21 technology tipping points we will reach by 2030

From driverless cars to robotic workers, the future is going to be here before you know it.
Many emerging technologies that you hear about today will reach a tipping point by 2025, according to a recent report from The World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Future of Software & Society.

The council surveyed more than 800 executives and experts from the technology sector to share their timeline for when technologies would become mainstream.

From the survey results, the council identified 21 defining moments, all of which they predict will occur by 2030.

Here’s a look at the technological shifts you can expect during the next 14 years.


90% of the population will have unlimited and free data storage by 2018.

Deleting files to make room for files is going to become a thing of the past.

In fewer than three years, about 90% of people will have unlimited and free data storage that will ultimately be ad-supported, according to the report.

We are already seeing some companies offer cheap or completely free service. For example, Google Photos already offers unlimited storage for photos and Amazon will let you store an unlimited amount of whatever you want for just $60 a year.

A big reason companies are able to do this is because hard drive cost per gigabyte continues to fall. This has spurred more data to be created than ever before. According to the report, it's estimated about 90% of all data has been created in just the last two years.

Still, there are signs this may not be the case. Microsoft recently killed its plan that offered unlimited storage on its cloud service OneDrive.


The first robotic pharmacist will arrive in the US 2021.

Robots already have a big presence in the manufacturing industry, but as they become more advanced we will see them enter new service oriented jobs.

In fact, respondents predict that by 2021 we will even have first robot pharmacist in the US.


1 trillion sensors will be connected to the internet by 2022.

Welcome to the internet of things.

As the cost of sensors continues to decline and computing power increases, all kinds of devices will increasingly become connected to the internet. From the clothes you wear to the ground you walk on, everything will come online.

And as early as 2022, its predicted 1 trillion sensors will be connected

According to the report “every (physical) product could be connected to ubiquitous communication infrastructure, and sensors everywhere will allow people to fully perceive their environment.”


10% of the world's population will be wearing clothes connected to the internet by 2022.

Cars, appliances, and other everyday objects are increasingly becoming more connected to the internet. And not too long from now, even the clothes on our back will get a connection.

By 2022, experts predict that 10% of people will be wearing clothing with embedded chips that connects them to the internet.

This isn’t really too surprising seeing as a number of accessories—including watches and rings— are already becoming connected. According to the research firm Gartner, about 70 million smartwatches and other bands will be sold in 2015 alone.


The first 3D-printed car will be in production by 2022.

3D printers are increasingly becoming more powerful, capable of printing complex objects from all kinds of materials. Many car companies are already using the technology to create prototypes and to more efficiently create specific parts of a vehicle.

Most recently, Audi showed off a miniature sized vehicle it created using its metal printers.

But the automotive startup Local Motors is aiming to begin production on a full size car using 3D printing in the next few years. The company has already created several prototypes, but will begin taking orders for its production model (shown above) in 2016.


The first implantable mobile phone will become commercially available in 2025.

Being attached to your smartphone may take on a whole new meaning by 2023.

About 80% of respondents predict that in seven years the first implantable mobile phone will become commercially available.

The device will potentially be able to track a person’s health more accurately, while also allowing them to communicate thoughts via brainwaves or signal instead of verbally, according to the report.

Implantable health devices, like pacemakers and cochlear implants, have already become mainstream. And it's likely we'll see more widespread adoption of implantable technologies emerge before 2025.


The first government to replace its census with big-data technologies by 2023.

As collecting, managing, and understanding data becomes easier, governments may move away from old methods of collecting information and begin to rely more on big data technologies to automate programs.

According to the report, this is going to happen sooner than later. More than 80% of respondents estimate that the first government will replace the census with big-data systems by 2023.

Some countries, including Canada, have already began experimenting with pulling back on traditional census methods, however, no country has completely replaced the system yet.


10% of reading glasses will be connected to the internet by 2023.

Interacting with the world around you will become a lot different when connected glasses become more common.

Eighty-six percent of survey respondents predict connected eye wear will become common by 2023. The technology will allow the wearer to have direct access to internet applications will enable an enhanced or augmented reality experience. Eye tracking technology will also enable them to control the interface with their vision.

Google, of course, has already introduced similar technology with its Google Glass and is currently working on connected contact lenses.


80% of people on earth will have a digital presence online by 2023.

More people will gain a digital identity as internet connectivity becomes more prevalent.

Respondents estimate that by 2023 more than 80% of the global population will have a digital presence.

According to the report “...digital life is becoming inextricably linked with a person’s physical life,” and will only continue to grow in importance.

Companies like Facebook and Google are pushing this effort ahead with various projects to connect remote parts of the world to the internet.


A government will collect taxes for the first time via blockchain 2023.

Digital currencies, like Bitcoin, use a mechanism called the blockchain to perform transactions. The blockchain is essentially a shared public ledger to track transactions. Everyone can inspect the ledger, but no one individual controls it.

The blockchain technology, though, holds promise beyond Bitcoin. Some have proposed using the technology for public databases, like titles to land or other goods. According to recent article from the Economist, the NASDAQ is even about to start using the technology to record trading in securities of private companies.

