In the history of technology, the following list of emerging technologies, the character of which comprise cutting-edge developments,^[1] represent contemporary advances and innovation around the 21st century in various fields of technology. Emerging technologies are those technical innovations which represent progressive developments within a field for competitive advantage.^[2] However, the opinion on the degree of impact, status, and economic viability of several emerging technologies vary. There is an ongoing public policy debate over many emerging technologies and their implications for society.

Contents 1 Energy technologies 2 Transportation 3 Information Technology 4 Biotechnology, Bioinformatics 5 Robotics and applied mechanics 6 Material science 7 Others 8 See also 9 Further reading 10 References 11 External links

[edit] Energy technologies

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Emerging Technology	Status	Potentially Marginalized Technologies	Potential Applications	Related Articles
Nuclear fusion power	Theory and experiments for 50+ years	Fossil fuels, renewable energy, nuclear fission power	Electric power generation, space transportation	ITER
Biofuels	Diffusion	Fossil fuels	Energy storage, particularly for transportation	Issues relating to biofuels
Hydrogen economy	Diffusion (of hydrogen fuel cells); Theory and experiments for less expensive production of hydrogen	Other technologies for storing energy (conventional batteries, fossil fuels)	Storage of energy
Nanowire battery	Working prototypes	Other technologies for storing energy (hydrogen, conventional batteries and in some cases fossil fuels)	Laptops, mobile phones and long-range electric cars. Storing power for electric grid
Ultracapacitor	Diffusion and continued development	conventional batteries	Regenerative braking; generally faster-charging, longer lasting, more flexible, and/or greener energy storage
Wireless energy transfer	Working prototypes/Diffusion	Batteries	Wirelessly powered equipment (laptop, cell phones etc.)	Witricity, Resonant energy transfer

[edit] Transportation

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Emerging Technology	Status	Potentially Marginalized Technologies	Potential Applications	Related Articles
Electric cars	Small scale production, infrastructure investment	Internal combustion engine	Greener transportation	Chevrolet Volt, Better Place, Riversimple
Personal rapid transit	Working prototypes (and models)	Conventional rail/bus public transport; would reduce need for everyone to own their own car	Greener transportation	List of existing, planned, and proposed PRTs
Personal aircraft	Commercial production	Commercial Airlines
Precooled jet engines	Laboratory verified precooler	subsonic jets	Very fast, long distance air travel, space travel
Scramjet	Working prototypes	Hypersonic Jet engines, Rocket engines	Very fast air travel
Non-rocket spacelaunch Launch loop Lightcraft Mass driver Space gun Space elevator Space fountain	Theory and some experiments	Rocket	Space colonization, mass space travel, disposal of radioactive waste

[edit] Information Technology

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Emerging Technology	Status	Potentially Marginalized Technologies	Potential Applications	Related Articles
Artificial intelligence	Theory and experiments; limited application in specialized domains	Human decision, analysis, etc.	Creation of intelligent devices	Applications of artificial intelligence
Machine translation	Prototyping and research	Human translation of natural languages, in areas where misunderstanding is non-critical and language is formalized	Easier cross-cultural communication
Machine vision	Prototyping and research	biological vision, the visual perception of humans	Biometrics, Controlling processes (e.g. a driverless car, or an automated guided vehicle), detecting events (e.g. for visual surveillance), interaction (e.g. for human-computer interaction), robot vision	Computer vision, pattern recognition, digital image processing
Machine augmented cognition/exocortices	Diffusion of primitive amplifications; working prototypes of more; theory and experiments on more substantial amplification	Libraries, schools, training, pocket calculators
Semantic Web or answer machine	e.g. see www.wolframalpha.com	Search engines	Making the web machine-readable by linking data on the web based on its meaning
General-purpose computing on graphics processing units	Diffusion of non standardized methods	CPU for a few specialized applications	Order of magnitude faster processing of parallelizable algorithms.
Solid-state drive	Diffusion; development of larger capacity	Hard disk drive	Less delicate, low mass (lighter laptop computers & portable electronics), faster, quieter, lower power consuming storage
3D optical data storage or Holographic data storage	Prototyping and research	All other optical data storage solutions, magnetic tape data storage, and other mass storage devices.	Storage and archiving of data that was previously erased for economic reasons	Holographic Disc Ultra HD sony and other big companies are interested in this technology
Spintronics	Working prototypes	Mechanical magnetic hard disk drives	Data storage	MRAM
Optical computing	Theory and experiments - some components of integrated circuits have been developed	Many integrated circuits and other electronics devices	Smaller, faster, lower power consuming computing
Quantum computing	Theory and experiments	Electronic computing, optical computing	Much faster computing, for certain kinds of problems, chemical modeling, new materials with programmed properties, theory of high-temperature superconductivity and superfluidity
Quantum cryptography	Commercialization		Secure communications
Wireless communication	Diffusion	Wired communication	Ubiquitous network connectivity
Screenless display	Theory and experiments	displays	Augmented reality, virtual reality	Virtual retinal display, Adaptive optics
3D displays	Theory and experiments, Commercialization	CRT, LCD, and other display technologies	Television, computer interfaces, cinemas	Autostereoscopic display, stereoscopic display, volumetric display, holographic display
Organic light-emitting diode	first commercial OLED TV in 2008, Sony XEL-1	LCD and plasma displays	Displays; lighting	OLED TV, Comparison of display technology
Interferometric modulator display	Commercialization and development	CRT, LCD, plasma, e-paper and other display technologies	Non-emissive displays with fast response times and potentially the most realistic colors of all display technologies	Interferometric modulator display, comparison of display technology
Laser displays	first commercial Laser TV in 2008, Mitsubishi LaserVue TV	LCD and plasma displays	Displays with very wide colour gamut prowess	Laser TV, Comparison of display technology
Phased array optics	Theory	Conventional display devices (e.g., television)	Mass production of 3-dimensional imagery
Holography	Diffusion	Display technologies
Memristor	Working prototype	Some current integrated circuits, many other electronics devices	Smaller, faster, lower power consuming storage, analogue electronics, Artificial intelligence
3D printing	In commercial production	Manual creation of prototypes and also some mass production methods that lack the ability for customization	Rapid prototyping and production of not only plastic objects but multi-material items, with the potential to significantly customize products for individual consumers	RepRap Project
Thermal copper pillar bump	Working prototypes in discrete devices	Conventional thermal solutions, heat sinks, bulk thermoelectrics	Electric circuit cooling; micro-fluidic actuators; small-device thermoelectric power generation	Ultra high defintion holograpic disc
Immersive virtual reality	Theory, limited commercialization	consensus reality	an artificial environment where the user feels just as immersed as they usually feel in consensus reality	Immersion, simulated reality

