reply to post by tothetenthpower
Sorry I very, very much have to disagree with you - strongly.
I am a developer and work with flash, c++, and many other cutting edge technologies (sorry HTML5 is nothing) in order to integrate camera, web,
projections etc.
I have developed using what is known as augmented reality - where cameras pick up everyday objects using recognition software - readily available and
used for faces, cards, numbers etc. Google has picassa and of course imaeg and voice search available on almost EVERY mobile phone RIGHT NOW. Picassa
has facial recognition in it.
Of course there are Pico projectors and many other devices (some of which i am coding for) which have been around for almost three years (thats a long
time) and YES they are available in phones - not in America as Americans are simply not that tech savvy on the whole (hence their iPhone and iPad
obsession).
Anyway - pico projectors and projected key pads are not new. Combining all of these technologies is also NOT NEW and is quite common.
Plenty of companies use this type of technology to project technical data onto glasses for technicians to get information on wiring, engineering works
etc. Its very, very old school.
Please don't take this the wrong way - I am sure this is new to you and excites you - i love it thats why I work in it - however it is simply not
knew.
Do a quick search for augmented reality and it is all over the net - this uses location based technology to overlay information onto your cell phone
camera combined with recognition tech to convey information in real time.
So what is going to be new then ?
The real future lies in two areas - the first is AI - this is significantly furhter progressed than people realize - it has been the top priority for
pentagon for a long time as they pursue autonomous droids for military engagement - this will be combined with internal projection and what is now
very common in using brain waves to manipulate things - you can buy several games right now which use this type of tech - again - not new.
What will be new is combining this tech to provide real time gate ways to information required - just think it and you will have it in your head, or
directly projected into you optical nerve. Maths, questions, procedure, technical data, anything can easily be interpreted by AI, returned through
neural feed back and will seem almost as though you thought it yourself - in short technology will almost disappear and be replaced by a mind
interface with something like the net.
This is what will be happening in five years.
Again - I don't mean to rain on your excitement - but I really have been working on this type of thing, commonly with many other developers around
the world - your excitement is well placed - but this is nothing new.
As I mentioned neural interfacing is being done RIGHT NOW and will be introduced into the military AI within the next five to ten years (pentagon
projections for AI based fully autonomous robotic soldier is for 2018).
Thanks though - and anything TED is always worth watching.
[edit on 27-6-2010 by Aristophrenia]