Blockchain technology is expected to reach its tipping point in the next few years and by 2023 its predicted that the first government will collect taxes using the technology.


90% of the global population will have a supercomputer in their pocket by 2023.

Around the world people are increasingly using their smartphones more than PCs, and in developing nations people are becoming connected to the internet for the first time via their mobile phone. As smartphones gain computing power and the price continues to fall, the speed of adoption will only accelerate.

The number of global smartphone subscribers is estimated to reach more than 50% penetration by 2017 and by 2023, about 90% of the population will be connected via smartphone.


Access to the Internet will become a basic right by 2024.

According to the survey, 79% of respondents predict that by 2024 most of the world will have regular internet access.

Tech giants like Google and Facebook are currently coming up with creative solutions to connect the remaining 4 billion people who don’t have access to the internet.

Facebook’s Internet.org is using drones to beam internet down to Earth from satellites and Google’s Project Loon is using giant balloons that float in the atmosphere to connect remote parts of the world.


The first transplant of a 3D-printed liver will occur 2024.

3D printers are already increasingly used in the healthcare industry to create human parts, like bone replacements and organ implants.

Doctors have already used 3D printing to create part of a patient's rib cage and other bone implants. But bioprinting, which combines bioengineering with 3D printing, will also enable researchers and others in the healthcare industry to grow useable artificial organs.


More than 50% of Internet traffic to homes will be from appliances and device by 2024.

As more sensors are deployed and more products become connected to the internet, we will see a big shift in internet traffic.

Currently, most of the internet traffic in home is for personal consumption, whether it be for communication or entertainment. But by 2024, about half of the internet in the home will be used for home automation purposes.


5% of consumer products will be 3D-printed.

3D printing, also know as additive manufacturing, has already made a lot of inroads with designers and in the manufacturing industry.

But as the printers become less expensive, more powerful, and easier to use, consumers will also increasingly adopt the technology. This will enable them to print things at home on demand.

Demand for the technology has already grown more than it was expected. In 2014, there were 133,000 3D printers sold worldwide, which is a 68% increase from 2013.


30% of corporate audits will be performed by artificial intelligence 2025.

AI will increasingly replace a range of jobs performed by people today, including white collar jobs.

Because artificial intelligence is so effective when it comes to matching patterns and automating processes, it’s well suited to perform many tasks in large organizations, according to the report.

According to an recent research from the McKinsey Global Institute, about 45% of activities people are paid to perform can be automated by adapting current technologies. This represents about $2 trillion in annual wages in the US. Furthermore, it’s not only low-income, low-skill workers that will be at risk.

According to the McKinsey research, “even the highest-paid occupations in the economy, such as financial managers, physicians, and senior executives, including CEOs, have a significant amount of activity that can be automated.”

By 2025, AI used in white collar jobs is expected to reach a tipping point and about 30% of corporate audits will be performed by AI.


Globally, more trips will be made using car sharing programs than privately owned cars by 2025.

The sharing economy has taken off in a big way during the last few years thanks to online marketplaces and mobile apps, but perhaps the best example of the sharing economy in action is in the transportation sector.

Services like Uber, Lyft, and Zipcar have changed how people think about transport and car ownership. It’s also forced auto manufacturers to rethink their business models.

And by 2025, 67% of respondents predict that the sharing economy will have grown to the point that more rides taken globally are actually via a car sharing service and not by a privately owned car.


Driverless cars will account for 10% of all cars in the US.

Autonomous cars have the potential to dramatically increase safety, decrease emissions, and change models of transportation.

Tech companies like Google and Uber, as well as traditional automakers like Toyota, General Motors, and Volkswagen are all currently working on self-driving cars. But respondents predict that it will be 2026 before the 10% of all cars are driverless in the US.


The first AI machine will join a corporate board of directors 2026.

Artificial intelligence will increasingly play a more important role in the business world as a decision making tool.

Because AI can learn from previous situations, it can provide insight and automate complex decision process based on data and past experiences. This means that the robots won't just replace low-wage, low-income jobs. As AI and robotics evolve, we will see more white-collar jobs also begin to be replaced.

According to the survey, the technology will be to the point that the first AI machine will become part of corporate board of directors by 2026.


The first city with more than 50,000 people and no traffic lights will come into existence by 2026.

Infrastructure will also become more connected in the future, giving way to more smart cities. Everything from the sidewalk and streets to the traffic lights and buildings will be connected to the internet.

Smart cities, like a smart home, will be automated capable of managing their “energy, material flows, logistics and traffic,” according to the report.

The evolution of connected infrastructure will bring about the first city with a population of 50,000 people and no traffic lights by 2026, according to the report.


10% of global gross domestic product will be stored using blockchain technology 2027.

As blockchain technology take off, more money will be stored using the technology.

According to the report, the total worth of Bitcoin in the blockchain is around $20 billion, or about 0.025% of global GDP of around $80 trillion. By 2027, about 10% of the global GDP will be stored using blockchain.

