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Where is the buzz this year? What are you buzzed about?

dougw

What is the most exciting consumer technology this year?

  • New smart phones happen every year, but there is no longer a huge splash when a new one launches.
  • 3D printer technology continues to expand with new materials, but not a lot of fanfare.
  • Digital cameras aren't getting dramatically better.
  • Indoor location systems haven't reached GPS usability.
  • The PS5 is here, but gaming has drifted into the cloud and those games have to cater to any hardware.
  • Fitness monitoring never really penetrated the consumer market.
  • Wearables and smart watches have not lived up to their hype.
  • Cars are getting smarter and more of them are electric, but nothing beyond what has been anticipated for a long time.
  • LEDs are more and more ubiquitous, but no longer a big novelty.
  • Drones are now everywhere, but new regulations are starting to stifle their expansion into new applications.
  • Personal robots haven't reached a decent "value proposition" point yet.

 

If you were going to take the plunge and plunk down some hard earned cash for some new consumer electronics, what would it be?

What technology are you enthusiastic about this year?

 

What technology needs  to be developed? Where is it all going?

  • Is there a decent niche for a B/W LCD tablet that will run for a month on a battery?
  • Will low speed personal (single person) electric vehicles explode in popularity?
  • Will there be a trend for IoT to break away from the cloud and spawn lots of local solutions?
  • Will personal YouTube channels spell hard times for big media companies?
  • Will drive though pick-up become so efficient, your vehicle never needs to stop?
  • Will groceries be delivered by autonomous vehicles?
  • Will automated manufacturing reach consumer levels and allow everyone to become a maker?
  • Will farming become efficient enough to build a self-sufficient electric water craft that never needs touch land?
  • 0

    I am helping a small start up company exploit drones carrying a variety of cameras to do crop analysis.

     

    Agriculture has gone very high tech with a lot of farmers now using satellite and drone data to keep an eye on hundreds to thousands of acres.

     

    DAB

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    I am curious to see what impact AI at the edge will make although skeptical it will make a big splash in 2021. 

  • 0

    For me, my big spend (not that big) was an upgraded 3D printer.  I know this is not high tech, but there are many nice featured in my new printer that really made the purchase worth the added price.

     

    My next, really big purchase will be a replacement for my Toyota Prius (2011 with 100K+ miles).  At this point I still don't know if the move to full electric makes sense without first updating my home with enough solar to be able to charge the car.  While the Prius has managed to average out at about 50 mpg, how much better mileage would I need to get in a hybrid replacement in order to feel that I was doing the environmentally correct thing.  This will be a ongoing brain exercise.

     

    When it come to new technologies that need to be developed, I believe that the number one area that needs to be improving our global carbon footprint.  I don't see this a just an energy thing, but we need to address just about every aspects of our lives. Clean energy, clean and efficient manufacturing, recycling, farming all need to be advanced and quickly. We need clean and plentiful air, water, food and energy if we are going to me able to keep this planet and the people on it healthy.

  • 0

    I think electric cars have tipped over into a great place for consumers. Even a year ago you'd probably have to be an early adopter or a Tesla fan, but now it would be a fairly sensible option with choice from a lot of manufacturers. Maybe that not as exciting as being new, but it's far more important.

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    It'll be interesting to see what comes out of the Mars missions.

     

    Also interested to see SpaceX continue their work... not sure if that's a "this year" timeline.

     

    I agree with Fred Murphy about electric cars - I'm seeing a lot of new options becoming available over the next short while. Kia just announced another new entry to the list: EV-6. It's also good to see the big companies like Volkswagen, GMC, and Ford add to the list.

    It's exciting to see choices in that arena now.

    But I think that's also a "wait 5 years" kind of deal, to really have choices and better budget options.

     

    AI is not super exciting to me, as it's been on-going and slow-going. Siri still doesn't understand me properly.

     

    Similarly, I *was* excited about self-driving cars, but that also seems to have stalled somewhat. Driver-assist options are becoming smarter and more generally available, but it feels like true self-driving is still needing more time to perfect.

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    In consumer electronics I like changes in digital medium format camera which are starting to become available in affordable prices, I mean GFX system from Fujifilm.

     

    I hope that in healthcare or medical will appear new technologies. Because for example in imaging there is no super breakthrough.

  • 0

    DNA genetics sequencing, sampling and editing. There're so many conditions that benefit from being identified early, treated appropriately, and having treatments tailored based upon your genetics that this should be accessible to everyone and there's a lot of movement in the analysis of consumer based DNA tests results beyond ancestry and where people are from and the presentation and interpretation of this data.

     

    Reading muscle and brain signals and interpreting this into machine or robotic control systems, or virtual representation. Augmented and virtual reality is going to shift its tech' as its interface needs to move away from a games controller, mouse and keyboard into something else less intrusive but just as accessible. We're seeing the starts of this with Facebook's wrist strap and also prosthetic appendages working better from reading directions and instructions, but we're not quite there yet and it's not entirely accessible.

     

    Robotics may see a leap forward as it gets smaller, likely with smaller motors and motor control, an example of this is hasbro's programmable Optimus Prime which can transform by itself and can be controlled.