List of emerging technologies
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is a list of currently emerging technologies, which contains some of the most prominent ongoing developments, advances, and innovations in various fields of modern technology. Emerging technologies are those technical innovations which represent progressive developments within a field for competitive advantage.[1]
Contents
Agriculture
| Emerging technology | Status | Potentially marginalized technologies | Potential applications | Related articles |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agricultural robot[2] | Research and development, trial projects | |||
| Closed ecological systems[3][4][5] | Research and development, working demonstrators (e.g. Biosphere 2) | Agricultural science | Agriculture, scientific research, space colonization | Greenhouse, Biosphere 2, Eden Project, Bioshelter, Seawater greenhouse, Perpetual harvest greenhouse system |
| In vitro meat | Research and development[6][7][8] | Animal husbandry, fishing[8] | Humane, resource-efficient, healthier and cheaper meat[8] | New Harvest |
| Precision agriculture | Research and development, diffusion | |||
| Vertical farming | Research, development, experiments, and diffusion[9][10][11] | Industrial agriculture | Crop and meat production |
Climate engineering
| Emerging technology | Status | Potentially marginalized technologies | Potential applications | Related articles |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atmospheric carbon dioxide removal | Research and development | Fossil carbon sources | Climate change mitigation, closing the carbon cycle, input for carbon neutral fuel production | Virgin Earth Challenge |
Construction
| Emerging technology | Status | Potentially marginalized technologies | Potential applications | Related articles |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3D printing and Bio-printing | Commercial production[12][13] | Manual prototype production, some methods of mass production that lack customizability | Rapidly prototyping and producing cheaper objects, with potential to significantly customize products for individual consumers, e.g. buildings,[14] cars,[15] electronics,[16] furniture,[17] decorations or clothes[18] | RepRap Project, Contour Crafting, D-Shape |
| Claytronics | Hypothetical, experiment | 3D printing, traditional manufacturing methods and tools | ||
| Molecular assembler | Hypothetical, experiment | 3D printing, traditional manufacturing methods and tools | Replicator (Star Trek), Von Neumann universal constructor | |
| Utility fog | Hypothetical, experiment |
Architecture
| Emerging technology | Status | Potentially marginalized technologies | Potential applications | Related articles |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arcology | Research, development, Commercialization | |||
| Domed city | In progress in Dubai[19] | Weather-controlled city, colonization of other bodies |
Materials science
| Emerging technology | Status | Potentially marginalized technologies | Potential applications | Related articles |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aerogel | Hypothetical, experiments, diffusion, early uses[20] | Traditional Insulation, Glass | Improved insulation, insulative glass if it can be made clear, sleeves for oil pipelines, aerospace, high-heat & extreme cold applications | |
| Amorphous metal | Experiments | Kevlar | Armor | |
| Bioplastic | Some products developed | Fossil fuel plastics | ||
| Conductive Polymers | Research, experiments, prototypes | Conductors | Lighter and cheaper wires, antistatic materials, organic solar cells | Jacquard weaving |
| Femtotechnology, Picotechnology | Hypothetical | Present nuclear | New materials; nuclear weapons, power | |
| Fullerene | Experiments, diffusion | Synthetic diamond and carbon nanotubes (e.g. Buckypaper) | Programmable matter | |
| Graphene | Hypothetical, experiments, diffusion, early uses[21][22] | silicon-based integrated circuit | Components with higher strength to weight ratios, transistors that operate at higher frequency, lower cost of display screens in mobile devices, storing hydrogen for fuel cell powered cars, sensors to diagnose diseases[23] | |
| High-temperature superconductivity | Cryogenic receiver front-end (CRFE) RF and microwave filter systems for mobile phone base stations; prototypes in dry ice; Hypothetical and experiments for higher temperatures[24] | Copper wire, semiconductor integral circuits | No loss conductors, frictionless bearings, magnetic levitation, lossless high-capacity accumulators, electric cars, heat-free integral circuits and processors | |
| Magnetorheological fluid | developed and researched | Shock absorber | Magnetorheological damper heavy motor damping, operator seat/cab damping in construction vehicles, seismic dampers positioned in building absorbing detrimental shock waves and oscillations within the structure making them earthquake-proof, enhance body armour fluid bullet resistant, Humvees, and various other all-terrain vehicles employ dynamic MR shock absorbers/dampers. Magnetorheological finishing was used in the construction of the Hubble Space Telescope's corrective lens, shock absorbers of a vehicle's suspension are filled with magnetorheological fluid. | Electrorheological fluid |