Unleash Hellhound! Northrop Grumman boasts new military buggy has laser weapons 'we would once only see in Star Trek'

* Six seater buggy is 'laser ready' for next generation weapons
* The 5,897 kg (6.5-ton) Hellhound can carry six including the driver
* Is able to produce enough power to run a field hospital or command centre
* Will come with optional integrated 10-kilowatt solid-state fiber laser

It could be the ultimate offroader - and take soldiers into battle like never before.

Northrop Grumman has revealed the ultimate buggy -  a six seater that boasts its own laser weapon.

Called the Hellhound, it was revealed at the  the Association of the US Army's annual conference in Washington, DC.

Northrop Grumman says it plans to integrate a 10-kilowatt solid-state fiber laser into the tactical dune buggy.

The 5,897 kg (6.5-ton) Hellhound can carry six people, including the driver.

It is designed to fulfill the US Army's potential light reconnaissance vehicle programme and will compete against other designs for the lucrative contract.

The 5,897 kg (6.5-ton) Hellhound can carry six including the driver.

It is able to generate 100 kVA of exportable power, which is particularly high for a vehicle of its size, with a 120 kW Jenoptik integrated starter generator, with officials boasting it could 'power the entire hall' it was launched in.

In a disaster scenario, the Hellhound could power a blacked-out hospital or a command post.

Although the version shown off has a more traditional weapon, the firm says it is 'laser ready'  and plans to integrate a 10-kilowatt solid-state fiber laser into the tactical dune buggy.

 Northrop is using a modular energy system in the vehicle from German company JENOPTIK, which produces systems capable of generating 100 kilowatts of 'exportable, stable power,' Jeff Wood,

Northrop's director of vehicle modernization, said, according to Defence News.

'There’s never been that much power on a vehicle this small,' he said.

Inside the Hellhound: The vehicle has room for six people, including the driver.

In a disaster scenario, he said, the Hellhound could power a blacked-out hospital; in a war zone, it could power a command post.

Or, Wood said, you could power a laser beam.

'To jump to 100 kilowatts opens new opportunities that we are beginning to explore,' he said, such as 'directed energy weapons that we would once only see in Star Trek are now quite possible.'

The power will 'open new opportunities in powering expeditionary command post or key infrastructure as part of disaster response teams,' Wood said.

Several firms have working laser weapons, and Lockheed Martin recently showed off its laser weapon.

The 30-kilowatt fibre laser called Athena burnt through the manifold in seconds, despite being fired by a team from Lockheed Martin positioned more than a mile away.

The security firm said the test signifies the next step to fitting lightweight laser weapons on military aircraft, helicopters, ships and trucks.

The demonstration was the first field testing of Lockheed’s integrated 30-kilowatt, single-mode fibre laser weapon system prototype.

‘Fiber-optic lasers are revolutionising directed energy systems,’ said Keoki Jackson, Lockheed Martin chief technology officer.

‘We are investing in every component of the system - from the optics and beam control to the laser itself - to drive size, weight and power efficiencies.

‘This test represents the next step to providing lightweight and rugged laser weapon systems for military aircraft, helicopters, ships and trucks.’

By using a technique known as spectral beam combining, the system blends multiple laser modules to create a single, powerful, high-quality beam.

This is said to provide greater ‘efficiency and lethality’ than multiple individual 10-kilowatt lasers used in other systems.

Athena is based on the firm’s Area Defense Anti-Munitions (Adam) laser weapon system.

The laser, known as Athena, was built by Maryland-based security firm Lockheed Martin. During the test, the 30-kilowattfibre laser burnt through the truck’s engine (pictured) and disabled it from more a mile away

In tests off the California coast in May, Adam was used to successfully disable two boats at a range of approximately one mile (1.6km).

Lockheed Martin said at the time that it developed the ground-based system ‘to demonstrate a practical, affordable defence against short-range threats.’

During the marine the high-energy laser burnt through multiple compartments of the rubber hull of the military-grade small boats in less than 30 seconds.

Could we fly from London to New York in an hour? NASA scientists test 4,500mph hypersonic jet

* Scramjet engine can accelerate craft to over Mach 6
* Could dramatically slash journey times by travelling at five times the speed of sound

By Daily Mail Reporter

It looks like something you’d expect to see launch from Tracy Island.

But this Thunderbirds-style aircraft could be the future of long-haul flights.

The hypersonic X-51A WaveRider belongs to the US military and uses a revolutionary ‘scramjet’ engine to reach 4,500mph within seconds.

Arduous journeys for holidaymakers could be a thing of the past if the technology takes off. A trip across the Atlantic from London to New York would take the plane just one hour, travelling at five times the speed of sound.

Today the cutting-edge craft will be dropped from a B52 bomber over the Pacific Ocean in its latest test.

It will be flown from Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert in California, attached to the bomber’s wing.

The jet will then be dropped from almost 50,000ft near the Point Mugu promontory. A rocket booster will ignite and speed it up to about Mach 4.5 and, if all goes well, the aircraft’s engine will take over from there, pushing the speed to more than Mach 6 and lifting the craft to 70,000ft.

The mission will last 300 seconds – the longest the craft has ever flown to date. After the historic test, the plane will crash into the sea, and there are no plans to recover it.