[edit] Biotechnology, Bioinformatics

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Emerging Technology	Status	Potentially Marginalized Technologies	Potential Applications	Related Articles
Genetic engineering	Commercialization; ongoing research & development	Animal husbandry, Plant breeding	Creation and modification of species, bio-machines, elimination of genetic disorders.	Genetically modified food, Genetic pollution
Synthetic biology, Synthetic genomics	Research & development	Chemical industry, Petroleum industry, Process industries	Creation of infinitely scalable production processes based on programmable species of bacteria and other life forms	BioBrick, Igem, Synthetic Genomics
Artificial photosynthesis	Research and experiments		replicate the natural process of photosynthesis, converting sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide into carbohydrates and oxygen
Anti-aging drugs: resveratrol, SRT1720	Animal testing	Existing treatments for age-related diseases	Life extension
Vitrification or Cryoprotectant	Theory and some experiments	Ischemic Damages	Organ transplant, Cryonics
Hibernation or Suspended Animation	Animal trials, ongoing research and development	Surgical anesthesia	Organ transplant, space travel, prolonged surgery, emergency care
Stem cell treatments	Research and experiments		Treatment for a wide range of diseases and injuries	Stem cell treatments, Stem cell
Personalized medicine	Theory	Orphan drugs	Cancer management and Preventive treatment; genetic disorders
In vitro meat			Cheap meat for the masses

[edit] Robotics and applied mechanics

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Emerging Technology	Status	Potentially Marginalized Technologies	Potential Applications	Related Articles
Swarm robotics	Theory and experiments	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
Molecular nanotechnology, nanorobotics	Theory and experiments	Small products and parts production & retail	Desktop devices that can make anything given the materials, cheap planetary terraforming
Powered exoskeleton	Prototyping and diffusion, research & development, commercialization [3]	Electric wheelchairs, forklifts.	Heavy lifting, paralysis, muscle related diseases, warfare, construction

[edit] Material science

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Emerging Technology	Status	Potentially Marginalized Technologies	Potential Applications	Related Articles
High-temperature superconductivity	Cryogenic Receiver Front-End (CRFE) RF and microwave filter systems for mobile phone base stations; Working prototypes in dry ice; theory and experiments for higher temperatures	Copper wire	No loss conductors, frictionless bearings, magnetic levitation, lossless high-capacity accumulators, electric cars
High-temperature superfluidity	Superfluid gyroscopes already exist but work at very low temperatures	Mechanical Gyroscope	High-precision measure of gravity, navigation and maneuver devices. Potentially devices to produce gravitomagnetic field, frictionless mechanical devices.
Nanomaterials: carbon nanotubes	Diffusion, theory, in use occasionally and experiments	Structural steel and aluminium	Stronger, lighter, and more intelligent materials, space elevator
Metamaterials	Diffusion	Classical optics	Microscopes, cameras, cloaking devices
Self-healing materials	Experimental Demonstrations	Structural Materials	Plastic parts, wide range of applications
Programmable matter	Theory/Experiments	Coatings, catalysts	Wide range of applications e.g. Claytronics, Synthetic biology
Quantum dots	Research and experiments, Working prototypes	LCD, LED	Quantum dot laser with future use as programmable matter in display technologies (TV, projection), optical data communications (high-speed data transmission), medicine (laser scalpel)

[edit] Others

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Emerging Technology	Status	Potentially Marginalized Technologies	Potential Applications	Related Articles
LED lamp	Diffusion	Incandescent and Fluorescent Lighting	Illumination
Force field	Theory/Experiments	Armor	Military and law enforcement, space travel.	Plasma window

[edit] See also

General

List of inventors, list of inventions, Industrial Ecology, sustainable development

Nano-

nanoscience, molecular manufacturing, Neurotechnology

Ethics

casuistry, engineering ethics, nanoethics, Bioethics, Neuroethics

Computers

brain–computer interface, rugged computer, handheld computer, virtual reality

Other

anthropogenics, machine guidance, Radio frequency identification, National Science Foundation

Timeline

Timeline of the future in forecasts

[edit] Further reading

• IEEE International Conference on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation, & Fuertes, J. M. (1999). 1999 7th IEEE International Conference on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation proceedings, ETFA'99, October 18-21, 1999, UPC, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Piscataway, N.J.: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
• Jones-Garmil, K. (1997). The wired museum: Emerging technology and changing paradigms. Washington, DC: American Association of Museums.
• Giersch, H. (1982). Emerging technologies: Consequences for economic growth, structural change, and employment : symposium 1981. Tübingen: Mohr.

[edit] References

Footnote

[edit] External links

• Special Reports 10 Emerging Technologies. Technology Review.