Watching a science fiction movie full of futuristic gadgets and gizmos elicits two kinds of emotional
response from most people; first it's, oh that technologies pretty neat, whereas the
second response is dang, I hope they invent that before I'm dead.
Well depending on your taste in movies those clever science jerks just might do that, so
let's find out which of your favourite fictional futuristic devices you may be able to get
your hands on, in our list of seven sci-fi technologies coming soon.
Number 7: Back To The Future's Self Tying Sneakers Back to the Future showed us many
amazing futuristic concepts; hoverboards, food hydrators, almost having sex with your
mom, but none seemed as achievable as Marty McFly's self tying sneakers.
The human imagination truly knows no bounds when it comes to inventing ways to do less
stuff, and in November 2016 Nike will make our laziest dreams come true with the release
of the Hyperadapt 1.0.
Rather than employing traditional laces, the Hyperadapt uses embedded actuators which conform
to your foot's shape using pressure monitors.
When you step your foot into the shoe your heel hits a sensor and the system automatically
tightens, and in case something's not quite right there are two buttons on the sneaker's
sides allowing you to manually adjust tightness.
If this still isn't enough for you, there's also a massive bright glowing light on the
underside of the shoe, you know, to make it look all futurey and junk.
At the time of writing there's no news on what these bad boys will cost, but if I was
to guess, lots, I'd say lots.
Maybe go ask your mom if she'll buy you a pair, if you can keep your hands off her for
two darn seconds.
Number 6: Star Trek Matter Transporters This entry is a little bit of a cheat since it
actually involves the replication of an object rather than its actual transportation elsewhere,
as you'd see in Star Trek, but it's still pretty nifty.
Created by German engineers, a machine nicknamed "Scotty" mirrors the effect of a Star Trek
transporter by scanning an object in one chamber, and 3D printing it in the other.
The entire process of how it works is hidden from its user, with their only interaction
involving the placement of the object in the machine, the selection of a location to send
it to, and the pressing of a button.
And there's a good reason for this, because unfortunately, the only way the machine can
get a detailed view of the object's interior is by slicing it into tiny layers using a
milling machine, so you may wanna consider that before you throw your hamster in there.
When the prototype was created in 2015 there were a few other limitations to the machine
aside from tiny rodent death, including the fact that all objects had to be painted black,
and it could only replicate things in plastic.
But with more complex versions of the matter transporter currently in the works, maybe
soon we'll have a model that's more compatible with beaming up hamsters, rather than carving
them up into delicious, wafer-thin slices.
Number 5: Flexible Phones From Every Sci-fi Movie Ever If you're anything like me you'll
hate the way a smartphone in your jeans shorts back pocket ruins the line of your stunningly
sculpted buttocks, but worry no more fellow ass-fans, because futuristic roll-up phones
are almost upon us.
Earlier this year researchers at Queen's University created what they call the first flexible
holographic smartphone, and the best part is that it runs on Android.
Ha, Steve Jobs' corpse must be rolling up in his grave.
The device is called the Holoflex, and aside from making it ultra-portable, the smartphone's
flexible body and touchscreen allows it to display a glasses-free three dimensional image,
simply by bending it into a curve.
At the moment the Holoflex phone is just a prototype, but with Lenovo, Samsung and Moxi
all preparing to launch similar gadgets over the next 12 months, it won't be long before
your smartphone bends entirely to your will, and the shape of your sweet sweet tush.
Number 4: Star Wars Speeders If you're able to sit through the Speeder scenes in Star
Wars without wishing you could take a ride on one, then quite simply you are not a human
being and deserve to be taken into the desert and shot.
But for the rest of us with actual souls and feelings, Speeders could be available for
purchase within the next 12 months.
Aerofex, a California-based startup company, have developed the Aero-X craft, a vehicle
described as a hovercraft that rides like a motorcycle which can fly at 72 kilometres
per hour while hovering at three metres off the ground.
There's also a beefed up version in the works from UK company Malloy Aeronautics, who claim
their Hoverbike craft will be able to reach 274 kilometres per hour at the same altitude
as a helicopter.
