiring procedures as it bypasses the lengthy preliminary screening process, being one of the newest innovations in the industry which could help address the country’s unemployment concerns. On the macro level, we foresee the economy benefiting from the revolutionary effect of this development, and could lead to what economists term as a faster velocity of labor since it cuts down the turnaround time in moving between jobs.”

They further add: “The simplicity and the economy of the Vidres system are its principal virtues. Its entry into the market could well signal a host of possibilities for improving the ways of doing business that start with finding the right man or woman for the job and finding the right job for every man or woman. “

Other company officials point out that with the rapid changes in the Internet creating major positive effects in fresh trends and innovations in competition in the job market, more and more are agreeing that the advent of the video resume system is very timely. And that very soon, because of its growing popularity and effectivity, “video resumes are going to be as ubiquitous as PDAs or iPods.

While companies seeking perfect candidates for their vacancies benefit from its cost-effective and time-effective interview screenings for their prospects to ease the usually tedious process in recruitment, jobseekers themselves benefit to cut costs with the site’s time-efficiency measures minus travelling hassles of initial personal interviews.

With just a thirty-seconder video resume, backed up with job interview advice and job hunt professional tips, free log-in online facility and uploading facility for those who would want to post their online video resumes ( costing a one-time fee of P300 for three months online exposure) , thousands of jobseekers have trooped to the site , beefing up the site’s database, and also a growing roster of employer-companies addressing the concern of unemployment.

“The timing of this online video resume technology is truly ripe, with the obvious appeal and popularity of job-search engines , hastening the recruitment process for both local and foreign employers. Online video resumes serve to expedite hiring procedures as it bypasses the lengthy preliminary screening process."

Launched last June 2007, the two-year-old online video resume site , not surprisingly, earned numerous rave reviews from the media , industry analysts and the general public. And when the company bagged the Award of Excellence in the recent Philippine Quill Awards sponsored by the International Association of Business Communications (IABC), the unrelenting raves made things clear.

The online site group was recognized for its “strategic communication efforts that demonstrated a full range of planning and management skills, including research, analysis, strategy, tactical implementation, and evaluation… borne from the partnership between a team of specialists in IT and a group of experts in education, who recognized the need for a quicker and more efficient method of matching employers and employees… The innovative service is their way of helping generate employment and economic and social opportunities for Filipinos.”

With everything coming up roses, the upsurge of clamor for the site surely makes it headed for global directions. The Filipino team reveals that their management group is eyeing new target clients from the USA, Europe and the Middle East “with boundless job markets.”

More link-ups: the company forges ties with Internet cafes and job fairs for the online recruitment search engine to be more beneficial for a wider target market ( both jobseekers and employers), beefing up its growing database. Next stop: a link-up with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).

With all these, the group expressed optimism for the novel job-matching idea to reach better heights in the industry.

“Gone are the days when firms have to go through a number of resumés to find the right worker. Video resumés allow both the employer and the job seeker to cut down on employment costs. This "innovative" way of looking for jobs is one way of answering the country’s unemployment concerns. Everyone should take advantage of the growing trends and popularity of online recruitment and video resume jobhunting. This technology is ripe and in perfect timing. “

"Cyberculture Future: The Next One Hundred Years"

Hi guys ,

Hope you can catch our farewell production for year 2008 ( resting for the Christmas season ) ...











The Manila Futurists Society, in cooperation with the Webmasters Guild of Mapua Institute of Technology (MIT) , is holding the fifteenth and last leg of the MFS campus tour seminar-series for year 2008 , entitled "Cyberculture Future: The Next One Hundred Years" ---- set on Wednesday November 19 2008 330 PM at the AVR1 Audiltorium of Mapua Makati City .


See you there!

World's Fastest Computer

( dubbed as one of 2008's 50 best inventions , as per Time Magazine )


IBM's Roadrunner , dubbed as “the world's first hybrid supercomputer" is breaking global records through the "petaflop barrier" and swaggering with its 1,000 trillion operations -- per second.

