It's always dangerous predicting the future. We've all read those 'old' magazines and news articles from the early 20th Century predicting where we would be by now: we're supposed to have colonised the Moon, be eating all our food in pill form, and be able to talk intelligently with monkeys.
The safer way to go, I feel, is to identify themes as they emerge, and then call out milestones in technological development that seem to indicate progress towards the visions of those themes. An example would be touch-based interfaces, or multi-function mobile communication devices - both prevalent in science fiction and predictions from the last century, and both themes which are in full-flight in terms of consumer device development today (ref. the smartphone and tablets).
So, what's next? How about heads-up displays (HUDs).
Military usage aside, HUD tech hasn't really caught on and it is another example of technology which our ancestors thought we'd be all over by now. Plenty of problems plague the widespread development or adoption of this particular tech - battery life, aesthetics, resolution, control - and while none of these have been demonstrably overcome as of yet, one company looks to finally be taking it a little more seriously than the rest.
If you haven't been following the Google Glass project...well, who can blame you. It's a project out of the Google labs that has only just had a little more publicity in the couple of weeks with the 'demo' involving skydivers at the Google I/O conference . Basically, it's a pair of lense-less glasses that have a mini projector on one side to project a display of information from a paired (probably Android-powered) device onto one of your eyes.
The project (and the demo) has been received breathlessly by some media outlets and rather cynically by other, more tech-savvy media contributors - mainly due to the fact that we are still a long way off of a commercial product from this. What's more, aside from the aspirational propaganda video provided by Google , you can't see what the wearer sees when wearing the current, beta-quality prototypes.
That could all change next year (which is when Google is hinting at a more consumer-ready product), but even if it doesn't, is it safe to say that this decade may see the prevalence of HUD tech in the same way that the last saw smartphones and apps go from nothing to total domination?
HUD tech is appearing in cars a bit more frequently , and Apple has a patent that is worth keeping an eye on , but we are still in the very early days of this ®evolution in display technology. I do think, however, that logically there is huge potential for well-designed HUD technology unify other emerging technologies (like augmented reality and gesture-based interfaces) as well as possibly deal to the head-stuck-down-while-walking-and-looking-at-phone phenomenon Microsoft was referring to .
If it is done right.
Worth keeping an eye on anyway.