Top 10 emerging breakthrough trending technologies

New ideas and technologies are emerging continuously to cope with the fast-changing world. There have been breakthrough inventions in the recent past in sectors like computer science, medical science, agriculture, engineering, automobiles, etc.

3D printing (also called Additive Manufacturing) is a technique/process to create a 3-dimensional solid object from a computer-aided virtual 3D model or electronic digital data source. The 3D printed object is achieved with the help of special 3D printers that use additive processes where an object is created by laying down successive layers of material until the entire object is created. Each layer can be seen as a thinly sliced horizontal cross-section of the eventual object.

This is still evolving and will be able to transform anything into a 3D object in the future. 3D printing has made a tremendous impact in areas like Medical science, Aviation, Automobile, Construction, Space, and others. In the future, 3D printing will be cheaper allowing users to create 3D objects for anything using their own personal 3D printer without much dependency on the manufacturing party.

Virtual Reality (also called VR) can be thought of as a simulation of real things. Virtual reality can recreate sensory experiences like vision, taste, smell, sound, and touch. You are near virtual-reality while watching a 3D movie, you are much close to virtual-reality when watching a 4D or higher dimension movie. But pure virtual-reality is when you can interact with the virtual environment.

To experience VR the person needs to wear a head-mounted display (HMD) or glasses that display 3D image/video in order to experience the virtual world. An additional experience like the sound is also sometimes included which enhances the overall experience.

Virtual reality has become popular among users for watching 360-degree videos, interactive 3D games, property walkthroughs, etc.

In the future, Virtual Reality will become an integral part of daily life and activity and will be used in various day-to-day activities. VR will be used in training, therapy, games, education, site visits, etc. where people need not be present in reality but still feel everything virtually by connecting remotely.

Cloud computing is a concept where services hosted on the network/internet are shared and used among multiple partners. The users act as consumers for the services and resources which are being offered by service providers. These services can be private (on-premise, for a set of internal users), public (shared over the internet), or hybrid (combination). The consumer here needs not to bother about infrastructure, storage, development, maintenance, and other headaches.

Ideally, consumers make use of a combination of features and opt for one of the following services and pay as per usage: Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).

Cloud computing has matured a lot over the past years and every other organization is investing in it and moving to the cloud. Applications that run on multiple device channels are making good use of cloud computing where centrally deployed apps are delivered on different devices.

Big Data analyzes and interprets large data, we are talking about very very HUGE, UNSTRUCTURED, and COMPLEX data sets. As the number of data increases, traditional data processing techniques like RDBMS are not sufficient and capable since they cannot store, search, share the large volume of data. Big data uses existing data, algorithms to analyze it, and finally uses advanced ways to extract meaningful results from it. Having said that, Big data is not very common everywhere. Traditional applications are capable enough to handle GB's or even a few TB's of data, but the processing time will be more. Big data comes into picture when the volume of data is too large and you don't want to wait for many days in order to analyze and generate a report.

Big data is currently used in sectors where data is huge - like governmental processes, health care, science and research, oil and gas industry.

Big data is still evolving and many big companies have invested in its R&D.

Internet of Things (also called IoT) is a scenario in which unique smart objects (natural or man-made) can transfer data over a network/internet which does not require human interaction. The objects are embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and connectivity to enable it to achieve greater value and service by exchanging data with the manufacturer, operator, and/or other connected devices. It has evolved from the convergence of wireless technologies, micro-electromechanical systems, and the Internet. These objects may refer to devices like automobiles with sensors, chip transponders mounted on animals, heart monitors, etc. Computers are today dependent on human beings for information that is available on the Internet created by human beings in the form of text, images, bar codes, QR codes, and in many other forms.

Internet of Things will allow computers to gather data from the internet and give messages to humans which will help in reducing waste, loss, and cost. It will help in knowing when things need replacing, repairing, or recalling and whether they were fresh or past their best.

A Drone (also called UAV - Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) is an aircraft without a human pilot whose flight is controlled either autonomously by onboard computers or by external operators using a remote control. Recently Drones have gained popularity due to their usage in aerial photography, logistics/cargo - delivering supplies, rescue operations, surveillance, and R&D activities.

There are some legal and security concerns seen with drones that are delaying full-fledged commercial use of it. People are required to get a valid license in some countries for using drones. In the future, drones will be widely used for military, counter-terrorism operations, medical/food supplies to unreachable areas, rescue operations, disaster relief, agriculture/irrigation, and research. Apart from these drones will be used commercially for aerial photography, cargo deliveries.

Wearables or wearable devices are mini-electronic accessories worn by users incorporating computer and advanced electronic technologies. These devices are capable of constantly interacting with the user and do multitasking. They can range from systems allowing users to track calories, time, distance, etc through a shoe sensor - to - a wearable glass which can be interacted with by using gestures and voice commands. Another popular variant is the wearable wrist smart-watch which works as a personal assistant where it provides text/voice notifications and lets the users interact with their paired smartphones.

Wearables still remain a topic of research and improvement and will act as mini-computers capable of doing every task which a smartphone can do in the future. There will be the use of wearables in fields like health care, fashion designing, behavioral modeling, integrated sensors, monitoring systems, etc.

Many big companies already have and are investing in wearable smart-watches and health monitor bands.

Auto driving cars (also known as Autonomous Car) is an automated vehicle which is capable of fulfilling the main transportation capabilities of a traditional car. It does not require human input and can sense the surrounding environment and navigate on its own and take quick decisions taking into consideration the current situation.

Though not commercially available currently, there have been prototypes where such cars help in avoiding traffic collisions, identify suitable navigation paths, keep track of their own position, use maps, maintain and follow speed limits, take decisions, etc.

Auto driven cars have been prototyped and tested successfully and look great promise for the future where they can be used for public transportation in the form of taxis.

Augmented reality is a kind of virtual reality that replicates the real physical environment whose elements are fed with the help of a computer with inputs like graphics, sound, or video. Everything happens in the real world, unlike VR which is not-real.

The view of reality is modified (augmented or diminished) by a computer program which creates a composite view of the real scene (what users see) and virtual scene (generated by a computer using additional information). The goal here is to create a system where the user cannot tell the difference between the real world and the virtual augmentation of it. It requires a display device which could be a projector, handheld device, monitor, mounted decide, etc.

Augmented Reality is used in fields like training, engineering, entertainment, architecture design, robotics, others.

This area is evolving fast and will be used heavily in sectors like language translation, tourism, sports entertainment, navigation, gaming, beauty/makeup, and others.

Project ARA an initiative that aims to develop an open hardware platform for creating highly modular smartphones. The platform includes a structural frame that holds smartphone modules as per owner choice (like display, camera, memory, etc). Users can swap malfunctioning modules or upgrade individual modules to stay updated with innovations.

The idea is to provide longer life cycles for user handset, reduce electronic waste and allow users to use their existing phone if a part is broken or corrupted, instead of replacing the phone with a new one. Again there is more work to be done in this area and will mature eventually, but it looks a great plan for the future.