Tomorrow's World

India, 5 January 2010 – Technology defines life. We have become so dependent on technology that life without a computer or a mobile phone is virtually impossible to imagine. A whole new generation has grown up into adulthood, not knowing that what it takes for granted was not always around. In India, computers are less than three-decade old, multiple TV channels less than two-decade old and mobile phone less than 15 year old. Mobile TV was not heard of 10 years ago and social networking became popular in the past five years. What will be the technologies that will define our lives in the next few years? We don’t have an electronic crystal ball to gaze, not just yet, but we took the help of experts to crystallise the defining developments of this decade.

Virtual desktops
When the PC came, it turned the world upside down, radically improving productivity and communications. That world is about to change again. Companies will be removing desktop link with the programmes on the hard disks. All computing will be done from central servers in a company which can be accessed from anywhere through a desktop, a laptop, netbook or a smartphone. Says Rob Willis, vice president, Asia Pacific at Citrix Systems, “IT freedom will become commonplace as users increasingly gain ability to work on any device, at any time and from any location. While such freedom previously meant more work for the IT team, virtualisation won’t add extra IT burdens retaining standards of security they expect.”
Expert believe companies will start adopting this from 2010, slowly replacing the existing infrastructure, with servers forming the heart of an enterprise’s computing needs. “The primary reason for slower adoption of desktop virtualisation is the complexity of its technology. However, one cannot undermine the advantages it offers in terms of better management and cost efficiencies,” said Satish Joshi, executive vice-president of Patni Computer Systems.

Cloud computing
Although the technology is a couple of years old, it has largely remained a buzzword. Cloud computing is now expected to graduate into a day-to-day applied technology. What virtualisation would be to end users, cloud computing would be to an enterprise. “At present, the focus is on converting applications to the services model on pay-per-use basis. In the coming two years gaps in cloud computing such as lack of interoperability and standardisation would be fixed,” says Shiv Kumar, executive vice-president of Zylog Systems.

Cloud computing allows a company to transfer all its computing need to server banks offering applications and programmes, paying only for what is used. As tools and platforms mature, more applications will get built into the cloud than what has been witnessed in the last one year.

Business mobile
With the rapid increase in the use of mobile phones, enterprises are looking to enable their applications such as customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning or point of sale terminals on the mobile platform for its field employees. “The mobile revolution is just waiting to happen in the enterprise segment. Companies are partnering with original equipment manufacturers to embed enterprise applications on phones. The technology is expected to hit the market in the third quarter of this year,” says vice-president of software engineering at American Megatrends Sanjoy Maity.

Corporate networks
The last couple of years have seen the emergence of online social networking such as Facebook, Orkut, Twitter, hi5, as a powerful tool to bond with family and friends. These sites have even helped in finding those long-forgotten, former classmates or colleagues. These sites have served the purpose of expressing one’s views and even finding jobs. The technology and platform of these sites is now expected to catapult to the next level to serve the purpose of corporate interactions. “One will see very interesting applications being built on social networking platforms as a collaborative tool for geographically dispersed teams to work together more closely. Google Wave is a good example of this trend,’’ says Patni’s Joshi.

Augmented reality
Hi tech comes to visual field. Using head mounted gear and handheld touchscreen computers, researchers at Wipro Technologies are planning to recreate historical events through what is being called ‘augmented’ reality. “We create what we imagine. We plan to recreate, say the site of Hampi, the ancient capital of Karnataka for a near reality experience,” says Ramachandra Budhihal a researcher at Wipro. With the help of 3D technology, special software and ‘haptic’ response system, the researchers expect to stimulate sight, sound and touch simultaneously. Haptic is a technology which allows recognition of objects through touch. They also plan to digitise and archive whatever they create for easy access by others. Already developers are creating augmented reality applications and games for a variety of smartphones.

Near field communication
This is a short-range wireless connectivity techn­ology that provides consumers with simple, sec­ure and convenient interaction between a variety of electronic devices, such as mobile phones, co­mputers and digital cameras. It has evolved from a combination of contactless identification and networking technologies. You could wave your phone at the machine for entry into metro or a bus. Ticket money would be deducted from the stored value in a mobile. According to co-inventor of the technology NXP Semicondu­ctors, “NFC is central to a vision of a world where ever­yone can always connect to information, entertainment and services - anytime and anywhere.” NFC is just on the verge of being implemented in India in finance, ticketing and health sector.

Green tech
Technologies with better cost efficiency and lower carbon footprint will rule the roast this decade. Whether it is corporate social responsibility or early adoption to green standards, more companies and customers are looking towards products that consume less power and are easy to recycle. This not only adds to their productivity but also builds on their image as a sustainable vendor, something which is likely to become important in business relations.

“India is warming up to green technologies for business competitiveness and cost efficiency and we have seen significant steps towards this primarily driven by cost reduction needs in all segment,” says Princy Bhatnagar, director of Office Business Group at Xerox India. Regulations and incentives for energy-efficient, less polluting systems will drive the adoption of new technology.

Face recognition
A Hamburg-based advertising firm has designed and installed a poster in a bus shelter in Berlin that uses face tracking software to change what is on display when someone looks at it. In fact the campaign was for Amnesty International to raise awareness about domestic violence with a tagline: “It happens when nobody is watching.” Therefore, when one looks at the poster what you see is an amiable couple, but the moment you turn your face the image is that of a man raising his fist against the woman. The technology is likely to arrive in India soon. The developer, Vis-à-pix, claims that posters soon would be able to identify the sex of onlookers. That may be a great opportunity to marketers to target their brands and products more precisely.