#9

18 October 2011

Session 9!

Our topic for today's session was about future and emerging technologies, basically anything under the sun and that made this session really interesting!

“You see things; and you say, 'Why?'

But I dream things that never were; and I say, 'Why not?'”

- George Bernard Shaw -

This quote shared by prof was an interesting one that I felt really relates to the topic at hand. After all, future innovative technologies can only come about with a mentality that asks "Why not?" rather than "Why". This signifies a need for us to constantly question the status quo and be dissatisfied with whatever we have now. It is only through this that we will strive for excellence through creativity and innovation. Such continuous improvement will allow us to make breakthroughs in the technology aspect. In fact, with a "why not" mindset, we will be able to achieve breakthroughs in every other areas. Creativity is definitely an ingredient in achieving this because it takes great imagination to create products that people do not realize they need until they see it in action. This, we have learnt, is summit opportunity. I liked what Prof said about "When you can imagine it, you can potentially make it happen!" -the limitations are boundless and in the area of future and emerging technologies, the sky is really the limit.

For example, the video showed in class about The Perfect Woman and augmented reality. The researchers of the perfect woman decided that there is a need for this and they dare to dream about creating such a product, resulting in this successful invention. Augmented reality was also an interesting concept. In fact, I have read up a little about augmented reality while deciding on a topic for my individual review paper. There are many mobile apps which use this technology, for example giving users reviews of dining/shopping places as mentioned in the video. Such practical uses of this technology is really useful for the public and indeed, there is a viable future for this augmented reality.

http://www.howstuffworks.com/augmented-reality.htm : this website provided me with a really good overview about what augmented reality was about and the future as well as limitations of this technology. Worth reading! (:

There have also been interesting ideas about how augmented reality could be used, such as allowing you to see information about strangers (something like what prof mentioned about seeing another person's information to determine if he or she is worthy of befriending). One idea was using this technology to identify sex offenders in your vicinity, an iPhone and andriod app called "Sex Offenders Tracker". The ability to see information about your neighbourhood or the place you are at is indeed valuable. But it is without doubt that with such application of the technology, there will be concerns about privacy issues. Do we really want apps that use augmented reality to pull up a person's criminal history and other life details and show it to us in real-time as we watch them walk down the street? Sure, it is currently only limited to a sex-offender tracking app but there will be no stopping other companies or apps from pulling up anyone's credit history, tax records or a list of criminal offenses while superimposing on your face as you shop for groceries. These are just some concerns that may arise with the use of augmented reality and undoubtedly, with the emergence of new technologies, there may be similar and/or other concerns as well. Thus, it is important that the usage of new technologies is guided and not be misused!

Overall, I would rate a 8/10 for this lesson!