Prizes & Awards
My Profile
Active Members
TodayLast 7 Days
more...
|
 New Feature: Community Sites:
Create your own .NET community website and start earning from Google AdSense !
It's Free !
|
Top 10 Technology Trends in 2006
|
Top 10 Technology Trends
1. Blu-Ray of hope
Pioneer's Blu-ray or Blu-disc format provides the next generation large capacity optical disc video recording format -- enables recording, rewriting and play back of up to 27 gigabytes (GB) of data on a single side and can transfer date at 36 Mbps (the CD transfers data at around 150 Kbps while DVDs do the same at around 11 Mbps).
The High Density Digital Versatile Disc (HD-DVD) is also in the news.that can store up to 15 GB on a single layer. While HD-DVD is promoted by Toshiba, NEC, Sanyo and Microsoft and backed by four major film studios, Blu-ray is backed by Japanese consumer electronics giant Sony.
2. Digital ticket
Bangalore-based Jigharak is believed to be working on the software application for buying and paying for tickets on your cellphone., PDAs or any handhelds.
With the setting up of self-collection kiosks, buying tickets will become as simple as withdrawing cash from an ATM. Costing around Rs 1 lakh each, they will be installed in metros soon.
Currently, around 150 theatres in India are digitised which means that unlike a celluloid print, there are servers hooked on to projectors that beam the pixels (read picture) onto a screen. But only two screens of Satyam Cinema in Chennai have real D-Cinema.
3. Games people play
The global mobile games' business is pegged at $ 2.2 billion, with India accounting for around $100 million of the overall pie. Nasscom states this market could well touch $500 million in exports alone by 2010.
A console/PC genre, awaiting its day, in India is the massively multimedia online role playing game (MMORPG). Indeed, even the introduction of MMORPGs in the mobile market should bring in a whole new audience.
4. Movies on Demand
With Tata Sky planning to launch Direct to Home (DTH) services in May-June this year, consumers will have much more choice. Not to mention better picture and sound quality, thanks to set-top boxes,Gaming channels etc.,We should also see the launch of digital video recorders this year which can record 100 hours of programing, says Sunil Khanna, CEO, Dish TV. So you can always record your favourite programmes -- six channels at a time -- and watch them at your leisure.
Last month, DishTV kicked-off with a Movie-on-Demand Service for Hindi films and this will be followed up with a service for English films in March. India might also see High Definition TV (HDTV) before 2006 is over.
5. Plug into the IP Phone
While Internet Protocol telephony is known in India -- many of us having used it on the sly for the last four years -- what is little known is that Indian enterprises have bought over 100,000 IP phones in the last couple of years.
IP phones transmit voice using data packets (similar to the way the Internet routes data) instead of circuit-switched (the way your vanilla telephone operates) connections over voice-only networks. Since the calls are routed through the Net (these phones have an ethernet phone in which your phone (copper) cable can be inserted), all the user pays for is the IP phone software and the Internet connection.
6. Robots, robots everywhere
Aibo has a "cult following" in the United States and Japan. Of course, American AIBO buyers tend to be computer geeks who want to hack the robotic dog's programming. Japanese consumers, on the other hand, treat this Sony robot as a pet.
Robots in the US have already taken over domestic tasks like lawn-mowing, vacuum cleaning (the Roomba by iRobot) and window cleaning. iRobot says it has sold hundreds of thousands of units of the Roomba -- a self-guided, self-propelled vacuum cleaner that sells for around $200 -- in just one year.
With labour cheap in India, will domestic robots become popular? Not likely in the coming years. However, robots have other uses in our country. Many Indian auto, auto-ancillary majors and machine tool players are using robots to meet global precision standards. Robots have also been used in cardiac surgeries.
7. Tag on to RFID
RFID(Radio Frequency Identification ) is not a bar code replacement, note analysts. While bar codes are better at collecting data in structured places like warehouses (likely to continue for the next five to seven years), RFID tags are expected to be used for data collection in largely chaotic or unstructured business processes like retail environments to hospitals.
(RFID) technology is no longer only about the US and Wal-Mart. Pune University's Jayakar library uses RFID tags on its books as well as library cards; Pantaloon Retail India and Shopper's Stop have RFID tags in their factories; more than 45 colleges in Pune have introduced student identity RFID cards that allow students access to hostels and monitor their classroom attendance; and ITC uses RFID to track what goes into the manufacturing of its cigarettes.
The current cost of tags is anywhere from Rs 5 to Rs 30, considered to be prohibitive when tagging hundreds of products. The rates are bound to decrease this year.
8. The new intelligent vehicle
Telematics, integrated use of telecommunications and informatics, is catching up in the transportation sector. Global Positioning System (GPS) is being used in KSRTC buses (pilot project) in Bangalore. Many Indian logistics companies too are using GPS to track vehicle movements and errant drivers.
The recently-introduced Tata Novus range of commercial vehicles feature the 'TRAK i t' Vehicle Locater -- a GPS system for vehicle tracking; 'TRAK i t' Vehicle Data Recorder -- for critical vehicle and driver performance recording; and electrical systems that ensure 'vehicle start' in neutral gear, as an enhanced safety feature.
Our cars too are becoming smarter. For instance, the REVA-NXG introduced this April as a "concept car" in Monaco, was fitted with a `wireless tablet' -- an embedded computer based on Mobilius having a touch screen display which shows all essential information about the car like speed and mileage. It also doubles up as a GPS navigation system. Internet is accessible via GPRS. It also has a MP3 player.
9. Where the Podcast's headed
If you have an iPod, you would know what podcasting is. For the uninitiated, imagine a desktop aggregator where you subscribe to a set of feeds. Podcasting works similarly, except that instead of reading, you listen to the content on an iPod.
Juice was the first major podcasting software (downloads podcast media file like oggs/MP3) and is still the most popular podcast aggregator.
With smartphones getting cheaper by the day and 3G networks becoming commonplace (well at least in developed nations), 2006 will see the growth in 'mobilecasting', predict tech pundits.
All we need now is empower people with video phones, 3G mobile telephony, and a Flickr-like tool to upload audio and video to RSS-enabled websites. This is not mobile blogging or podcasting now -- we're talking about a social revolution and that's mobcasting.
Mobilecast (a software to convert podcasts to Adaptive Multi Rate (AMR) converter for mobile phones) and mobilecasting have become the 'One' when it comes to downloading and listening to podcasts on mobile phones. All you need to do is install and configure Mobilecast on the iPod.
Thereon, it will be run after each podcast downloads, splitting the podcast into segments of 10-minute AMR audio files for the mobile phone. Podcasters have now begun brainstorming on how to create podcasts specifically for mobile phones.
10. Wi-Fi on steroids
Worldwide Interoperability of Microwave Access or WiMAX is the new kid on the block. It broadcasts its signal over many more channels than WiFi, and those channels are less cluttered. Its signals face less interference, thus helping them travel as far as 30 miles. Besides, WIMAX provides metropolitan area network connectivity at speeds of up to 75 Mbps (compare that to Wi-Fi's 11 Mbps).
Intel and BSNL have already introduced Hot Spots (wherein you can connect your Wi Fi-enabled (or Centrino) laptop to wireless network and logon to the Net instantly). Satyam Infoway is on the way to adopt WIMAX.
Note
Adapted from an article found in www.rediff.com
|
Responses
|
No responses found. Be the first to respond and make money from revenue sharing program.
|
|