New Delhi: Nowadays, technology is slowly taking over our lives by constantly evolving as breakthroughs and by creating opportunities that would have been unimaginable in the past.
But has it ever come across your mind that what u-turn our lives would take if these advancements really come into effect.
According to a report in the World Economic Forum, here's a list of technological developments that could enhance our lives.
Smart skin
World’s fastest stretchable, a wearable integrated circuits has been developed by a team of engineers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
This wearable technology takes it to a whole a new level by adhering to the skin much like a temporary tattoo. They also offer a wealth of possibilities especially medical field.
The high wireless speeds generated could see the smart skins used in intensive care units, with nurses then able to monitor your vital signs remotely.
Micro-chip implants
We all might be aware of this micro-chip implant as the idea regularly appears in Hollywood blockbusters but being machine-readable is a step too far to imagine. As for Amal Graafstra, this is a reality as the founder of bio-hacking company Dangerous Things is a double implantee with a microchip in each hand.
Amal Graafstra's right hand contains a re-writable chip that can be used to download information to and from his phone. Even his left hand contains a chip of simple identity number which can used to unlock doors or log on to computers.
Hearing colour
Neil Harbisson, touted as the world's first cyborg artist, suffers from a rare form of colour blindness called achromatopsia. He can only see the world in greyscale. However, he can hear colour, thanks to an antenna that translates the dominant colour into a musical note.
As per a report published in the World Economic Forum, he told The Guardian: “I like listening to Warhol and Rothko because their paintings produce clear notes. I can’t listen to Da Vinci or Velázquez because they use closely related tones – they sound like the soundtrack for a horror film''.
While it’s unlikely that by 2020 you’ll see an antenna everywhere you turn, it could offer a unique experience to the colour blind around the world.
Bionic eye
A bionic eye could help up to 85% of clinically blind people and a team based at Monash University in Australia are working to create it.
The user wears glasses containing a digital camera. A processor will modify these images, before presenting them to a chip implanted in the back of the brain. This chip then stimulates the visual cortex using electrical signals, which the brain will learn to recognize as sight.
Helps take the right decision
Though we all make bad choices sometimes but with this new research you will be able to pinpoint the dynamics of decision-making.
This breakthrough could one day allow us to nudge people towards making healthier choices, as suggested by the team from UC Berkeley behind the research.
“A device could be created that detects when an addict is about to choose a drug and instead bias their brain activity towards a healthier choice,” explained Jonathan Wallis, a neuroscientist and professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley and a senior author on the work.
