IBM’s Top 5 Innovations Will Change Your Life Within 5 Years

For its third prediction IBM said, “Mind reading is closer to reality than you might think.”

IBM scientists are researching how to link your brain to your devices, such as a computer or a smartphone. If you just need to think about calling someone, it happens. Or you can control the cursor on a computer screen just by thinking about where you want to move it, IBM said.

Bioinformatic sensing

Scientists in the field of bioinformatics have designed headsets with advanced sensors to read electrical brain activity that can recognise facial expressions, excitement and concentration levels, and thoughts of a person without them physically taking any actions.

IBM says within five years, we will begin to see early applications of this technology in the gaming and entertainment industry. Furthermore, doctors could use the technology to test brain patterns, possibly even assist in rehabilitation from strokes and to help in understanding brain disorders, such as autism, IBM said.

Life-changing innovation No. 4 is that “the digital divide will cease to exist”. Indeed, IBM says in five years, the gap between information haves and have-nots will narrow considerably due to advances in mobile technology.

There are seven billion people inhabiting the world today. In five years, there will be 5.6 billion mobile devices sold – which ostensibly means 80 percent of the current global population would each have a mobile device.

As it becomes cheaper to own a mobile phone, people without a lot of spending power will be able to do much more than they can today. For example, in India, using speech technology and mobile devices, IBM enabled rural villagers who were illiterate to pass along information through recorded messages on their phones. With access to information that was not there before, villagers could check weather reports to help them decide when to fertilise crops, know when doctors were coming into town, and find the best prices for their crops or merchandise.

Growing communities will be able to use mobile technology to provide access to essential information and better serve people with new products and business models such as mobile commerce and remote health care. In our global society, the level of access to information increasingly decides the growth and wealth of economies.

Your own personal genome

In an interview in Hamm’s post, IBM fellow Bernard Meyerson, who is also the company’s vice president of innovation for the Systems and Technology group, said, “Today, through telemedicine, patients can connect with physicians or specialists from just about anywhere via inexpensive computers and broadband networks. Doctors can view X-rays and other diagnostic imagery from thousands of miles away.”

Meyerson added: “Thanks to advances in genetic research and high-performance computing, it is now possible to affordably decipher an individual’s entire genome. This makes it possible for physicians to alert people to medical conditions they might fall prey to, and it clears the pathway, eventually, to truly personal medicine.”

The final prediction in the IBM list is that “junk mail will become priority mail”. The company said that in five years, unsolicited advertisements may feel so personalised and relevant it may seem spam is dead. At the same time, spam filters will be so precise that you will never be bothered by unwanted sales pitches again, IBM said.

Describing potential scenarios, IBM said: “Imagine if tickets to your favourite band are put on hold for you the moment they became available, and for the one night of the week that is free on your calendar. Through alerts direct to you, you will be able to purchase tickets instantly from your mobile device. Or imagine being notified that a snowstorm is about to affect your travel plans and you might want to re-route your flight?”

IBM is developing technology that uses real-time analytics to make sense and integrate data from across all the facets of your life, such as your social networks and online preferences to present and recommend information that is only useful to you, IBM said. From news, to sports, to politics, you will trust the technology will know what you want, so you can decide what to do with it.