| High-temperature superfluidity | Superfluid gyroscopes already exist but work at very low temperatures | Mechanical gyroscope, flywheel | High-precision measure of gravity, navigation and maneuver devices, possible devices to emit gravitomagnetic field, frictionless mechanical devices | |
| LiTraCon | Experiments, already used to make Europe Gate | Glass | Construction of skyscrapers, towers, and sculptures like Europe Gate | |
| Metamaterials | Hypothetical, experiments, diffusion[25] | Classical optics | Microscopes, cameras, metamaterial cloaking, cloaking devices | |
| Metal foam | Research, commercialization | Hulls | Space colonies, floating cities | |
| Multi-function structures[26] | Hypothetical, experiments, some prototypes, few commercial | Composite materials mostly | Wide range, e.g., self health monitoring, self healing material, morphing | |
| Nanomaterials: carbon nanotubes | Hypothetical, experiments, diffusion, early uses[27][28] | Structural steel and aluminium | Stronger, lighter materials, space elevator | Potential applications of carbon nanotubes, carbon fiber |
| Programmable matter | Hypothetical, experiments[29][30] | Coatings, catalysts | Wide range, e.g., claytronics, synthetic biology | |
| Quantum dots | Research, experiments, prototypes[31] | LCD, LED | Quantum dot laser, quantum dot display, future use as programmable matter in display technologies (TV, projection), optical data communications (high-speed data transmission), medicine (laser scalpel) | |
| Silicene | Hypothetical, research | Field-effect transistors | ||
| Superalloy | Research, diffusion | Aluminum, titanium, composite materials | Aircraft jet engines | |
| Synthetic diamond | Research | Silicon transistors | Electronics | |
| hypereutectic alloy | Research, commercialization | Casting | Metals | Hypereutectic piston |
| super-plastic alloy | Research, commercialization | Casting | Metals | Superplasticity |
| Conductive polymers | Research, commercialization | Organic Circuits | Electrical Conduction | Conductive polymer |
Displays
| Emerging technology | Status | Potentially marginalized technologies | Potential applications | Related articles |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3D displays | Research, commercialization[32][33] | other display technologies, CRT, LCD | Television, computer interfaces, cinemas | Autostereoscopic display, stereoscopic display, volumetric display, Holographic display, Light Field display, Nintendo 3DS, HTC Evo 3D |
| Ferro Liquid Display | Some commercial products | |||
| Field emission display | Research | |||
| Holography (Holographic display, Computer-generated holography) | Diffusion[34][35][36] | Display technologies | ||
| Interferometric modulator display | Development, commercializing[37] | Other display technologies, CRT, LCD, plasma, e-paper | Non-emissive displays with fast response times and potentially the most realistic colours of all display technologies | Interferometric modulator display, comparison of display technology |
| Laser video displays | first commercial Laser TV in 2008, Mitsubishi LaserVue TV | LCD and plasma displays | Displays with very wide colour gamut | Laser TV, Comparison of display technology |
| OLED displays | Diffusion, commercialization[38][39][40] | LCD and plasma displays | Displays, lighting | OLED TV, Comparison of display technology |
| Organic light-emitting transistor | Development | |||
| Phased-array optics | Hypothetical[41][42] | Conventional display devices (e.g., television) | Mass production of 3-dimensional imagery | |
| Screenless display (Virtual retinal display, Bionic contact lens), EyeTap | Hypothetical, experiments[43] | Traditional displays | Augmented reality, virtual reality, EyeTap could allow the user to reference the blue prints like in a construction yard, in a 3D manner, Delivers the user constant up to date information on the stock market, the user's corporation, and meeting statuses, visual disabilities | Head-mounted display, Head-up display, adaptive optics |
| Telescopic pixel display | In development | |||
| Time-multiplexed optical shutter | Commercialized | |||
| Volumetric display | Working prototypes | 3-dimensional imagery | Swept-volume display |
Home appliance
| Emerging technology | Status | Potentially marginalized technologies | Potential applications | Related articles |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bead washing machine | Commercialization[44] | Traditional washing machines | Washing with small consumption of water, electrical energy and detergents | |
