Technology is making breakthroughs beyond imagination. Our world is way different from the world just a hundred years ago. From steam engines to levitating trains we made the commute as easy as one two and three. Flying cars are surfing on the air of the United Arab Emirates while self-driving trucks on United States roads create tension in drivers’ circles. We are no longer in a time of unpredictability and are leaving everything to fate. We are developing reasons for every happening and trying to explain everything that used to create superstition in people’s minds. Touchscreen and plasma have replaced the decade-old push-button technologies that are considered the miracle of its time. We are moving forward in every direction, and we have no idea about the limits as generally we say that the sky is the limit. Smartphones and high-speed internet made social networking easier than ever. We are connected to everyone anytime. The world truly becomes a global village where we can see, talk, and hear from a person sitting from the opposite corner of the world.
2017 proved to be the most productive year in terms of technology. Top new inventions and technologies include hot solar cells, gene therapy, the complete 360-degree selfie, retina display phone unlocking, paying with face recognition, practical quantum PCs, reversing the process of paralysis, self-driving trucks, botnets of things, reinforcement learning, and the cell atlas and many more. These discoveries have proven that humans can achieve everything and technology is the next magic (“These Are the 10 Breakthrough Technologies You Need to Know About Right Now”). These advancements have paved the path for future technologies that might have the potential to alter our world practically. We also have some reservations about this steep advancement curve in artificial intelligence and computational machines as the risk involved in the wrong going of any logic might create a catastrophe. But let’s see where this technology will lead us as we are moving forward full of curiosity (Urmson and Whittaker; Multiplexed Communication between Host Computer and Smartphone Used as Wireless Modem; “The Unabridged History of Social Media”; Mai).
Smartphones have become a necessity of time. Everyone has it, irrespective of age, gender, or income. With the boom of touchscreen phones introduced by Apple Inc. in 2007, smartphones have touched new heights of success. Smartphones replaced the old phones with buttons and also came with greater processing speed and multitasking features. But smartphone did not reveal itself; it came into existence with a thorough evolution process. Communication was the dream of a human from the beginning of time, as a man always wanted to close the distances and get to each other faster. Bell resolved this issue and invented the phone, a one-to-one, voice-based communication that needed a medium to communicate. A whole new field of telecommunication emerged, and countries created a net of wires to communicate with each other. With time, a lot of improvements carried out to make this process more sophisticated and efficient. With the invention of packet and circuit switching techniques, the overall process of switching became more productive and autonomous. After World War two, a serious concern of privacy and data security came in front of a scientist, so countries started to define different laws and legislation about privacy and different sentencing about the breakage of these laws. Now, with the invention of new era smartphones as entertainment and connectivity become easy so do unethical activities. We are getting into augmented and virtual reality and creating digital replicas of ourselves. These new technologies are sometimes creating harmful effects on our bodies and health. Organizations like IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) have set some standards to meet in case of marketing a new technology. For example in the case of virtual and segmented reality, the IEE standard is “2048.5 – Standard for Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality: Environment Safety” which enforces the marketing and development of quality and health-friendly virtual reality products (IEEE SA – 2048.5 – Standard for Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality: Environment Safety).
The first virtual reality was created in 1931 when a commercial flight simulator named the Link Trainer was patented. It evolved with time from the Sensorame (1955), the Telesphere mask (1960), the Aspen movie map (1970), VPL Eyephone (1989), Nintendo Virtual Boy (1990), Virtual Gaming Machines (2000), Microsoft Kinect (2010), Oculus Rift (2012) to Microsoft Hololens (2016) (Bernazzani).
The advantages of virtual reality depend upon the field in which we are using it. For example, in aviation, virtual reality plays an important role in the simulation of flights during the training of the new crew. Due to augmented reality, pilots get the training closer to the real scenarios. In business, we can hold a completely augmented and virtual conference and meeting while sitting at home. Virtual reality is now entering the realm of education and the classroom. We have virtual classrooms in which teachers and students interact virtually with each other (What Are the Benefits of Virtual Reality for Business?).
Virtual reality has some drawbacks too such as creating more distances between people. Virtual reality has some addictive prospects too which we should not ignore. People are spending more time in their virtual worlds than being present where they are. Younger people are affected by this technology as they spend more time on virtual reality than other groups. A middle-aged group with some career needs has widely benefitted from virtual reality as this technology helped them in business, jobs, and education.
References
Bernazzani, Sophia. The Evolution of Virtual Reality [Infographic]. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/the-evolution-of-virtual-reality.
IEEE SA – 2048.5 – Standard for Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality: Environment Safety. https://standards.ieee.org/develop/project/2048.5.html. Accessed 6 Feb. 2018.
Mai, Thuy. “Global Positioning System History.” NASA, 5 May 2015, http://www.nasa.gov/directorates/heo/scan/communications/policy/GPS_History.html.
Multiplexed Communication between Host Computer and Smartphone Used as Wireless Modem. 12 May 2006, https://patents.google.com/patent/US8082363B2/en.
“The Unabridged History of Social Media.” Social, 10 Nov. 2015, https://blog.bufferapp.com/history-of-social-media.
“These Are the 10 Breakthrough Technologies You Need to Know about Right Now.” MIT Technology Review, https://www.technologyreview.com/lists/technologies/2017/.
Urmson, C., and W. “. Whittaker. “Self-Driving Cars and the Urban Challenge.” IEEE Intelligent Systems, vol. 23, no. 2, Mar. 2008, pp. 66–68. IEEE Xplore, doi:10.1109/MIS.2008.34.
What Are the Benefits of Virtual Reality for Business? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connect/small-business/tech/pc-world/benefits-of-virtual-reality/. Accessed 6 Feb. 2018.
