IBM looks into the future of technology trends

Dubai: Looking into the future always has been mankind's desire. Computer giant IBM has been doing it regularly for the last three years.

But instead of looking into the crystal ball, the tech company's forecast is based on thorough studies of societal development and technical trends as well as continuous market analysis.

Released recently, IBM's "Next Five in Five" report lists technologies that have the potential to change the way people live and work in the next five years.

According to IBM spokeswoman Angela Sullivan, emerging technologies developed in the company's laboratories have been taken into account additionally.

So what to expect for work, life and play in the near future? IBM is convinced that energy-saving solar technology will be used far more than nowadays; sophisticated energy generating devices will be built into buildings and cars and embedded into notebooks, cell phones, clothes - and what can be very useful in countries like the UAE - into tinted windows.

This will make the use of solar energy affordable and practicable in everyday life, the study says. Even more, small thin-filmed solar cells can be produced much cheaper than big wafers, making solar energy much more cost-efficient.

"IBM started reporting on technology trends three years ago," says Sullivan, adding that this year's "Next Five in Five" report was the third in a row that shows how innovation technology could affect daily life in the future. The document is mainly based on scientific forecasts of technology developments, but it also considers social and other trends.

The next thing IBM assumes will reach its breakthrough is the "virtual shopping assistant". This is a combination of digital and mobile technology used to boost in-store shopping experience mainly in fashion shops.

Using touch screen terminals and wireless data transfer, customers will be able to view clothing on a virtual projection of their own body on a full screen while receiving real time information about related accessoires, discounts, home delivery options, product ratings and the like.

Another forecast is dealing with health issues. Doctors will be able to provide people with a kind of "genetic footprint" that will tell the bearer what kind of health risks he is facing and which practices he should better avoid to prevent this risks.

"In daily use, the genetic information can be compared with, for instance, the ingredients of certain foodstuff to determine if a specific kind of meal or drink is compatible to the individual's health conditions or not," says Sullivan. The genetic footprint will be based on detailed information about a person's DNA predisposition.

And of course, the future will bring lot of innovations in terms of Internet usage. As IBM predicts, the web interface will change dramatically, meaning that web computer will be controlled mainly by speech instead of keyboard use. So-called voice sites will be more common than today's conventional web sites.

"The technology is available and it can happen because it must", says Sullivan. Web usage of the future will be more like "web conversation".

The last of the five predictions is dealing with a kind of collective memory. IBM says in the next five years, people will get used to the fact that cameras and microphones are recording many actions of daily life.

This could be useful in private life, if people turn to acknowledge the advantage of digitally stored information.