It's hard to believe we are already half way through 2019. If you kept up with the Fitness Industry Technology Council's 2019 Trend Report (it's FREE here) you would have already had an idea of what to keep an eye on this year. The report however focused largely on the context of technology and it commercial implications. A bit less on the underlying tech itself.
In this article I will share specifics of what technologies are emerging and will become more relevant in 2020 and why. When it comes to concepts like the 4th Industrial Revolution , self-driving cars , humans connecting into the Internet , the elimination of traditional money, and many more sci-fi type concepts these five technologies will clear the path for the future enabling those ideas to come to life.
Edge Computing. This trend is mostly related to the Cloud and the Internet of Things (#IoT). In the end edge computing will be necessary to enable the next era of computing. It is truly the "end of how cloud computing" works today. Let me explain and you can also watch this video to understand more fully. In the beginning, there was one big computer. Then we learned how to connect that computer to multiple dumb terminals so more than one person could use it. Personal computers ultimately emerged, where ordinary people owned the hardware that did the work. Each person then had their own computer. Today we are in the cloud computing era; giant centralized servers, processors, and Internet connectivity that our devices connect with. Many of us own personal computers, but we largely use them to access centralized services like Dropbox, Gmail, Google Apps, and more. Additionally, devices like Amazon Echo, your iPhone, and the Apple TV are powered by content and intelligence that’s in the cloud. The cloud has some limitations however; security, latency, and bandwidth to name a few. So when it comes to ideas like self-driving cars, edge computing will be necessary to make it work. Due to latency, privacy, and bandwidth, you can’t feed all the sensor data of a self-driving car up to the cloud and wait for a response. Edge computing is computing that’s done at or near the source of the data (at the edges), instead of relying on the cloud at one of a dozen data centers to do all the work. It doesn’t mean the cloud will disappear. It means the cloud is coming to you and more powerful processors combined with AI will be needed to deliver the processing that will be required at the point of need.
Immersive Computing. "Immersion" is a commonly used term, but one that is often misunderstood. This term originates from the area of moving pictures. The word "immersion" is used to refer to the act of completely immersing oneself in, or diving into, another artificial world. This concept is in contrast to the metaphor of a "window", where one observes what is happening "from the outside". In the context of virtual reality, "immersion" is the condition in which the user loses awareness of the fact that they are actually in an artificial world. He or she experiences the virtual world with all of their senses and is able to, as compared with cinematic immersion, interact with the virtual environment. During my talk at the Italian Fitness Forum in February of 2019 I shared examples of immersion (watch). Immersion covers a wide range of technologies including "Virtual Reality", "Augmented Reality", "Mixed Reality" and "Immersive Content" among others. With the continued reductions in costs, advances in processing power and technologies. we are seeing hardware devices become less expensive and products that create immersive experiences becoming more scalable and adoptable by the masses. Just watch these clips to understand more.
Blockchain. This technology is no longer limited to cryptocurrencies, proving its worth in other areas. This year, blockchain projects will reach insurance and banking. Even in real estate loans, blockchain has become significant . For instance, when it comes to a home equity loan, property ID, smart contracts, and creditworthiness can make this technology a significant part of the process. Plus, it may even be a method to reduce costs and the entire implementation time for mortgage application and payments. Read more about blockchain and how it relates to the Death Of Google and Facebook. Yes that was not a typo.
AI. Artificial intelligence are computer systems that are able to perform tasks generally acquiring human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, and decision-making. In other words, it is the creation of a machine that reacts and works like humans.This trend has been discussed for some time now. However, experts believe that 2019 is the year when AI will take off. Political leaders are starting to consider its implications as well. The European Commission instructed members to define a strategy that addresses artificial intelligence by the middle of the year. Artificial intelligence has been practiced for decades and it has revealed a great opportunity for career minded professionals. According to several surveys, AI is attracting more and more aspirants with incredible salary packages, a wide range of vacancies. It has been also notified that the number of AI professionals throughout the world is not enough to fill all the job vacancies. The artificial intelligence market was valued at USD 16.06 billion in 2017 and is expected to touch the height of USD 190.61 billion by 2025.
5G. The G in 5G means it's a generation of wireless technology. While most generations have technically been defined by their data transmission speeds, each has also been marked by a break in encoding methods, or "air interfaces," that make it incompatible with the previous generation. 5G will be able to connect many more devices and provide much faster access to the Internet. Right now, 4G modules are expensive, power-consuming, and demand complicated service plans, so much of the Internet of Things has stuck with Wi-Fi and other home technologies for consumers, or 2G for businesses. 5G will accept small, inexpensive, low-power devices, so it'll connect a lot of smaller objects and different kinds of ambient sensors to the internet. This means more and faster connectivity further enabling the IOT (learn about 5G and OIT here) and more.