That’s one quadrillion calculations per second.

www.futureculture.tk









Imagine a hard drive linked directly to your mind enabling you to “download” memory implants for skill enhancements.

Actions will be performed though these have not been learned directly.


You could master any subject, or learn a foreign language – without studying.

www.positivefuturist.com








Cognitive Computing In Year 2020


This will enable efficient brain-machine connections,which in the next decade, will be used mostly for research and neuroprosthetics.

But the immense prospect for enhancing human minds will drive this technology forward and by mid-2020s, human-machine interface will become routine.

Cybernetics Expert Christof Koch









Will tomorrow’s computers develop human-like intelligence and become
smarter than us?

Most scientists say yes; it’s only a matter of time.

IBM’s ASCI Purple processes 100 trillion operations per second – or 100 teraflops.

Scientists believe our brains process 10,000 teraflops, 100 times faster than ASCI Purple.
Futurist Dick Pelletier






Year 2020
By Futurist Ray Kurzweil

So when can we expect a computer with human-like processing speed?

In “The Age of Spiritual Machines, When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence” Kurzweil predicts this will happen by 2020.

At that time computers will equal the human brain in calculation speed, but they will still lack self-awareness and a sense of being conscious.









Year 2025 to Year 2030

If technology takes its course, possibly between years 2025 and 2030, our computer/robot of tomorrow will achieve human-like intelligence and look amazingly like us.

Imagine the benefits : It could serve as personal assistant, generate income, become an artificial companion, or even replace soldiers in battle.


www.positivefuturist.com









Hologram Technology

On CNN’s election night episode, CNN News Correspondent Jessica Yellin from Chicago appeared right on the set of CNN’s New York studios , doing a “Star Wars” feat ala Princess Leia.
Hologram Technology will reign in cyberculture future for the next one hundred years.

www.cnn.com








The Future of E-Learning

E-learning is beset with a host of challenges and issues that continue to make it controversial , yet it is already widely recognized as an invaluable resource for students, educators, and parents.

www.techlearning.com







As we progress deeper into the 21st century, the primary challenge may lie more in moving beyond the traditional ways of teaching and learning that still cling to both in-person and virtual learning environments, and into the broadening realm of possibility that the newest technologies have opened to us.

www.techlearning.com






By year 2025:
Futurists predict, nano-replicators will appear on kitchen counters to fill all our material needs.

We could eat a nutritionally-perfect meals created automatically with information downloaded from the Internet, using only dirt, air, or water as raw materials.

www.positivefuturist.com







"We're about moving the state-of-the-art forward."
"Ultimately, we're about making sure Microsoft and its products are around in 10 years."
“In the past , we have produced technology that has gone into Xbox graphics, the company's videoconferencing device RoundTable, speech-recognition tools and cryptography libraries.”

Microsoft Research
Senior Vice President Rick Rashid







Cyber Schools

Cyber schools, where students receive instruction via internet connected computers—is one restructured model of schooling.

They interact with teachers via e-mail , meet in groups where they ask questions with a microphone, indicate they don't understand with the click of the mouse and receive live instruction through Web-based chats.

www.techlearning.com






But there are ethical questions and risks. Are these Computers of tomorrow
a form of life or just a machine? How about legal rights?
And what safeguards might be necessary to prevent these powerful machines from harming us?

This overwhelming technology will surely mark the beginning of a “brave new world” for humankind.

Futurist Dick Pelletier










Future Directions In Computing are now exploring other techniques to deliver powerful computers.

A quantum computer is a theoretical device that would make use of the properties of quantum mechanics, the realm of physics that deals with energy and matter at atomic scales.

It is a new paradigm for computation.


University of Oxford’s Professor Arthur Ekert







The Future of Computing


In the future, the number of tiny but powerful computers you encounter every day will number in the thousands, perhaps millions.