But since humans are reckless jerks who like to get drunk and crash things, commercial
versions of these craft will probably be limited to a three metre, 30 kilometre per hour model,
if we're even allowed these fancy new toys at all.
Number 3: Star Trek Tractor Beams Is your soda can or tube of cookie dough sat staring
at you across the room, agonisingly beyond the reach of your lazy, fat paws?
Well in future you may be able to summon said object like a God, by using a sound-based
sonic tractor beam to drag it towards you.
In 2015 a team led by Professor Sriram Subramanian of the University of Sussex used an array
of loudspeakers to create an acoustic hologram, and this hologram could be controlled, allowing
them to manipulate objects in different ways.
Researchers managed to create a gripping tool similar to tweezers or fingers out of the
acoustic hologram, and successfully used it to grip a small bead, create a vortex around
it to move its location, and even a cage-like barrier to hold it in place.
It was already known that sound could be used to physical effect objects, but until recently
we'd never been able to control this ability to such a degree.
It's like Magneto graduating from vibrating a stapler to moving whole stadiums halfway
down the street, except rather than using this technology for evil, it could be used
to revolutionise the electronics industry and the performance of delicate surgeries.
The only drawback is it can't be used in space, since sound doesn't travel in a vacuum, but
if it'll get me the remote without moving my ass cheeks one inch, that's a downside
I'm happy to take.
Number 2: Minority Report's Air Touch Display Out of all the technology demonstrated in
Minority Report you'd hope PreCog crime prediction would be the one we'd get first, although
in a way, I suppose cops already have the ability to tell whether someone will commit
a crime or not, it's called racial profiling.
Bam, Strange Mysteries is hella woke.
But the technology from that movie which we're closer to enjoying commercially is actually
the Air Touch Display, and soon we'll be able to use such devices to do far more than swipe
an imaginary tennis racket via Kinect.
Today, virtual touch screens are limited to either the unreliable manipulation of images
on a screen, as with the Kinect, or an interaction with virtual objects seen through a pair of
goggles or glasses.
But as Air Touch technology becomes more accurate, and holographic projections improve in detail,
those floating virtual interactive screens from Minority Report start to become a distinct
possibility.
Especially when you consider than in June 2016, Apple filed a patent for exactly this
kind of technology.
So you can't use those hundred dollar headphones you just bought with your iPhone 7, but magic
3D apparitions you can move with your hands, easy peasy.
Number 1: The Iron Man Suit The TALOS Tactical Assault Light Operator
Swimsuit may not be able to soar though the skies like Iron Man, and nor does it come
with a sassy, in-built artificial intelligence to keep you in check, but the way this thing
is built, it could definitely prevent you from pulling a full-on Don Cheadle and breaking
your spine.
Oh yeah, spoiler alert, War Machine's gone all Professor X on us now.
Too bad.
The TALOS is a battery powered exoskeleton developed by the US to protect front-line
soldiers, mostly those who take point during dangerous incursions into hostile buildings
and territories.
To do this it uses liquid armour technology which solidifies when hit by a projectile,
along with an array of sensors capable of monitoring the soldier's heart rate and body
temperature.
Further enhancements are also expected to allow the TALOS suit's wearer to lift extremely
heavy objects, and having been in development for several years in conjunction with 56 corporations,
16 government agencies, 13 universities and 10 national laboratories, the first fully
operational prototype is expected in 2018.
So if your careers guidance counsellor predicted a future in villanous schemes and shenanigans,
you've got about twelve months to set up your evil empire before superhuman soldiers come
to end you.
And that's our list.
Personally I'm disappointed it didn't include those magical stretchy pants that always seem
to fit the Hulk no matter how big his ass is, or Black Widow's catsuit which somehow
makes a regular woman into an invincible killing machine.
But I would quite like to play with the Iron Man suit.
And if you'd like to see more examples of developments in technology and society which
may change the way you, me and Scarlett Johansson live, take a look at our recent video on six
life changing future developments.