Top 10 Most Advanced Technology Coming In 2018 - Gear Up^

From self-driving cars and rescue drones to advanced A.I. and
blockchain, there are many emerging technologies worth getting excited
about.

Hey everyone, welcome to Gear Up, the WatchMojo series that looks at
the latest in gadgets, gear and games. I’m Marc Saltzman, and in this
video, I’ll tell you 10 of the most advanced tech making its debut in
2018, or shortly thereafter.

Not listed in any order…

1. Truly smart homes

Millions of smart home devices are flying off store shelves these days
– like Wi-Fi thermostats and smart lighting to video doorbells and
remote cameras – and builders are now starting to add this tech while
designing and building new homes. That is, aftermarket DIY products
will continue to grow – including ones voice-controlled through Alexa,
Google Assistant, or Siri – but new builds in 2018 includes
Bluetooth-enabled deadbolts, smart appliances, room occupancy sensors
and much more.

The second groundbreaking technology in 2018 so far…

2. CG that looks real

Unveiled at the recent Game Developers Conference, or GDC, “Siren” is
a digital woman who looks so real you can no longer tell the
difference between a human and a computer-generated model. What makes
this even more remarkable is the fact Siren was created in real-time
using motion capture technology, where an actress in a special suit is
doing all the heavy lifting but live-streamed onto screens and
appearing as Siren. Epic Games, along with partners like Vicon and
Cubic Motion, suggest this isn’t just for video games but we could
have virtual celebrities staring in films.

3. Standalone VR headsets

On a related note, 2018 has seen the introduction of the first
standalone virtual reality headsets. Instead of cables coming out of
the back of the VR headset and plugged into a PC or PlayStation, a
standalone or self-contained VR headset, like the new Oculus Go or
upcoming Lenovo Mirage Solo doesn’t need a computer, video game
console or smartphone snapped into the front. Instead, download
content over Wi-Fi to the local storage to experience VR – untethered.
Expect this technology to only get better and better over time.

4. Advancements in 3-D printing

While 3-D printing has been around for a while, they’re getting much
faster, with more colours and support for more materials. So forget
about hobbyists spending an hour to create a chess piece made out of
ABS plastic, like Lego, but in 2018 there are metal 3-D printers that
can, for example, print car parts. Or larger printers that build homes
or machines that build bridges over rivers and ponds. “Rapid Liquid
Printing” is also a new take on 3-D printing as instead of being
limited to building layers of material, these new printers draws
objects in a kind of gel, and is then removed.

Number 5 most advanced technology in 2018?

5. Smarter robots!

Whether you’re talking about dog-like surveillance robots from Boston
Dynamics – that can even find its way out of a room – as it will
protect businesses by roaming the premises – or human-looking robots
like Sophia from Hanson Robotics that have realistic facial reactions,
a natural voice and artificial intelligence, 2018 is also off to a
great start. And then there’s Sony’s digital pet, Aibo, now available
in Japan, and advanced surgical robots making a foray into the medical
industry that are designed to perform high-end surgical procedures
with precision. Keep your eye on robotics as this is going to be a
very big deal in no time.

6. Space tourism

While it might sound like science fiction, a few big companies are
working on space tourism – that is, privatized trips to space – as
early as late 2018. Companies like Virgin Galactic from Sir Richard
Branson, Space X from Elon Musk, and Blue Origin from Amazon’s Jeff
Bezos, are all determined to bring space tourism to those who want to
experience true weightlessness and a breathtaking view of our planet
at roughly 70 miles above the Earth. We’re not talking about trips to
the International Space Station (ISS) or the moon or Mars anytime
soon, but seeing our world’s curvature could very well be on your
bucket list. Prices and timelines vary by company, but expect to pay a
few hundred thousand for this thrill ride. You know, pocket change.

7. Babelfish earbuds

Anyone ever read the book or see the cult classic film, The
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy? You may recall you can slide a
yellow Babel fish into your ear to get language translations in an
instant. In 2018 though, one of the more underrated technologies –
which is similar to Babelfish – is Google’s Pixel Buds. These earbuds
work with its Pixel smartphones and Google Translate app to produce
practically real-time translation. One person wears the earbuds, while
the other holds a phone. The earbud wearer speaks in his or her
language—English is the default—and the app translates the talking and
plays it aloud on the phone. The person holding the phone responds;
this response is translated and played through the earbuds. Super
cool.

8. Blockchain

An overused yet often misunderstood term, blockchain is a type of
“distributed ledger,” in which value exchange transactions – a la
Bitcoin or other digital tokens -- are sequentially grouped into
blocks; as the name suggests, each block is chained to the previous
block, and distributed across a network, using a trusted cryptographic
mechanism. This disruptive technology may be hyped most by the
financial services industry looking for a more efficient global
digital economy, but promises to transform many other industries
including health care, commerce, digital entertainment distribution,
communications, personal identity verification, and more.

9. Autonomous vehicles

We’ve been reading about this tech for many years and seen some
examples of it, like Tesla’s Auto Pilot or Cadillac’s Super Cruise,
but it’s poised to take off in a big way. Also referred to as
“driverless cars” or “self-driving cars,” these autonomous vehicles
can sense their environment and navigate around obstacles, obey
traffic laws and reach a preselected destination – all thanks to
cameras, sensors, lidar, radar, GPS, and more. All the big car
companies are testing autonomous cars, and with many tech journalists
like yours truly, sitting behind the wheel of them in 2018, as a taste
of what’s the come once the technology is perfected and the laws are
in place.

And the no. 10 awesome tech to be excited about in 2018…Internet of
Things or IoT:

10.

Simply exploding in 2018, IoT devices are everywhere. We’re talking
millions and soon, billions, of devices, big and small, that all talk
together in some way, shape or form. Connected IoT devices do not run
as separate entities, but rather they’re a diverse group of
interconnected “things” that transmit and/or receive information from
other devices over some kind of wireless technology. All of these
devices “on the grid” can communicate without human input – that is,
handled via M2M (or “machine-to-machine”) connectivity -- like your
smart home automatically opening the garage for you when it senses
you’re pulling onto the street. Alternatively, a person can initiate
the connection, such as manually adjusting the temperature of your
home via your car’s dashboard. Everything will be connected, and
that’s IoT.



Hey, thanks for watching Gear Up; I'm Marc Saltzman. Let us know in
the comments section what you’d like to see more of going forward on
Gear Up. And for more tech-tastic lists, be sure to subscribe to
WatchMojo.com. Ciao for now.