Hypersonic flight – which relates to speeds of more than five times the speed of sound – is seen as the next step for aircraft. ‘Attaining sustained hypersonic flight is like going from propeller-driven aircraft to jet aircraft,’ Robert Mercier, deputy for technology in the high speed systems division at the Air Force Research Laboratory in Ohio told the Los Angeles Times.

‘Since the Wright brothers, we have examined how to make aircraft better and faster. Hypersonic flight is one of those areas that is a potential frontier for aeronautics. I believe we’re standing in the door waiting to go into that arena.’

The project is being funded by Nasa and the Pentagon, which hope it can be used for military stealth aircraft and new weapons.

The WaveRider programme is estimated to cost £89million, according to Globalsecurity.org, a website for military policy research. It has had a mixed history, with previous tests being aborted after the engine stalled.

Currently the fastest passenger plane in the world is the Cessna Citation X, which has a top speed of 700mph or Mach 0.9, although it takes only seven passengers.

In its wake is the Falcon 7X at 685mph and the Gulfstream G550, which is capable of 675mph

The experimental craft will be tested strapped to the wing of a B-52 bomber. Once released, it's radical scramjet engines will be fired, hopefully accelerating the craft up to Mach 6, over 2,000 metres per second.

The X-51A Waverider on the wing of a B-52 Stratofortress. A previous test was the longest supersonic combustion ramjet-powered hypersonic flight to date.

Mach is a measure of the ratio of the velocity of an object, in this case a plane, to the velocity of sound, which equals Mach 1, or 761.2 miles per hour.

Any plane that flies past the speed of sound creates a sonic boom, which often results in a major noise disturbance over close-by areas. Before its 2003 retirement, Concorde was long the shuttle of choice for executives eager to spend as little time as possible in the air and unafraid to shell out thousands for a 3.5-hour transatlantic flight.

An attempt to launch a hypersonic flight in August last year failed when the soaring heat caused the craft’s surface to peel and the experiment ended prematurely.

The Pentagon’s research arm calls hypersonic flight ‘the new stealth’ for its promise of evading and outrunning enemy fire. The effort to develop hypersonic engines is necessary because they can propel vehicles at a velocity that cannot be achieved from traditional turbine-powered jet engines.

Experts believe hypersonic missiles are the best way to hit a target in an hour or less. The only vehicle that the military currently has in its inventory with that kind of capability is the massive, nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile.

The scramjet engine is designed to ride on its own shockwave, and should see the test craft accelerate to about Mach 6.

Scientists create robotic skin so sensitive that it can feel the gentle patter of ladybirds walking across its surface

By Eddie Wrenn

Artificial skin could soon be created which could be sensitive enough to feel the steps of a lady-bird, or for the cruel-hearted, the stretching and tearing of a Chinese burn.

Engineers at Seoul National University are working on a prototype 'flexible electronic sensor', which uses interlocks hairs which can sense objects through static attraction.

The breakthrough - which was based on research into natural hairs on a beetle's back - could mean artificial limbs could be made to be more sensitive.

The artificial hairs are created from polymer fibres - tiny sheets of material is just 100 nanometres in diametre and a micrometre (one millionth of a metre) in length.

While invisible to the human hair, their tiny size and shape, and their metallic covering which makes them conductive to electricity, all combine to allow highly-sensitive readings.

Some of the potential uses for the skin includes using it as a heart monitor, which can be strapped to the wrist to detect your pulse.

Indeed the artificial skin can pick up brief touches which would not be detectable to humans - touches with a force of just five pascals can be 'felt' by the hairs.

The hairs can detect 'pressure', for instance a weight landing on the on the sheet, 'shear', such as an object sliding across the surface, and the twisting motion, like you might associate with that cruel and childish Chinese burn.

These final two movements are traditionally hard for mechanical objects to detect, but thanks to the electrical, microscopic hairs, the different signals can now be decoded.

The team has tested the pads by bouncing water droplets on the surface and testing out pule detection.
And in perhaps the cutest experiment in the history of science, they got a pair of ladybirds to walk across its surface.

VIDEO: Watch parts of the experiment, including the water droplet test!... 

Artifical jellyfish created in lab from rat cells

An artificial jellyfish which is able to swim with the help of beating heart muscle cells has been created by scientists.

By Nick Collins, Science Correspondent

The tentacled artificial creature, made from silicon, has been dubbed "Medusoid" because of its resemblance to the snake-haired character from Greek mythology whose gaze turned people to stone.

It is able to mimic the swimming movement of a jellyfish thanks to muscle cells from rat hearts which were implanted onto its silicon frame and grown into a pattern similar to the muscles of a real jellyfish.

By applying an electric current to a container of conducting liquid, the scientists demonstrated they could "shock" the muscles into contracting so that it began to move through the water.

The "reverse-engineering" project by researchers from the California Institute of Technology and Harvard University was published on the website of the Nature Biotechnology journal.

Janna Nawroth, lead author of the study, said that most researchers working in tissue engineering have attempted to copy tissue or organs by simply recreating its major components, regardless of what their function is and whether they could be replaced by something simpler.

