Emerging Technologies Flashcards
3D Printing
Create 3D objects
- A 3D model from CAD is “sliced” into thousands of very thin layer
- 3D Printer “Print” those layer by layer
Advantage
Very fast and cheap to create prototype or custom design
Can create shapes / forms that is impossible for traditional manufacturing (e.g. hollow components => reduce weight => good for aircraft)
Print multiple material and create functional parts (e.g. Artificial organs use for transplant)
Disadvantage
Slow and expensive to mass produce
Common material is plastic => environmental issue
printing guns or weapons
4G / 5G
1G - Analog voice only 2G - Digital with very slow data, SMS 3G - Voice, Mobile network, MMS 4G - Current - mobile network 5G - Very fast mobile network and very low latency
Advantage of 5G
Low latency allows more real time application
e.g. Remote car driving
Fast access speed => streaming UHD video, multi user application (game, conference)
Disadvantage for 5G
Very small area of coverage for each cell tower
Poor penetration power for signal => need even more tower in urban area
more tower => more expensive to setup the infrastructure
Artificial Intelligence
Computer program to simulate how human think
Augmented Reality
Overlay computer image on top of real life image
e.g. Heads up Display of car navigation, Google glass
Application
Product design, entertainment, car navigation
Biometrics
Tracking biological feature of user Applications Authentication, fitness tracking, voice controlled device (Siri) locating criminal (face recognition on public camera)
Advantages
No need to install anything on human
Disadvantages
Privacy issue
Violating human rights (like full body scanner in airport)
Not as accurate as direct data entry (false positive/negative)
Cloud computing
Online service provider providing computation power
User can run their computation intensive operation on those provider server
Advantage
- No need to setup, purchase and maintain those machine
- Can access data and result everywhere
- Faster to complete (since you can virtually hire as many server as you like, of course, with cost)
- Can support device with very limited computation power (see remark)
Disadvantage
- Service might be quite expensive (in long run)
- Data is on “cloud”, possible privacy or leaking of data issue
- Need internet to access (well….. )
Remark
Cloud computing is not probably needed for everyday scenarios, most of the time those requires computation power that it beyond a desktop computer can do, then you may use those cloud computing.
But there’s a new type of cloud computing that supports device with limited computation power. One example is some smartphone photo album has auto people / item recognition (google photos), which the photo is shoot on smartphone but the recognition is done on the cloud.
Computer assisted translation
e.g. Google Translate
Holographic Data storage
Compare to traditional optical storage, e.g. DVD, data bits are stored in 2D, side by side, spreading on the surface of the media, Holographic is able to store multiple bits on each spot (i.e. 3D storage)
Large capacity, but Currently expensive
4th generation optical storage
1st gen: CD, 650MB
2nd gen DVD, 4.7GB
3rd gen Blu-Ray, 20GB
4th gen, 1TB+
Holographic imaging
free standing 3D image
Quantum cryptography
Data encrypted and transmitted with photon
Very secure and data will became corrupted if intercepted during transmission => interception can be identified
Wearable computing
Computing device that can be part of clothing or accessories.
most common ones are fitness trackers, smart watches and maybe in future smart glasses (like google glass)
usually low power device, may rely on other computing device like smartphone or even cloud computing to support the functionality.
Ultra high definition TV
UHD TV refers to 4K or 8K TVs, in contrast to Full HD, which is 1920x1080 pixels, they have 4 or 8 times pixel.
4K is very common nowadays, but content is still limited.
Vision enhancement
Wearable device to help improve vision for user, e.g. people with weak eyesight or glasses for color blind
Virtual Reality
Application include Entertainment, Aid in design, virtual conferencing, virtual Concert
Current situations:
Device can be quite cheap (about 400 USD for a Quest 2), and can be untethered from computer (standalone)
Hand tracking thus no need to use hand controller
User isolated from real life environment, might be dangerous
Seizures or sea-sick like syndromes from VR
