With 2017 on the horizon, Global Design firm Frog looks ahead at the trends in technology that will have a long-term effect on businesses in the new year. Advances, developments, and improvements that will persist creating value and changing the way people and companies experience the world.
These trends unravel opportunities for growth and help companies offer their customers, employees, and society more relevant experiences. They also have significant disruptive potential, rapid growth, high volatility and they will reach crucial points in the next year. Let’s sneak a look at the amazing (and near) future.
Synthetic Biology, or Synbio
Synthetic biology, or synbio, is perhaps one of the new technological terms that you will be most hearing about in the next year. It goes way beyond GMOs since it’s more like re-writing DNA than simply modifying it. We are talking about creating new foods pretty much from scratch. Some say this is the new chapter in genetic engineering, and this business must reach a total of US$16 billion by the end of 2017. So it’s very likely that sometime this coming year we will be able to find synbio already for sale at the grocery store, as an alternative to products derived from animals.
This video explains what this new application of genetic engineering is doing for us.
There are a lot of reasons why we should choose synbio foods, such as the reduction of carbon emissions and toxic products, fighting pests, and improving the quality of the soil.
Organic Buildings
New technologies have made it possible for new construction materials to be developed in order to build constructions all made by alternative sources that are smart enough to perform tasks such as cooling itself when it gets too hot. As an example, scientists have developed cement based products such as bricks, that uses microorganisms. All these efforts are being made all across the world in order to reduce costs but mainly because of a more environmentally conscious generation of professionals.
Virtual Reality Therapy (VRT)
Another term that you will be hearing a lot this coming year is VRT - virtual reality therapy. Basically, it involves getting the brain to outperform itself by virtually training it, addressing issues such as addictions, phobias, physical rehabilitation, and so forth.
Ocean Farming
Although the ocean has always been a source of foods for human, the innovation is having greater control of the production, i.e, more and more we are farming the oceans, harvesting new foods without the use of arable land and soil.
Scalable Data Processing
Data processing will be at its best in 2017, with all the information gathered in the past few years around the world by companies such as Google and Microsoft getting processed to perform state of the art weather forecast, reading of ecological patterns, etc. Millions of sensors and drones have helped collect all this information and now we are more prepared than ever to make great use of this gigantic amount of data.
Soft Robotics
There is no doubt we are entering the age of AI, with it getting used in everyday devices such as smartphones. But already in 2017 we will see less of the 60’s imagined metal robots and much more soft robotics, i.e, AI machines made with materials that make them look much more human by mimicking our sensory processes.
Precision Medicine
Medicine will be able to get more customized once caretakers and doctors become able to make better use of all the information already available about their patients. This combination of data, algorithms, and precision molecular tools is being called Precision Medicine. New platforms are being created to perform interpretation of and connection among data points.
Interactive Spaces
The interaction between the physical spaces where people work and live and their activities will be greater than ever in 2017. Not only our houses and workplaces will learn more about ourselves but the whole system will be able to evolve through an integration of aesthetics and function. Inexpensive sensors are being extremely helpful in creating these new self-evolving systems that will be able to adapt to the resident/customer in terms of layout, colors, lighting, sounds and temperature, just as an example.
As you can see, the future is closer than it’s ever been. When we think about these trends it may sound like a distant time ahead when in fact we are reading about things that are already a reality taking shape and readily available.
Which one of these trends you think has a major impact in your life? Which one do you think is more important and beneficial to mankind? Share your thoughts on our Facebook page and stay tuned for more articles about technology and lifestyle.