She said: "A big goal of our study was to advance tissue engineering. Our idea was that we would make jellyfish functions — swimming and creating feeding currents — as our target and then build a structure based on that information."

Her colleague Prof John Dabiri added: "I'm pleasantly surprised at how close we are getting to matching the natural biological performance, but also that we're seeing ways in which we can probably improve on that natural performance. The process of evolution missed a lot of good solutions."

Jellyfish use a pumping muscle to propel themselves through the water, meaning their movement is based on a mechanism similar to a human heart.

This makes them a useful model for tissue engineering, technology which could one day be used to create synthetic hearts or other organs for human patients.

Prof Kevin Kit Parker, one of the study's authors, said: "I saw a jellyfish at the New England Aquarium, and I immediately noted both similarities and differences between how the jellyfish pumps and the human heart. The similarities help reveal what you need to do to design a bio-inspired pump.

"The jellyfish provides a design algorithm for reverse engineering an organ's function."

Prof Dabiri added: "A lot of work these days is done to engineer molecules, but there is much less effort to engineer organisms.

"I think this is a good glimpse into the future of re-engineering entire organisms for the purposes of advancing biomedical technology."

Scientists Demo Thought-Controlled Robots

By Adario Strange

In the 2009 film Surrogates, based on the popular graphic novel, Bruce Willis is shown struggling in a world dominated by realistic robot avatars controlled by humans sitting comfortably in their homes.

Often injured or somehow disfigured, opting to interact with the world from a distance, the people are shown seamlessly operating their metal doppelgangers via a brain link apparatus that goes mostly unexplained in the film.

Now, a team of researchers based in laboratories around the globe, have developed a system similar to the one depicted in the film, designed to assist the chronically bedridden and those suffering from paralysis.

The development represents the first time an fMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) machine has been used to allow a person to control a robot's movements simply by thinking of a command. By monitoring the brain's blood flow, the fMRI can detect neural activity associated with various commands, such as movement. In a recent demonstration of the technology, the team had a human subject sitting in a lab in Israel control a small robot in another lab located in France.

The demo not only allowed the person to control the robot, but he was also able to see from the robot's perspective via a small camera mounted on the robot's head. This fMRI real-time link, along with the camera perspective, reportedly gave the subject the sense of actually being in the room in France.

The test subject, Tirosh Shapira, was enthusiastic about the out-of-body experience, telling NewScientist, "It was mind-blowing. I really felt like I was there, moving around… You need to concentrate, and you have to calculate a few steps in advance because there's a small delay between thinking of a movement and it actually happening. But once you get used to it you feel like a puppet master."

Although controlling robots using EEG (electroencephalogram) set-ups has been demonstrated in the past, experts believe the fMRI technique may afford more precise command of a robot avatar. In future iterations of the fMRI system, the researchers hope to allow for more finely tuned controls in which the human subject could actually regulate the speed and dexterity of a robot's individual finger movements.

The consortium, operating under the collective name VERE (Virtual Embodiment and Robotic Re-embodiment project), includes scientists from Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria, France, Switzerland, the U.K., Portugal, and Israel. The most recent demonstration video shows Shapira controlling a tiny humanoid robot roughly two-feet tall, but the group hopes to conduct future tests with the HRP4 robot (video below), a human-sized robot that would give the human operator an even greater sense of experiencing the world through a robot's body.

WATCH VIDEO

Google Now

By Sarah Perez

Google Now, the smart personal search assistant announced yesterday at Google I/O, has now come online. Well, the landing page for the service has come online, that is. The new site introduces the key aspects to Google Now, which arrives in Google’s next mobile operating system, Android 4.1 (aka Jelly Bean), including its ability to track flights, keep an eye on traffic and your calendar, check sports scores and weather, see suggested places nearby, and more.

The feature, accessed by swiping up from the bottom of the homescreen has already been referred to as a “Siri killer” by some Android fans because of its ability to not just assist you, but to proactively alert you to new information based on your needs. One example which Google showed off in its demo yesterday was a flight search, which would later pop up a card that appeared with flight alerts and delays as they occurred in real-time. In another example, Google learned what sports teams you liked based on your search history and could then alert you to upcoming games and scores. In another, you could see suggested places to eat or shop as you walked down the street.

However, the biggest piece to Google Now is that the information comes and finds you – not the other way around. This is a key difference between how Siri operates today and what Google is promising. Of course, you as the user are in control of the experience and can enable or disable which cards and alerts you would see. It’s opt-in, which goes a long way to dispel the potential “creepy” factor here. It’s not as if Skynet has just come online. (I think).

The idea for this type of search-without-the-search technology, if you will, has been in development for some time. In 2010, then CEO, now Chairman Eric Schmidt spoke of a “serendipity engine” as the future of Google search. “We want to give you your time back,” Schmidt said at the time. Google Instant was the first step towards that goal, but Google Now takes a giant leap. At the IFA conference in Berlin, Schmidt described the experience that is today’s Google Now, talking about how phones could spout off random facts as you walked around town, or how they could inform you of the weather, understanding the natural language of human speech. He called this idea a new age of “augmented reality,” where computers work for us.