You won't see them, but they will be all around you.

Your personal interface to this powerful network of computers could come from a single computing device that is worn on or in the body.


www.futureforall.org









IT will also encourage breakthroughs in genetics, nanotech, and materials industries.

Forward-thinkers dream of a future time when human aging and death will become just bad memories of our ancient past.

www.positivefuturist.com









BrainGate of the Future:

BrainGate is a device that enables paralyzed people to control computers directly with their brains – and eventually could help them regain complete mobility.

“The goal of BrainGate is to develop a fast, reliable, and unobtrusive connection between the brain of a severely disabled person and a personal computer .”


www.positivefuturist.com






Year 2015:

Inexpensive chips and advance networking will eliminate cable, satellite, VCR, and DVR boxes, and merge all our communication needs – TV, phones, radio, and the Internet – into a single invisible device that responds to our voice and understands our thoughts.

We will view images from this system on wall-size screens in our homes, or directly on our retina with active contact lenses.

Futurist Dick Pelletier









Intel Research: “Technology That Works”

While the capabilities and versatility of computing devices continue to grow, so does their complexity at both the hardware and software level.

As more devices become essential to our daily lives, it will become increasingly important to conceal their complexity by reducing what people need to learn to operate them.








Intel’s “Intelligent Assistance“
and “Universal Mediator”

This involves using high-level understanding and modeling of complex digital environments and configurations to develop simple diagnosis, presentation and repair.

We are also working on a "universal mediator" that uses intelligent broad spectrum analysis and mediation to handle a wide array of coding, protocol, application and security layers.






The development of the personal computer and the Internet has "enabled man to transcend the barriers of physical distance" .


The future of technology will enable people to be life-long learners . Learning will continue into the work place where there is a "need to keep up with current information“.


www.helium.com





IT is the driving force for change as we progress into our “magical” 21st century future.


Today, we are just beginning to exploit this knowledge, but there is much more to learn.

In this century, science and technology advancements will rush by us at breathtaking speeds – fueled by information technologies.

Futurist Dick Pelletier





Essential Computing:

“Simplifying and enriching all aspects of work and daily life through applications and systems technologies that collectively empower individuals, connect them to each other and into the fabric of networked society.”"

Andrew Chien ,
Intel Director

The Orbital Internet
( dubbed as one of 2008's 50 best inventions , as per Time Magazine )

Orbital Internet is here, a new internet protocol based on the idea of providing Internet to remote locations by satellite, and the ambitious communications technology is including inter-planetary internet-surfing in its agenda.

So don't be surprised if you receive an email from somebody from outer space.
Coming soon.


www.futureculture.tk







Schools Of The Future


Classrooms will be outfitted with the latest in interactive technology.
Out are chalkboards.
Instead, rooms will have smartboards, which combine the functions of a computer, projector and whiteboard.
And no more lugging around a dozen textbooks.

http://abcnews. go.com







By Year 2020, Or even before:

Experts believe, tiny microchips placed under our skin will enable us to control electronic devices and browse the Internet with just our thoughts.

We could place these chips into the upper layers of the skin and arrange them into useful circuits to power and control our electronic world.

Futurologist Ian Pearson






Quantum Computers

Scientists have "entangled" two sub-atomic particles separated by about a millimetre, a feat that might pave the way for powerful quantum computers in the future.

Entangled particles may be useful to make logic circuits for computers that have a far greater capacity and speed than today's machines.

http://news. bbc.co.uk







The world's fastest silicon-based microchip has been demonstrated by scientists in the US.
The prototype operates at speeds up to 500 gigahertz (GHz), more than 100 times faster than desktop PC chips.

IBM’s Professor David Ahlgren







Computers, cell phones, music players, and other devices could be implanted on our wrists and hands, with full keyboards.
These would remain invisible until our touch made them light up.

This is the future of IT.

