With my exams finished, some predictions for the year 2010:
2010 will bring us... 3D: Video Camera's and Photo Cameras will do 3D
For a couple of years now we see 3D movies like Beowulf and Avatar but I expect this year to be a year of growing number of Youtube and Vimeo movies being made with consumer 3D cams. Youtube already supports 3D videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GcLW0g_c1s
2010 will bring us... Mendels
As you may now by now I'm a big RepRap addept, and I believe everyone will be in the next couple of years. The new, improved version of the RepRap, Mendel, is out for a short while now, and already there are many Mendels out in the wild... like here, and prusajr over here and here.
I'm getting about 2 mails a week with people asking me to print them Mendel pieces. The demand is way higher than the offer right now, this is a good from a growth perspective.
2010 will bring us... the iTablet and better gAlternatives
I think the iSlate, iPad, iTablet or whatever, will be a huge hit. But I'm not an Apple fanboy. At all. I expect the iWhatever to be a cash sucking machine. It will be connected to the iTunes store, where you can buy books, movies, songs and lots of other stuff... It will be a nice, slick machine, but very expensive.
On the other hand, I am a bit of a Google fanboy (As long as they are on the path of Open Source projects, and use the everything-is-Free-but-has-adds strategy). Hence I much more interested in the Chrome OS. And the effect it will have on the tablet world. I can imagine lots of tablets everywhere, in your living room, kitchen, in the lobby of a hotel, etc.
You just pick one up, log in with your google account and *bam* there you have your custom os, your email, your bookmarks, your documents, your videos (on a free service like revision3.com, or paid services like netflix.com), your passwords, etc.
Perhaps it wont be free, or as 'designy' as the iWhatever, but it will be Open!
2010 will bring us... A.I.
As computing power keeps on getting cheaper and cheaper simple A.I. will also improve. These technological improvements will not be as spectacular and visible as the items above. However they will be important. I'm thinking about industrial techniques to improve manufacturing, controlling traffic, detecting potential dangerous situations in traffic. Automated maneuvering with you car, automated watering your plants, ... etc.
2010 will bring us... Robots!
As you know I'm a real Robots addict. And I'm also graduating this year as an Industrial Engineer Electromechanics, Automation. A "Robotics guy" for short.
So I'll promise you this. I'll do my very best to push Robots in the industrial world, but also in peoples everyday lives.
Now, have a nice 2010!