Unfortunately, for the time being, that new age will only be available to a precious few – those who buy or can upgrade their Android-based devices to Jelly Bean. But much of what Google Now offers could be bundled into an Android or even iOS (!) app using the platforms’ push notifications feature. Hopefully that is in the works, too.

Human-Powered Helicopter Hovers for Nearly a Minute

By Jason PaurEmail Author

One of the oldest prizes in aviation is one step closer to being claimed after a team from the University of Maryland flew a human-powered helicopter for 50 seconds yesterday. The students managed the tenuous indoor flight with the Gamera II, beating the team’s previous record of 11 seconds set last summer.

The flight came at the end of two action-filled days of flying, fixing and flying again with numerous hops above the University of Maryland’s basketball court heli-pad.

The prize is the Igor I. Sikorsky Human-Powered Helicopter Competition from the American Helicopter Society and a win earns $250,000. In order to claim the prize a human powered helicopter must lift off the ground, hover for at least 60 seconds, reach an altitude of 3 meters during the flight and stay within a 10-square-meter area.

Yesterday’s 50-second flight was one of more than a dozen over the past two days, including a 35-second flight on Wednesday and a 40-second flight earlier Thursday (video below).

The Gamera II is a far cry from its robust spinning terrapin namesake. Like its fixed wing, human powered cousins, the delicate helicopter is a rather large, yet extremely lightweight aircraft. The entire craft has a width of 105 feet and each of the four rotors has a span of just over 42 feet, 7 inches. But despite the size of the Gamera II, it weighs just 71 pounds. That’s more than 30 pounds lighter than the original Gamera that flew last year, thanks largely to redesigned rotors and an improved truss design.

The design is delicate and an incident on Wednesday had them making repairs and delaying further flights.

Carbon fiber rods and thread are used to create small trusses that in turn make the four large trusses that spread from the cockpit. At the end of each truss is a rotor that is perched just above the ground. With the rotors located close to the ground, the team can take advantage of ground effect, an aerodynamic condition where there’s a reduction in induced drag from the lift generated by the rotors. With the rotors spinning at just 20 revolutions per minute, less than one horsepower is needed to hover at 2 feet above the ground.

Gamera II is piloted and powered by a pair of students at the University of Maryland. Unlike its predecessor, Gamera II uses both pedals to power with the legs, and a hand crank to add a bit of extra power. The team estimates they gain around 20 percent with the arms over using legs alone.

The University of Maryland team is one of only three groups that have ever achieved human-powered helicopter flight. A Japanese team held the previous record with a 19-second flight back in 1994.

More flights are expected today and the team hopes to crack the 60-second barrier. A live stream of the Gamera II in action can be seen on the team’s website.

How Accurate Were Minority Report’s Technology Precogs?

By Wired StaffEmail Author

Released 10 years ago today, Minority Report served up a captivating and thoroughly convincing look at what the future might hold. But how well has the film's bold vision aged?

Wired took at look at 10 key technologies from the film — which built on concepts dreamed up during an "idea summit" of tech thinkers convened by director Steven Spielberg — to compare the decade-old science fiction to today's reality.

Above:

Iris Recognition

In Minority Report: Devices that scan the distinctive features in the iris — the colored portion of the eye — are everywhere in Minority Report. They're used in place of security badges and IDs, and they help billboards tailor ads directly at you as you pass by. Also, spiderbots shuffle around scanning irises in search of suspects.

The reality today: The ID system portrayed in the movie works because the government has every citizen's iris on file, and that is eminently plausible, says Patrick Grother of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the government agency that oversees biometrics. India has already scanned the eyeballs of 150 million citizen enrollees, and border control agencies around the world use the technology. Preregistered travelers can move in and out of the United Kingdom, cross the US-Canadian border, and navigate the Middle East without a passport as long as their irises are approved. Recent advances — better compression algorithms that allow iris data to traverse networks faster, cameras that can scan irises from up to 9 feet away while people are in motion — will only expand the iris scanning's reach. —Amber Williams

Self-Driving Cars

In Minority Report: In the world of 2054, a symphony of self-driving cars zoom down the sides of sheer skyscrapers and onto horizontal highways and back. The vehicles form a system dubbed "individual mass transportation," where the wealthy can get from their deluxe penthouses to their destinations without brushing elbows with the lower classes living below. "The beauty is that your own vehicle is sort of an extension of your taste and the design of your apartment," says Harald Belker, the conceptual auto designer for the film. The vehicles are voice-activated and run using magnetic levitation, a technology that lets vehicles float inches above a surface.

The reality today: Maglev systems are already employed in a handful of railways across the globe, delivering speeds up to 361 mph. The self-driving part of Minority Report's vision is also practically here, as Wired's 20.02 cover feature detailed. Google's got its own roving band of driverless vehicles that navigate city streets, pedestrians and red-lights, and can hit up to 75 mph while merging between lanes on highways. BMW, VW and Toyota have their own robot-car projects as well. A wide-scale system like the one in the film would require huge outlays for infrastructure. "If there isn't any way to modernize the transportation system, we'll never make any progress," Belker says. —Christina Bonnington

Spiderbots

In Minority Report: A squadron of tiny, eight-legged bots scampers autonomously through a flophouse, using an array of on-board sensors — including, memorably, iris scanners — to identify residents and relay that information to the authorities.