| Magnetic refrigeration | Already used for achieving cryogenic temperatures in the laboratory setting (below 10K) | Conventional refrigerators | Refrigeration without the need for compression and with more energy efficient which may be in refrigerators, air conditioners and spacecraft | |
| Qarnot | Commercialization[45] | Conventional heaters, supercomputers, datacenters | Computing and heating | |
| V-tex | Commercialization[46] | Conventional refrigerators | Cooling drinks |
Electronics
| Emerging technology | Status | Potentially marginalized technologies | Potential applications | Related articles |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Biometrics | Diffusion | Keys and ID documents | ||
| Digital scent technology | Diffusion | Smell-O-Vision, iSmell | ||
| Electronic nose | Research, commercialization[47][48] | X-ray and MRI scans for detecting cancer | Detecting spoiled food, chemical weapons and cancer | |
| E-textiles | Research, diffusion[49] | |||
| Flexible electronics | Research, development, some prototypes[50][51] | Flexible and folding electronic devices (such as smartphones), Flexible solar cells which are lightweight, can be rolled up for launch, and are easily deployable | Nokia Morph, Flexible organic light-emitting diode | |
| Memristor | Working prototype[52][53] | Some current integrated circuits, many other electronics devices | Smaller, faster, lower power consuming storage, analogue electronics, programmable logic,[54] signal processing,[55] neural networks,[56] control systems,[57] reconfigurable computing,[58] brain-computer interfaces[59] and RFID,[60] pattern recognition[61] | |
| Molecular electronics | Research and Development | |||
| Nanoelectromechanical systems | Research and Development | |||
| Spintronics | Working prototypes[62] | Mechanical magnetic hard disk drives | Data storage, computing devices | MRAM |
| Thermal copper pillar bump | Working prototypes in discrete devices | Conventional thermal systems, heat sinks, bulk thermoelectrics | Electric circuit cooling; micro-fluidic actuators; small-device thermoelectric power generation | Ultra high definition holographic disc, Metal–insulator transition |
| Three-dimensional integrated circuit | In development | Integrated Circuits | Memory and data processing |
|
Energy
| Emerging technology | Status | Potentially marginalized technologies | Potential applications | Related articles |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Airborne wind turbine | Research[63][64][65] | Fossil fuels | Producing electricity | KiteGen |
| Artificial photosynthesis | Research, experiments[66] growing interest in a macroscience global project[67] | Fossil fuel or 'archived' photosynthesis | Improve natural photosynthesis, so roads buildings and vehicles convert sunlight and water into hydrogen and carbon dioxide into carbohydrates | Sustainocene, Renewable energy, Nanotechnology |
| Biofuels | Diffusion[68] | Fossil fuels | Energy storage, more so for transport | Issues relating to biofuels |
| Concentrated solar power | Growing markets in California, Spain, Northern Africa[69] | Fossil fuels, photovoltaics | Producing electricity | DESERTEC, BrightSource Energy, Solar Millennium |
| Electric double-layer capacitor | Diffusion, continued development[70] | Chemical batteries | Regenerative braking; energy storage: generally faster charging, longer lasting, more flexible, greener | |
| Energy harvesting | Experiments | Batteries | Constant energy source for mobile, wearable and ubiquitous devices | |
| Flywheel energy storage | Some commercial examples | |||
| Fusion power | Hypothetical, experiments | Fossil fuels, renewable energy, nuclear fission power | Producing electricity, heat, fusion torch recycling with waste heat | ITER, NIF, Polywell, Dense plasma focus, Muon-catalyzed fusion |
| Generation IV reactor | Research, Experiments | Traditional nuclear power reactors, fossil fuels | Producing electricity, heat, transmutation of nuclear waste stockpiles from traditional reactors | |
| Grid energy storage | Increasing use | |||
| Home fuel cell | Research, commercialisation[71][72][73] | Electrical grid | Off-the-grid, producing electricity | Autonomous building, Bloom Energy Server |
| Hydrogen economy | Diffusion of hydrogen fuel cells; Hypothetical, experiments for lower cost hydrogen production[74] | Other energy storage methods: chemical batteries, fossil fuels | Energy storage | |
| Lithium-air battery | Research, experiments[75] | Other energy storage methods: hydrogen, chemical batteries, some uses of fossil fuels | Laptops, mobile phones, long-range electric cars; storing energy for electric grid | |
| Lithium-ion batteries |
Main article: Research in lithium-ion batteries
|
|||
| Lithium iron phosphate battery | Commercialization | |||
| Lithium–sulfur battery | Research and Development | |||
| Molten salt battery | Applications and continuing research | |||
| Molten salt reactor | Research, Experiments | Traditional nuclear power reactors, fossil fuels | Producing electricity, heat | |
