Now that the year is finally drawing to a close, attention is turning to how we’re all going to have fun in the year ahead. Thanks to the combination of entrepreneurs and some pretty impressive technology, it looks like we're going to be having a lot of fun. 2016 saw the introduction of amazing new gadgets, like VR, that allowed us to inhabit realistic virtual worlds for the first time in human history. What will 2017 bring?
Parking to the Future. Image from here.
Fly Like A Bird
This year drones have gone mainstream. They’ve made appearances in films, like Inferno, and they’ve been all over the news, parks, towns and cities, shops and, of course, YouTube. Now, though, an insane Chinese company wants to make drones that not only ferry your parcel from the Amazon depot to your home but your body from your home to your office. Time magazine rather excitedly announced the company’s plans back in June, heralding its arrival as the first practical example we’ve seen of a flying car.
The drone, which looks a heck of a lot like a somebody’s taken a toy drone and upscaled it by a factor of fifty, took to the stage at this year’s CES in Las Vegas. It soon drew an enormous crowd of photographers and interested techies, waiting to see how long it would be before it would be transporting them to work. The drone itself is powered by an electric motor, and it’s powerful enough to carry a passenger weighing 200 lbs for 23 minutes. What’s more, the drone can be charges in a couple of hours, meaning it’ll be ready to give you a lift back home, once you’ve finished up in the office for the day. Exciting times.
Swim Like A Fish
People have been doing watersports for ages now. But it’s been a while since we saw anything radically new in the industry. Now, though, a new watersports toy has hit the market, and it promises to be big. Birds have wings, fish have fins and humans have - well, nothing. But now we’re starting to see the arrival of what are being dubbed “sub wings.” These are in essence, fins that people can use under the water to give themselves additional control. The wings themselves are attached to a boat, like a rope and handle is for jet skiing, and then the user is pulled along behind under the water using a snorkel to breathe. The fin allows users to actually perform manoeuvres in the water as if they were a fish. It’s a wonder this one didn’t catch on sooner.
Walk Like A Robot
With the recent fiasco involving “hoverboards,” thanks to some rather problematic batteries, walking like a robot has taken a few hits. But now a team of scientists have created an exoskeleton that can actually help those with disabilities to walk again. The exoskeleton, which costs more than $50,000, was developed by a technology company in California. It has since been used to help people who have been involved in all sorts of life-changing accidents to walk once more, even when doctors said that they wouldn’t be able to.
With all these technological advancements and sci-fi themes, I just wish for a better phone battery to start with. (One that does not explode!)👌🔋
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