At the beginning of every year, trend forecasters wave their magic wand and try to predict what will happen in the future.
It takes time to brainstorm, design, build and perfect to invent and improve on old ideas. That’s why you hear about technology years before it’s available to use, download, or pick up in a store.
Some of the biggest tech trends in 2022 include the metaverse, augmented reality, 5G networks, electric cars and androgynous robots.
So if you’re looking to learn about the technology that will fall this year, you’ve come to the right place.
Meta pins its hopes on the Metaverse
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta (formerly Facebook), calls the Metaverse “the successor to the mobile Internet” and is looking to invest $10 billion to make it a reality.
The Metaverse is a digital experience that combines virtual and physical reality, giving you the chance to buy land, play games, and interact with other people on a variety of platforms.
You enter the Metaverse wearing augmented reality (AR) glasses, where you’ll see computer-generated images of everyday life, like in Pokémon Go.
But one should not think that Meta is the only player in this $1 trillion market. Apple and other tech giants are building new hardware and software products, and startups are likely to join them.
Apple glasses are coming
Apple hopes to release an AR headset in late 2022 with the same computing power as a MacBook. Analysts expect it to cost around $3,000, with 8K displays, eye tracking, and cameras that can scan the world and combine AR and VR technology.
In May 2020, Apple bought the streaming sports company NextVR, signaling their intent to create an immersive headset, which would make its first significant new product category since the Apple Watch in 2014.
Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst at TF International Securities, says Apple’s goal is to replace the iPhone with AR glasses within ten years.
5G connectivity will be everywhere
If the Metaverse is to be successful, it will need internet speeds much faster than ours.
With YouTube and Netflix already streaming 4K movies, a faster and more stable connection is essential for watching content without buffering.
5G (fifth generation mobile network) is significantly faster than 4G, delivering 20Gbps at its peak and over 100Mbps on average. It’s already powering the Internet of Things (IoT) revolution, connecting our smartphones, TVs and Fitbit devices into a cohesive network.
From an IoT standpoint, “smart” refers to those powered by artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning algorithms, whether it’s a fridge that knows when your eggs are over or a wellness toilet that analyzes your stool samples. Is.
Consumers hungry for IoT features will increasingly demand 5G coverage, and its effects will extend far beyond your bathroom, disrupting everything from our roads to mobility patterns.
Introducing the Apple Car: iCar?
Apple’s car plans have been fueled by speculation for years, with an estimated 5,000 employees working on its Project Titan since 2018.
Apple has explored two options: creating a car with limited self-driving capabilities, focused on steering and acceleration, like a Tesla, or one with full autonomy that doesn’t require human assistance.
The tech giant is reportedly preferring a driverless option and is exploring an “infotainment system” in the middle of the vehicle. It will act as an iPad-style touch screen, allowing users to interact with Apple services while enjoying the ride.
The iCar will have no steering wheel and pedals, and passengers can sit on the sides of the vehicle, facing each other like you would in a limousine.
In an attempt to colonize the self-driving market before Tesla and everyone else, Apple is looking to patent a game-changer. However, there has not been a successful breakthrough so far.
It’s still early days in the automotive industry – electric cars only account for a small proportion of total sales and represent a fraction of the total number of vehicles on the planet.
The technology is still young, and it will take years for a robot to take you to Walmart.
Will the ‘Tesla bot’ do your boring job?
If driverless cars don’t run out this year, what are the chances of an androgynous robot stacking your supermarket shelves?
Tesla CEO Elon Musk wants to make dull, repetitive work an alternative by releasing a sleek humanoid machine.
The Tesla bot is 5 feet 8” (1.7 m) tall, weighs 125 pounds (57 kg) and can bolt with a wrench, collect your groceries, as well as perform many routine tasks Is.
If you entered a time machine and arrived in 2030, you would expect to see a lot of robots powered by artificial intelligence. Given that AI may well replace human workers this century, we can ask them to pile up dishwashers until they take over.
2022: A step towards the future?
With the launch of the Tesla bot and the meta pouring billions of dollars into the metaverse, we are all set for an exciting year in tech.
Like all new technology, inventions need time to evolve to change our lives – the iPhone didn’t happen overnight. Therefore, whenever AR glasses become mainstream, it will be the result of decades of painstaking work and many failures.
It took more than 400 years from Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘The Aerial Screw’, an early vision of a helicopter first designed in 1509, to the Sikorsky R-4, the first helicopter to reach full-scale production in 1942. Gone.
It won’t take that long for the metaverse to change our lives, which, if successful, will reverse the norms of how we shop, work and socialize. In that regard, 2022 could become the threshold where the AI world begins – when humanity contemplates its future, present and past.