| Nanowire battery | Experiments, prototypes[76][77] | Other energy storage methods: hydrogen, chemical batteries, some uses of fossil fuels | Laptops, mobile phones, long-range electric cars; storing energy for electric grid | |
| Nantenna | Research[78][79][80] | Fossil fuels | Producing electricity | |
| Ocean thermal energy conversion | Prototype | |||
| Silicon–air battery | Experiments | |||
| Smart grid | Research, diffusion[81][82][83] | Smart meter, SuperSmart Grid | ||
| Solar roadway | Research[84][85][86] | Fossil fuels | Producing electricity | |
| Space-based solar power | Hypothetical | |||
| Thorium fuel cycle | Research started in the 1960s, still ongoing | Uranium based nuclear power, fossil fuels | Producing electricity, heat | |
| Vortex engine | Chimney, Cooling tower, Solar updraft tower | Power generation. | ||
| Wireless energy transfer | Prototypes, diffusion, short range consumer products[87] | Power cords, plugs, batteries | Wirelessly powered equipment: laptop, cell phones, electric cars, etc. | WiTricity, resonant inductive coupling |
| Zero-energy building | Expansion | Electrical grid and power plants | All homes | Passive house |
Entertainment
| Emerging technology | Status | Potentially marginalized technologies | Potential applications | Related articles |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Computer-generated imagery | Developing | Photomodels, all film-related jobs (including public service announcements, music videos, viral videos, commercials and pornography), except for directors, screenwriters and graphic designers[88] | Films, photos | |
| Immersive virtual reality | Hypothetical, limited commercialization | Consensus reality | An artificial environment where the user feels just as immersed as they usually feel in consensus reality. | Virtusphere, 3rd Space Vest, haptic suit, immersive technology, simulated reality, holodeck (fictional) |
IT and communications
| Emerging technology | Status | Potentially marginalized technologies | Potential applications | Related articles |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4G cellular communication | First commercial LTE networks deployed in Sweden December 2009; candidate systems LTE-advanced and IEEE 802.16m (Mobile WiMAX Release 2) in development | Broadband | Pervasive computing | Mobile broadband, mobile TV, Interactive TV, 3D-TV,[89] holographic cameras[89] |
| 5G cellular communications | Research and development | |||
| Ambient intelligence | Hypothetical | |||
| Artificial brain | Research[90] | Treatment of neurological disease, artificial intelligence | Blue Brain Project, Human Brain Project | |
| Artificial intelligence | Hypothetical, experiments; limited uses in specialized domains[91][92][93] | Human decision, analysis, etc. | Creating intelligent devices and robots; AI can counsel (or even take charge) in scientific projects, government, army, corporate governance, film and books creation, inventions etc. | Progress in artificial intelligence, technological singularity, applications of artificial intelligence |
| Atomtronics | Hypothetical | |||
| Augmented reality | Diffusion | Google Glass, Windows Holographic, Mixed reality, Smartglasses | ||
| Carbon nanotube field-effect transistor | Research and development | Silicon-based transistors | Extending moore's law | |
| Civic technology | Research and development, projects | Smart cities, more responsive government | Civic technology, Smart city, e-democracy, open data, intelligent environment | |
| Counterparty (technology) | Diffusion | Bookmaker, stock exchange, central banking | Decentralized financial instruments,[94] betting, free market | Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency, Digital currency |
| Cryptocurrency | Diffusion | Central banking | Money supply, World reserve currency | Bitcoin, Digital currency |
| Cybermethodology | ||||
| Exascale computing | Projects | |||
| Internet of Things | Diffusion | |||
| Emerging memory technologies T-RAM, memristor, Z-RAM, TTRAM, CBRAM, SONOS, RRAM, Racetrack memory, NRAM, Phase-change memory, FJG, Millipede memory, Skyrmion, Programmable metallization cell, 3D XPoint, Ferroelectric RAM, Magnetoresistive random-access memory, nvSRAM | In development | Current memory technologies | ||
| Emerging magnetic data storage technologies SMR, HAMR, BPM | In development (HAMR, BPM); diffusion (SMR) | Greatly improved storage density compared to current HDDs, can be combined | PMR, Hard disk drive | |
| Fourth-generation optical discs (3D optical data storage, Holographic data storage) | Research, prototyping[95] | Some mass storage methods/devices, magnetic tape data storage, optical data storage | Storing and archiving data previously erased for economic reasons | Blu-ray Disc, Optical storage |
| General-purpose computing on graphics processing units | Diffusion of non standardized methods | CPU for a few specialized uses | Order of magnitude faster processing of parallelizable algorithms | |
