Certain technologies which have generated a buzz in recent years are expected to continue influencing our lives. Here are some of the anticipated developments or trends expected to shape the technology world in 2015:
Big Data Predictive Analytics
Big Data analysis is already being used to learn how to better sell products and services to us. Predictive methods of analysis are expected to have an increasing impact on the way we make goods and do business.
The credit card industry has been a major beneficiary of prescriptive Big Data analytics
. If you’ve used a credit card for any length of time, you’ll have probably received an automated telephone call, alerting you of a suspicious pattern of charges to your account. The call will typically ask you to verify or decline the charges, and will often link you directly to a live human. This is all part of a process to detect and mitigate potential credit card fraud.
A Big Data program will have analyzed not only your established charge pattern, but also red flags identified by analyzing the charge patterns of millions of other consumers. The learning algorithms of the credit company’s fraud detection machines constantly refine their understanding of what patterns are most likely to indicate fraud.
Machine Learning & Predictive Maintenance
Production technology is evolving to the level where, for example, a factory manager could be forewarned against failures of certain components before they happened, minimizing downtime. This would translate to significant savings, especially when manufacturing on a large scale.
By using a machine-learning algorithm, the operating condition of key components could be monitored in real-time to help establish normal operating parameters. Over time, the manufacturer will build up a comprehensive data-set to help predict failures.
The next time production machinery exhibits conditions of critical wear-and-tear, the machine-learning algorithm could trigger an alert to the plant manager and also automatically place orders with suppliers for new parts in anticipation of imminent failure.
Smart Machines
There’s scope, too, for Context-Rich Systems, which Gartner describes as using “situational and environmental information about people, places and things” in order to provide a service.
Intelligent user interfaces will link lots of different apps and data. Advanced analytics will build data reservoirs that can tie together multiple repositories, to let IT see new information like data usage patterns and security anomalies, so they can be acted on quickly.
3D Printing
Economics are prevailing now as 3D printing costs are coming down, both in terms of the materials that can be used as well as the price of machines.
The Internet of Things (IoT)
The connection of everyday consumer goods to the Internet is already happening, and IT divisions will have to manage all of these devices and develop effective business models to take advantage of them. IoT sensors are becoming common, and before long will be expected components of virtually any device or product.
The IoT requires ceaseless connectivity, and as we continue to use smarter, connected devices, we’ll somehow need to provide enough unlicensed bandwidth for them to communicate with their surroundings and each other.
Developments in The Cloud
Talk is now of the “Pervasive Cloud”, which combines the growth in universal connectivity with the rise of cloud computing.
The cloud can stand alone as a significant data and computing resource for remote use and corporate business practices. Devices in almost any environment can be connected to cloud resources. So, remote devices with tiny CPU or memory resources can now get connected to huge search engines and massive databases.
The pervasive cloud is increasingly being enhanced with artificial intelligence (AI). Consumers are benefiting through virtual personal assistants (VPA) – software tools that respond to natural language and can retrieve information, read texts and emails to you, and act on your behalf, remotely.
Cloud Robotics
Robots need to be able to operate without the Internet at least some of the time. But with the cloud available their capabilities soar.
Robotics can exploit massive off-line processing and data, software and capabilities upgrades, and collective learning, while relying on remote human intervention and control as needed. A balance needs to be struck between which tasks should be done locally (e.g. stability and quick movement control), and which tasks can be done in the cloud (e.g. route determination and object recognition).
There’s a trade-off, too. Robots gain abilities as they become available in the cloud, and the cloud grows with data collected from robots. By collaborating via the cloud, robots can even work together.
The Quantified Self
At the human end of the scale, wearable sensors, smart devices and connectivity will continue to improve our ability to track and measure health and fitness information on our own. Data such as calories consumed and/or burned, heart rate, and blood oxygen levels can be collected and analyzed.
But the collection of complex health data doesn’t do much good if we need to go to medical school to analyze it ourselves. At some point, this information needs to be made available to healthcare professionals – over the internet, of course. Which leads us to our final point.
Privacy Issues
For each opportunity the internet affords us personally and professionally, there are trade-offs in terms of the information we share – willingly or not.
Technology and privacy transcend consumer electronics and even politics. Anyone can be affected by the ways valuable – even top secret – information is accessed and divulged.
The balance between what we give up, and how the data is used so online companies can serve us will remain a big challenge.
William Thompson
William Thompson is the Marketing Manager at Power Admin, a server monitoring software business in the Kansas City area. You can find him on Google+ and Twitter. William has been a professional in website design, digital marketing and 3D/graphic design for over 20 years.