While 2017’s technological advancements tended to focus on the not so exciting side of life – politics, old culture, cryptocurrency and social media communication to be exact – there were some eye-popping tech moments that made tech lovers gasp, even if it was for just a second.
Yet these high points were few and far between and their effect on human evolution quite short-lived. The bright side, however, is that they have left their footprint on technological advancement and fascination, the effects of which should lead to further progress in 2018.
https://gizmodo.com/new-technology-were-actually-excited-about-for-2018-1821514332
The following is a short recap of some of the tech highlights that should spring up in the coming year and make next year a lot more exciting than this past one.
Digital Cameras
While the basics of digital cameras are unlikely to see any major advancements in 2018, digital camera software will most likely increase shot accuracy, focus, and resolution, as well as continue to make digital cameras more affordable for the average consumer.
Automobiles
Auto, in this case, refers to self-driving cars. Most car enthusiasts are well aware of Tesla and their efforts to create a fleet of autonomous vehicles, but other companies like Waymo, are also looking towards the future of self-driven cars and are expecting to release their self-driving taxis in Phoenix sometime next year.
Virtual Reality
There were big expectations in 2017 for augmented reality, yet this technology was not able to go as mainstream as it wanted. Several factors were at the core of this, namely: nausea, limited eye-tracking, isolated use, and overall cost.
2018 should see more mainstream popularity, however, as companies like Oculus are dedicated to overcoming these obstacles. Oculus is planning on launching a $200 VR headset which should create more augmented reality enthusiasts among the general public.
Artificial Intelligence
This has been a controversial subject among tech giants like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, yet companies like Adobe are looking to push forward with new intelligent life-forms.
Now Adobe is not focusing on an all-intelligent being here, just major tweaks to its already existing line of products such as auto-selection features for photos and auto element features that spontaneously remove unwanted elements from videos.
Mocap
Mocap, or Motion Capture, is slowly but surely replacing CGI. This technology is just more life-like as could be seen with this year’s Planet of the Apes film.
The apes looked so real that it appeared that they were almost human. In fact, they were human as no CGI was involved and the actors were allowed to play their parts as is with the help of Mocap technology.
Mocap popularity should continue to rise within the movie industry as well as the gaming world bringing more life-like features to moving pictures in 2018.
Medical Watches
Up till now, smartwatches have not received much love from the public, yet next year should change all that as these watches are now being tailored to save lives.
In particular, the Apple Smartwatch along with an AI algorithm has been verified to detect abnormal heart rates, hypertension, and sleep apnea to a high degree of accuracy – most of the times much higher than current conventional methods can.
The FDA has just approved the first medical watch accessory this year, so further technological advancements along these lines are expected to continue during the upcoming year.