| Exocortex | Diffusion of primitive amplifications; working prototypes of more; Hypothetical, experiments on more substantial amplification | Libraries, schools, training, pocket calculators | ||
| Li-Fi | Demos, requires standardization | Wi-Fi | ||
| Machine translation | Diffusion[96][97] | Human translation of natural languages, in areas where misunderstanding is non-critical and language is formalized | Easier and cheaper cross-cultural communication | |
| Machine vision | Research, prototyping, commercialization[90] | Biotic vision and perception, including humans | Biometrics, controlling processes (e.g., in driverless car, automated guided vehicle), detecting events (e.g., in visual surveillance), interaction (e.g., in human-computer interaction), robot vision | Computer vision, pattern recognition, digital image processing |
| Mobile collaboration and e-learning | Development, commercialization[98] | Transport of humans, traditional video-conferencing systems | Extends the capabilities of video conferencing for use on hand-held mobile devices in real-time over secure networks. For use in diverse industries such as manufacturing, energy, healthcare.[99] Telework | |
| Optical computing | Hypothetical, experiments; some components of integrated circuits have been developed[100] | Many electronics devices, integrated circuits | Smaller, faster, lower power consuming computing | |
| Quantum computing | Hypothetical, experiments,[101] commercialization[102] | Atomtronics, Electronic computing, optical computing, quantum clock |
Much faster computing, for some kinds of problems, chemical modeling, new materials with programmed properties, Hypothetical of high-temperature superconductivity and superfluidity | |
| Quantum cryptography | Commercialization[103] | Secure communications | ||
| Radio-frequency identification | Diffusion of high cost[104][105][106] | Barcode | Smartstores - RFID based self checkout (keeping track of all incoming and outgoing products), food packaging, smart shelves, smart carts. See: potential uses | |
| Semantic Web or answer machine | Research, limited use | Web 2.0 | Making the web machine-readable by annotating data on the web based on its meaning | Corporate Semantic Web, Semantic Web Services, Semantic Web Stack, Web 3.0 |
| Software-defined radio | Development, commercialization | Traditional, frequency-specific radio circuits, dedicated signal processing hardware | Cognitive radio, Mesh networks, Software defined antenna | GNU Radio, Universal Software Radio Peripheral |
| Speech recognition | Research, Development, Commercialization | Mechanical input devices | ||
| Subvocal recognition | Research, Development, Commercialization | |||
| Three-dimensional integrated circuit | Development, commercialization[107][108] | Conventional integrated circuit | ||
| Ubiquitous computing | Early diffusion | |||
| Virtual Reality | Diffusion | Entertainment, education | Oculus Rift | |
| Wearable computer | Diffusion |
Medical
| Emerging technology | Status | Potentially marginalized technologies | Potential applications | Related articles |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Artificial uterus | Hypothetical, research | Incubator, in vivo pregnancy, including host motherhood | space travel, extracorporeal pregnancy, Reprogenetics, same-sex procreation | |
| Body implants, prosthesis | Trials, from animal (e.g., brain implants) to human clinical (e.g., insulin pump implant), to commercial production (e.g. pacemaker, joint replacement, cochlear implant) | Various fields of medicine, warfare | Brain implant, retinal implant | Prosthetics, prosthetics in fiction, cyborg |
| Cryonics | Hypothetical, research, commercialization (e.g. Cryonics Institute) | Cemeteries | Life extension | |
| De-extinction | Research, development, trials | Animal husbandry, pets, zoos | ||
| Genetic engineering of organisms and viruses | Research, development, commercialization[109][110] | Other medical procedures (including aesthetic medicine and contraception), traditional warfare (genetically modified soldiers, ethnic bioweapon),[111] traditional animal husbandry and plant and fungus breeding, tattoo artism and fitness clubs and cosmetics and nutrition (because of new genes humans will be able to change on demand their look), gardening (because of new genes there will be no need to nurture plants), species-saving efforts (because of new genes they can adapt to new environments), traditional fuel production[112][113] | Creating and modifying species (mainly improving their physical and mental capabilities), bio-machines, eliminating genetic disorders (gene therapy), new materials production,[114] healthier and cheaper food, creating drugs and vaccines, research in natural sciences, bioremediation,[115] detecting arsenic[116] | Biopunk, Genetically modified food, superhuman, human enhancement, transhumanism, gene doping, designer baby, genetic pollution |
