If you believe in tech fortune-telling, you'll soon be able to reach out and (sort of) touch someone. By 2015, mobile phones will be projecting 3D images of callers and batteries will run on air alone, according to prognosticators at IBM.
Big Blue's list of tech predictions for the next five years includes kinetically powered laptops and computers that predict traffic jams in real time, Bloomberg reports.
Batteries of 2015 could last 10 times longer than those of today, and could be based on "energy-dense metals that only need to interact with the air to recharge," it said.
Homes of the near future, meanwhile, could be warmed by heat produced by data centers. The report did not go into detail about the predictions.
IBM polls its 3,000 researchers at sites like the Almaden Research Center for hot new ideas in the offing. Previous innovation predictions have included statements such as, "In the next five years, you will be able to surf the Internet, hands-free, by using your voice."
Well, that was two years ago and I'm still typing and clicking. Four years ago, IBM predicted that cell phones will be reading our minds by 2012; I can't even get a decent photo out of mine.
Nonetheless, I'll be the first to rent a Darth Vader costume if the holographic phone prediction comes true. Because I predict that in five years, we'll all be traveling in AT-AT Walkers.
Source: CNET