The reality today: Say hello to your robotic insect overlords. The US military (with the help of British Aerospace) has been developing a fleet of insect robots made specifically for reconnaissance missions. The goal is to equip soldiers with an extra pair of eyes in urban environments and other potentially hostile areas. There are nonmilitary applications, too: A team of spiderbots was recently deployed inside of Mount St. Helens. Each was equipped with a seismometer for detecting earthquakes, an infrared sensor to detect heat from volcanic explosions, a sensor to detect ash and a global positioning system to sense the ground bulging and pinpoint the exact location of seismic activity. —Bryan Gardiner

Predictive Policing

In Minority Report: A trio of psychic precogs lie partially submerged in what looks like the world's least enjoyable hot tub, their brains hooked up to police computers that display their visions of crimes yet to happen. From there, the cops can race out and arrest the bad guys before they break the law. Or, as Tom Cruise's character puts it to one would-be wife-stabber, "Under the authority of the District of Columbia Pre-Crime Division, I'm placing you under arrest for the future murder of Sarah Marx."

The reality today: Predictive policing has become a buzzphrase in the last 10 years, and a handful of police departments have actually opened units and programs that aim to take a pre-emptive bite out of crime. In Los Angeles, police use an algorithm that analyzes seven years of data to predict where and when burglaries, auto thefts and car break-ins are most likely to occur. Officers on patrol then pay particular attention to those "hot spots." Not as cool as psychic-based murder prediction, sure, but in the first few months of this year, these crimes are already down by 22 percent, translating to about 153 property crimes prevented.

Predictive policing programs in Santa Cruz, Memphis and Chicago have seen similar results — and Chicago has even been able to predict more violent crimes, like shootings. Unlike the movie, though, it's not about slapping handcuffs on a would-be perpetrator before a crime has been committed. "It's just about disruption," says Captain Sean Malinowski of the LAPD. "You go out there and prevent a crime from happening through your presence. There's still the Constitution." —Elise Craig

3-D Holograms

In Minority Report: Tom Cruise converts cherished home videos into a 3-D hologram. His character is able to look at projected images of his wife and missing son. As he moves around, he sees them from different angles.

The reality today: Approximations of holograms have been around since the 19th century — in the form of images projected on glass. (The much-tweeted performance by the long-dead Tupac at Coachella in April was a high-tech example.) But the kind of 3-D tech depicted in Minority Report has what's called dimensionality — when viewed from different points of view, different aspects are visible. (Think Princess Leia's "Help me ObiWan, you're our only hope" projection in Star Wars.) That's called motion parallax, and no one has figured out how to create it. Minority Report brainstorming session participant Neil Gershenfeld, head of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms, says we'll soon see more and more realistic onscreen 3-D, thanks to lenticular displays that eliminate the need for 3-D glasses, plus head-tracking systems that know exactly where our eyes are in relation to the image being generated. "It's relatively easy to make a holographic TV screen," he says. "The problem with Star Wars-style 3-D projected in mid-air is that the physics don't work." —Bryan Gardiner

Sick Sticks

In Minority Report: In 2054, police descend on uncooperative civilians wielding a special sort of baton called a sick stick, which had the almost magical ability to "make you lose control of your bowels and/or throw up," says brainstorm participant Shaun Jones, a technology consultant and former director of Darpa's Unconventional Countermeasures Program. Nothing like instantaneously expelling the contents of your digestive tract to tame rebellious impulses.

The reality today: Sick sticks don't exist yet, but nonlethal weapon development is in full swing, Jones says. At the Department of Defense, scientists are working on machines that can direct beams of sound that impair hearing and emit electromagnetic waves that generate uncomfortable heat. New nonlethal weapons are making their way into cities, too: Police departments in Southern California are testing a weapon that incapacitates its target with superbright lights that strobe at different wavelengths. Funded by the Department of Homeland Security and developed at Intelligent Optical Systems in Torrance, California, the LED Incapacitator 3 looks like a standard flashlight, but its light show causes temporary blindness and disorientation. One of its inventors, Vladimir Rubtsov, says it's a good substitute for the taser and can be used for riot control or against unruly drunks heading for their cars. —Amber Williams

Personalized Billboards/Ads

In Minority Report: Wherever he goes, Anderton is tracked by cameras and biometric sensors and bombarded with intrusive personalized ads. "The whole idea was that the ads would not only recognize you, but also your state of mind," says Jeff Boortz, a consultant on the film. Deducing that stressed-out Anderton needs a relaxing break, he is offered targeted products like an Amex card and a Guinness.