| Hibernation or suspended animation | Research, development, animal trials[117] | Surgical anaesthesia | Organ transplantation, space travel, prolonged surgery, emergency care | |
| Life extension, Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence | Research, experiments, animal testing[118][119][120] | Existing treatments for age-related diseases[120] | Increased life spans[120] | Immortality, biological immortality |
| Male contraception and 100%-effective birth control methods[121][122] | Research and Development | Other birth control methods, abortion | ||
| Nanomedicines | Research, experiments, limited use[123][124] | |||
| Nanosensors | Research and Development | |||
| Oncolytic Virus | Human trials (Talimogene laherparepvec, reolysin, JX-594), commercialisation (H101) | Cancer therapy, imaging | Oncolytic virus | |
| Personalized medicine, full genome sequencing | Research, experiments[125] | Non-personalized medical procedures, including aesthetic medicine | Personalized medical procedures, genome sequencing during drug trials | Personal genomics |
| Plantibody | clinical trials | |||
| Regenerative medicine | Some laboratory trials[126] | Life extension | ||
| Robotic surgery | Research, diffusion[127][128][129] | Surgeons untrained in robotic surgery | ||
| Stem cell treatments | Research, experiments, phase I human trial spinal cord injury treatment (GERON), cultured cornea transplants[130][131] | Other therapies | Treatment for a wide range of diseases and injuries | Stem cell, stem cell treatments, Skin cell gun, |
| Synthetic biology, synthetic genomics | Research, development, first synthetic bacteria created May 2010[132][133] | Chemical industry, petroleum industry, process manufacturing | Creating infinitely scalable production processes based on programmable species of bacteria and other life forms | BioBrick, iGEM, synthetic genomics |
| Tissue engineering | Research, diffusion[134][135][136][137] | Organ printing, Tooth regeneration | ||
| Tricorder | Research and Development | Medical examinations | Diagnosing medical conditions | Medical tricorder |
| Virotherapy | Research, human trials | Gene therapy, cancer therapy | Virotherapy, Oncolytic Virus | |
| Vitrification or cryoprotectant | Hypothetical, some experiments[138] | Ischemic damages | Organ transplantation, cryonics |
Neuroscience
| Emerging technology | Status | Potentially marginalized technologies | Potential applications | Related articles |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nootropics | Enhance attention span and alertness, and facilitate learning and memory | |||
| Brain-computer interface | Research and commercialization | Video games, television, movies and current communication devices and transport of humans. | Faster communication and learning and "more real" entertainment (generation of feelings and informations in brain on demand). Control emotions in the mentally ill[139] | Experience machine |
| Brain-reading, Neuroinformatics | Research[140][141][142] | Mind uploading, enabling individuals with brain damage to communicate[143] | ||
| Electroencephalography | Research, diffusion[144][145] | Keyboards and other interfaces | Controlling electronic devices via brain waves |
BrainGate. |
| Neuroprosthetics | Visual prosthesis, brain implant, exocortex, retinal implant |
Military
| Emerging technology | Status | Potentially marginalized technologies | Potential applications | Related articles |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Antimatter weapon | Hypothetical | Nuclear weapons | ||
| Caseless ammunition | Field tests and some niche markets | Cartridges | Lightweight Small Arms Technologies | |
| Cloak of invisibility | Successful experiments cloaking small objects under some conditions[146][147] | Camouflage[147] | Cloaking microscope tips at optical frequencies[147] | Metamaterial cloaking |
| Directed energy weapon | Research, development, some prototypes[148] | Firearms | Warfare | Laser Weapon System |
| Electrolaser | Research and development | Taser | ||
| Electromagnetic weapons | Research and development[149][150] | Firearms | Warfare | Coilgun, Railgun |
| Electrothermal-chemical technology | Research and development | Conventional ammunition | Tank, artillery, and close-in weapon systems | |
| Force field | Hypothetical, experiments[151] | Armor | Military and law enforcement, space travel | Plasma window |
| Green bullet | Development | Current ammunition | Environment-friendly ammunition | |
| Laser weapon | Research and development, trials | Missile defense, anti-drone defense | Tracking and destruction of rockets, bombs, drones etc.[152] | Advanced Tactical Laser, High Energy Liquid Laser Area Defense System |
| Particle beam weapon | Research and development | Firearms | Warfare | Strategic Defense Initiative |
| Plasma weapon | Research | |||
| Pure fusion weapon | Hypothetical | |||
| Sonic weapon | Research and development | |||
| Stealth technology | Research and development | Camouflage | Electronic countermeasures | Plasma stealth, Stealth aircraft, Radar-absorbent material |