Futurist Dick Pelletier









By 2015, household robots will satisfy our every whim.
By 2020, accident-free driverless cars will keep us safe.
And by 2030, scramjets will whisk us to anywhere on Earth in an hour or less.

Will this "magical future" happen?
Absolutely, say experts: because it’s all driven by information technologies.

Futurist Dick Pelletier







Computers Will Be “Oxygen Of The Future”

By the year 2010, scientists predict we will be immersed in a sea of
miniature computers.

Many of us carry three or four digital devices with us, but soon that figure will be in the hundreds.

http://news. bbc.co.uk






The next milestone in the relentless pursuit of smaller, higher performance microchips has been unveiled.


Chip-maker Intel has announced that it will start producing processors using transistors with features just 45 nanometres (billionth of a metre) wide.

Shrinking the technology that underpins the basic building blocks of chips will make them faster and more efficient.

http://news. bbc.co.uk







The Quantum Computing World

Fortune Magazine describes a “quantum computing” world that includes microscopic sensors embedded in our homes, vehicles, and workplace that monitor our well-being 24/7; and a thin headband of ultrasonic transducers that wirelessly transmits information both ways between the Internet and our brain, and to other headbands.



Quantum computation is still in its infancy. Teleportation so far is only restricted to the teleportation of information.”

Dr Ping Koy Lam, Australia National University









By Year 2010 or sooner:

IT’s amazing digital wizardry:
Personal lifelike avatars with compelling characters will be available for home TV displays.


You will interact with a sharp 3-D life-size image of a character you created. Its design, temperament, and voice style will all be of your making.

www.positivefuturis t.com







From cell phones and PDAs to personal music players, digital devices are becoming increasingly personal and important for social use, personal enjoyment, and awareness of what's going on in people's immediate world.

In the future we may have a "wardrobe" of personal devices to help us pursue short- and long-term goals and personal enhancement. .
www.techresearch. intel.com








Moore’s Law So True For The Next 100 Years

Moore's Law is a prediction made by Intel's co-founder Gordon Moore in 1965.
Moore predicted that computing technology would increase in value at the same time it would decrease in cost.

Thanks to the innovation and drive of Moore and others like him, computers will continue to get smaller, faster and more affordable.

www.futureforall. org








"The Moore's Law for computer technology states that in every 18 months, there will be a doubling of computer memory, speed and other performances, "


"In a few years' time, this law will have to confront quantum theory when transistors are shrunk to the size of a few atoms."

Chinese-Australian Physicist Dr. Ping Lam






Andrew Chien, Intel Research Director

“One of the things that we're very focused on is this idea of inference and understanding the world.

The big idea is all about whether inference and sensors are really the missing piece to make ubiquitous computing come to fruition.

We can build small devices that fit into our pocket, but the things we're falling short on are inference, making the devices work together well, and making them interact with us in natural ways.






A good percentage of Microsoft research focuses on improving current products or creating brand new ones for the company .

The company's research projects include work on quantum computing, spam-fighting technology and a new user interface.
Microsoft Research Senior Vice President Rick Rashid






Singularity, a prototype operating tem for the computer science research environment, will be available in the USA at no charge for academic and noncommercial use.

The goal of Singularity is to help improve software dependability and foster inventive research in systems, programming languages and tools.

Microsoft’s Research Department







New Super Computer For Medical Science Progress


This new computer will be the one of the world’s fastest, with a sustained capacity of 50 trillion calculations, or teraflops, per second and a peak capacity of 250 teraflops per second, enable breakthrough discoveries that will change medical science and its impact across society.
Futurist Dick Pelletier







Computers With The Speed of Light

Light travels at 186,000 miles per second.
That's 982,080,000 feet per second – or 11,784,960,000 inches.

In a billionth of a second, one nanosecond, photons of light travel just a bit less than a foot, not considering resistance in air or of an optical fiber strand or thin film.

Just right for doing things very quickly in microminiaturized computer chips.

www.futureforall. org