The reality today: Amazon and Google have long been reading our searches and helpfully suggesting products we might like to buy. DVRs know your taste in police procedurals and when you like to watch them. NEC is experimenting with dynamic ads that target specific shopper characteristics, such as gender, ethnicity and age. Using billboards equipped with a camera and facial-recognition software, the company is able to target a given message with a great degree of specificity. Not far over the horizon: facial recognition cameras in malls and other public places that can guess age and gender, then flash demographically targeted ads as you pass by. Can retina-recognition devices be far behind? —Bryan Gardiner

Gestural Interface

In Minority Report: Tom Cruise waves his gloved hands around to manipulate objects on a giant screen in front of him. Every gesture is registered, allowing him to rifle through files, expand and contract windows, and select onscreen objects. Finally: an alternative to the mouse and keyboard paradigm. "To build a genuinely new user interface, you have to build it from the ground up, like what the original Mac did in the early '80s," says John Underkoffler, chief scientist with Oblong and the designer of Minority Report's gestural interface.

The reality today: Gestural interfaces seem to be conquering the world. Most of us pinch and zoom on a daily basis now — but on touchscreens, not in mid-air. But there's also Microsoft's Kinect interface, which uses infrared-light and "Time of Flight" algorithms to pinpoint the position of a person's limbs, kind of like sonar. Microsoft has sold more than 20 million units — which don't even require the gloves used in Minority Report — and plans to build Kinect support into PC operating systems as well. New smart TVs from LG and Samsung use similar technology that lets you adjust the volume and change the channel without a remote. As camera and sensor technology becomes more refined over the next decade, we'll eventually be able to control personal computing devices with smaller, subtler movements at closer ranges. —Christina Bonnington

E-Newspapers

In Minority Report: News is delivered on flexible e-paper screens that update in real time and show video. And cheap screens take media beyond the news sphere: Cloying cartoon animals come to life on the sides of a cereal box, and they dance around with glee as Cruise gobbles the cereal in his bowl. (It looks as annoying as it sounds.)

The reality today: Newspapers, magazines and books are migrating to Kindle and iPad screens, but flexible e-paper remains mostly in the lab. Korean electronics giant LG has begun producing a flexible, plastic e-paper display that could hit the mainstream within the next five years. The current version is 6 inches wide and .7mm thick, but the company has dabbled in 19-inch, newspaper-size versions as well. Samsung is working on a similar flexible display using OLED technology. When flexible displays arrive in earnest — as early as 2015 — look for them to be wrapped around everything from building support columns to coffee mugs, delivering things like headlines, status updates, stock alerts and ads. —Christina Bonnington

Jetpacks

In Minority Report: Cops zip around the sky in personal propulsion systems complete with red and blue lights flashing.

The reality today: Spielberg insisted on including jetpacks in Minority Report because — just guessing here — they make for indelible cinema. But unlike the more plausible bits of futurism in the film, the jetpacks were closer to what was envisioned in Commando Cody serials than to the impractical devices that actually exist. —Amber Williams

More privacy fears as Facebook buys facial-recognition startup for undisclosed sum

By Daily Mail Reporter

Facebook is bringing one of its long-term vendors, a facial-recognition technology company Face.com, in-house.

The Israeli company's technology helps people tag photos on the Web by figuring out who is in the pictures.

The deal bolsters one of Facebook's most popular features - the sharing and handling of photos - but the use of the startup's technology has spurred concerns about user privacy.

Media reports in past weeks have pegged the size of the transaction at between $80 million to $100 million, but two people familiar with the terms of the deal said the actual price was below the low-end of that range.

Other sources suggest the deal is closer to $60m.

Facebook, which will acquire the technology and the employees of the 11-person Israeli company, said in a prepared statement that the deal allows the company to bring a 'long-time technology vendor in house.'

A Facebook spokesman said: 'People who use Facebook enjoy sharing photos and memories with their friends.

'Face.com’s technology has helped to provide the best photo experience. This transaction simply brings a world-class team and a long-time technology vendor in house.'

Face.com founder Gil Hirsch said on his company's blog: 'Our mission is and has always been to find new and exciting ways to make face recognition a fun, engaging part of people’s lives, and incorporate remarkable technology into everyday consumer products.

'We love building products, and like our friends at Facebook, we think that mobile is a critical part of people’s lives as they both create and consume content, and share content with their social graph.'

Face.com, which has raised nearly $5 million from investors including Russian Web search site Yandex, launched its first product in 2009.

The company makes standalone applications that consumers can use to help them identify photos of themselves and of their friends on Facebook, as well as providing the technology that Facebook has integrated into its service.

Faceboook uses the technology to scan a user's newly uploaded photos, compares faces in the snapshots with previous pictures, then tries to match faces and suggest name tags.

When a match is found, Facebook alerts the person uploading the photos and invites them to 'tag,' or identify, the person in the photo.

Responding to inquiries from U.S. and European privacy advocates, Facebook last year made it easier for users to opt out of its controversial facial-recognition technology for photographs posted on the website, an effort to address concerns that it had violated consumers' privacy.

The deal is the latest in a string of acquisitions by Facebook in recent months, including the $1 billion acquisition of mobile photo-sharing service Instagram.

U.S. antitrust regulators are currently undertaking an extended review of the Instagram deal, which Facebook expects to close by the end of the year.

Shares of Facebook, which continue to trade below the price at which they were offered during the initial public offering in May, were up 5.5 percent at $31.66 in midday trading on Monday.