| Vortex ring gun | Research and development | tear gas | Crowd control | |
| Wireless long-range electric shock weapon | Expansion | Firearms | Law enforcement guns |
Outer space
| Emerging technology | Status | Potentially marginalized technologies | Potential applications | Related articles |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anti-gravity | Hypothetical and experiments[153][154] | |||
| Artificial gravity | Research, development | Space Travel | ||
| Asteroid mining | Hypothetical, NASA has announced plans to capture and redirect an asteroid.[155] | |||
| Domed city | NASA develops a geodesic dome for a moon base | Weather-controlled city, colonization of the moon | ||
| Galileo | In progress | Older satellite navigation systems | Localizing things with the accuracy of few centimeters: vehicles and ships and planes (even driverless ones), objects (like wallet or car keys) and people (e.g. it will navigate people, even blind ones, in buildings and cities). Also Gallileo will provide better charging systems on toll motorways and air traffic control[156] | |
| Hypertelescope | Hypothetical | astronomy | ||
| Inflatable space habitat | Developed, prototypes built and tested | Traditional "aluminium can" space habitat modules | Space habitats | Bigelow Aerospace |
| Miniaturized satellite | Research, development, some prototypes | Conventional satellites | Inexpensive satellites, constellations for low data rate communications, using formations to gather data from multiple points, in-orbit inspection of larger satellites. |
Robotics
| Emerging technology | Status | Potentially marginalized technologies | Potential applications | Related articles |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Android, gynoid | Research, development, prototypes, diffusion, commercializing[157] | Disabled, infant and older people care, housekeeping, sex-worker, flight-attendant, model, hostess, waiter, security guard | ||
| Molecular nanotechnology, nanorobotics | Hypothetical, experiments[158] | Products and parts production, retail distribution | Machines (desktop, industrial) that can make anything given the materials, cheap planetary terraforming | |
| Powered exoskeleton | Research, development, prototypes, diffusion, commercializing[159] | Electric wheelchairs, forklifts | Heavy lifting, paralysis, muscle related diseases, warfare, construction, firefighting, care for the elderly and disabled. | LOPES (exoskeleton), ReWalk, Human Universal Load Carrier, fictional armor Iron Man's armor, Future Force Warrior |
| Self-reconfiguring modular robot | Hypothetical, experiments, early prototypes | Other ways to form physical structures and machines | As a universal physical machine, SRCMR may change the way we make many physical structures and machines | Robot, swarm robotics, autonomous research robot |
| Swarm robotics | Hypothetical, experiments[160] | Distributed computing, complexity in behavior by simplicity in architecture | Autonomous construction, space construction | Swarm intelligence, autonomous robotics, nanorobotics, particle swarm optimization, multi-agent systems, behavior-based robotics |
| Unmanned vehicle | Research and development, diffusion, commercial | Manned vehicles, human spying, shops, kitchens, restaurants (thanks to unmanned transport of goods) | Transport of goods (e.g. food), mass surveillance, eavesdropping, oceanography, commercial aerial livestock monitoring, wildfire mapping, pipeline security, home security, road patrol and anti-piracy, patrol the nation's borders, scout property, and hunt down fugitives, oil, gas and mineral exploration and production, geophysical surveys, geomagnetic surveys, scientific research in areas too dangerous for pilots like a hurricane tornado hunter, firefighting,[161] military operations and peacekeeping operations, search and rescue, explosives and bomb disposal, gatekeeper and checkpoint operations, urban street presence, police raids in urban settings. | Unmanned aerial vehicle, AeroVironment, AeroVironment Global Observer, AeroVironment Nano Hummingbird, Unmanned combat air vehicle, Unmanned ground vehicle, Unmanned space vehicle, Unmanned surface vehicle, Unmanned underwater vehicle, Autonomous underwater vehicle |
Transport
See also: List of proposed future transport
| Emerging technology | Status | Potentially marginalized technologies | Potential applications | Related articles |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aeroscraft | Prototype | Heavy-lift, high altitude platform | ||
| Airless tire | Research, development, early prototypes[162][163][164] | Conventional tire[164] | Safer tires[164] | Tweel |
| Alcubierre drive | Hypothetical, Attempting to create a warp field in lab tests[165] | Conventional space propulsion | Interstellar exploration and colonization | |
| Alternative fuel vehicle | Commercialization, diffusion | Internal combustion engine | Reducing air pollution, decreasing oil consumption | Electric vehicle, Hydrogen vehicle, Compressed air vehicle |
| Autonomous car | Research, development, prototypes[166][167][168] | Driver's licenses, rules of the road, traffic lights, traffic sign, highway patrols, vehicle insurances | Reducing traffic collision, increasing road capacity, reducing air pollution, reducing traffic congestion | Google driverless car, General Motors EN-V, CityCar, MIT Car |
| Beam-powered propulsion | Hypothetical | Laser propulsion | ||
| Electro hydrodynamic propulsion | Research, development, prototypes[169][170] | Flying car, "hoverboards" | Better flying transportation, efficient propulsion in air | Electrohydrodynamics |
| Electric car | Commercialization | Internal combustion engine | ||
| Flexible wings (X-53 Active Aeroelastic Wing, Adaptive Compliant Wing), fluidic flight controls | Experiments, prototypes[171][172][173][174][175] | Other flight control systems: ailerons, elevators, elevons,
flaps, flaperons |
Controlling aircraft, ships | Aircraft flight control system, BAE Systems Demon, fluidics |
| Flying car | Early commercialization, prototypes[176][177] | Automobile, road | More effective transportation | Terrafugia Transition, Moller M400 Skycar, Urban Aeronautics X-Hawk, AeroMobil |
| Fusion rocket | Research, development[178] | Chemical rockets | Fast Interplanetary Travel, with limited Interstellar applications | |
| Hovertrain, Ground effect train | Research, development[179][180] | Conventional trains | Trains with higher speed | Aérotrain, Duke Hospital PRT, Hovercraft |
| High Altitude Platforms | Experimentation | Most satellites, cell phone towers | Communications | |
| Ion thruster | In use | |||
| Jet pack or backpack helicopter | Early commercialization, prototypes[181][182] | Automobile | More effective transportation | |
| Maglev train, Vactrain | Research, early commercialization[183][184][185] | Conventional trains, the wheel | Trains with higher speed | Transrapid, Shanghai Maglev Train, Linimo |
| Magnetic levitation | Research, development, Commercialization (Maglev Train) | Wheels, tires, conventional transportation systems | High temperature superconductivity, cryogenics, low temperature refrigerators, superconducting magnet design and construction, fiber reinforced plastics for vehicles and structural concretes, communication and high power solid-state controls, vehicle design (aerodynamics and noise mitigation), precision manufacturing, construction and fabrication of concrete structures,[186] maglev car, maglev based spacecraft launch | Vactrain, Levicar |
| Mass driver | Prototypes | |||
| Float to Orbit | Hypothetical | Conventional space launch | Space launch | |
| Personal rapid transit | Early commercialization, diffusion[187][188] | Automobile | More effective transportation | Morgantown PRT, ULTra |
| Physical Internet | Research[189] | Conventional logistics | ||
| Vactrain | Research, development | High-speed rail | Faster way to get somewhere | ET3 Global Alliance, Hyperloop |
| Nuclear pulse propulsion | Hypothetical | Chemical rockets | Fast Interplanetary Travel, with some possible Interstellar Travel applications | |
| Propellant depot | Research, development | Heavy lift rockets | enabling deep-space missions with more massive payloads, satellite life extension, ultimately lowering the cost per kg launched to space | |
| Pulse detonation engine | Testbed demos | |||
| Reusable launch system | Research, development | Expendable launch system | Surface-to-orbit transport | SpaceX reusable launch system development program |
| Scramjet | Research, development[190][191][192] | Conventional jet engine | Hypersonic aircraft | NASA X-43 |
| Solar sail | In 2010, IKAROS was the world's first spacecraft designed to use solar sailing propulsion to be successfully launched | Space travel | ||
| Space elevator | Research, development[193] | Non-rocket spacelaunch, Orbital ring, Sky hook, Space fountain | ||
| Spaceplane | Research, development[194][195][196] | Conventional airliners | Hypersonic transport | A2, Skylon |
| Supersonic transport | Commercialization existed, diffusion | Conventional airliners | Airliner with higher speed | Concorde, Tupolev Tu-144 |
| Vehicular communication systems | Research and development, some diffusion | Automobile safety | vehicle safety obstacle inform others warnings on entering intersections, Traffic management Accommodating ambulances, fire trucks, and police cars to a specific situation such as hot pursuits and bad weather, Driver assistance systems, Automated highways. | Artificial Passenger, Dedicated short-range communications, Intelligent transportation system |
See also
- General
- Disruptive innovation, Industrial Ecology, List of inventors, List of inventions, Sustainable development, Technology readiness level, Anthropogenics
- Ethics
- Casuistry, Computer ethics, Engineering ethics, Nanoethics, Bioethics, Neuroethics, Roboethics
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