List of emerging technologies

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a list of currently emerging technologies, which contains some of the most prominent ongoing developments, advances, and innovations in various fields of modern technology. Emerging technologies are those technical innovations which represent progressive developments within a field for competitive advantage.^[1]

Contents

• 1 Agriculture
• 2 Biomedical
• 3 Displays
• 4 Electronics
• 5 Energy
• 6 IT and communications
• 7 Manufacturing
• 8 Materials science
• 9 Military
• 10 Neuroscience
• 11 Robotics
• 12 Transport
• 13 Other
• 14 See also
• 15 Further reading
• 16 References
• 17 External links

Agriculture

Emerging technology	Status	Potentially marginalized technologies	Potential applications
Agricultural robot	Research and development, trial projects
Closed ecological systems	Research and development, working demonstrators (e.g. Biosphere 2)	Agricultural science	Agriculture, scientific research, space colonization
Genetically modified food	Research and development, commercialization
Meat incubator	Research and development	Butchers, the meat packing industry[2]	Creating synthetic meat products
In vitro meat	Research and development[3][4][5]	Animal husbandry, fishing[5]	Humane, resource-efficient meat[5]
Precision agriculture	Research and development, diffusion
Vertical farming	Research and experiments[6][7]	Industrial agriculture	Crop and meat production

Biomedical

Emerging technology	Status	Potentially marginalized technologies and/or industries	Potential applications
Artificial uterus	Hypothetical, research	Incubator	extracorporeal pregnancy, Reprogenetics, same-sex procreation
Body implants, prosthesis	Trials, from animal (e.g., brain implants) to human clinical (e.g., insulin pump implant), to commercial production (e.g. pacemaker, joint replacement, cochlear implant)	Various fields of medicine	Brain implant, retinal implant
Cryonics	Hypothetical, research
Expressive augmentation	Hypothetical	Plastic surgery, make-up, body painting and some parts of costumes	Reproduction, cosmetics, and genetic diversity
Genetic engineering	Research, development, commercialization[8][9]	Animal husbandry, plant breeding	Creating and modifying species, bio-machines, eliminating genetic disorders (gene therapy)
Hibernation or suspended animation	Research, development, animal trials[10]	Surgical anaesthesia	Organ transplantation, space travel, prolonged surgery, emergency care
Life extension, Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence	Research, experiments, animal testing[11][12][13]	Existing treatments for age-related diseases[13]	Increased life spans[13]
Nanomedicines	Research, experiments, limited use[14][15]
Oncolytic Virus	Human trials (Talimogene laherparepvec, reolysin, JX-594), commercialisation (H101)		Cancer therapy, imaging
Personalized medicine, full genome sequencing	Research, experiments[16]	Orphan drugs	Cancer management and preventive treatment; genetic disorders
Regenerative medicine	Some laboratory trials[17]		Life extension
Robotic surgery	Research, diffusion[18][19][20]	Surgeons untrained in robotic surgery
Stem cell treatments	Research, experiments, phase I human trial spinal cord injury treatment (GERON), cultured cornea transplants[21][22]	Other therapies	Treatment for a wide range of diseases and injuries
Tissue engineering	Research, diffusion[23][24][25][26]		Organ printing
Virotherapy	Research, Human Trials		Gene Therapy, cancer therapy
Vitrification or cryoprotectant	Hypothetical, some experiments[27]	Ischemic damages	Organ transplantation, cryonics

Displays

Emerging technology	Status	Potentially marginalized technologies	Potential applications
3D displays	Research, commercialization[28][29]	other display technologies, CRT, LCD	Television, computer interfaces, cinemas
Ferro Liquid Display	Some commercial products
Field emission display	Research
Holography (Holographic display, Computer-generated holography)	Diffusion[30][31][32]	Display technologies
Interferometric modulator display	Development, commercializing[33]	Other display technologies, CRT, LCD, plasma, e-paper	Non-emissive displays with fast response times and potentially the most realistic colors of all display technologies
Laser video displays	first commercial Laser TV in 2008, Mitsubishi LaserVue TV	LCD and plasma displays	Displays with very wide colour gamut
OLED displays	Diffusion[34][35]	LCD and plasma displays	Displays, lighting
Organic light-emitting transistor	Development
Phased-array optics	Hypothetical[36][37]	Conventional display devices (e.g., television)	Mass production of 3-dimensional imagery
Quantum dot display	Diffusion
Screenless display (Virtual retinal display, Bionic contact lens), EyeTap	Hypothetical, experiments[38]	Traditional displays	Augmented reality, virtual reality, EyeTap could allow the user to reference the blue prints like in a construction yard, in a 3D manner, Delivers the user constant up to date information on the stock market, the user's corporation, and meeting statuses, visual disabilities
Surface-conduction electron-emitter display	Abandoned	Traditional displays	Displays with high contrast ratio, fast response time and high energy efficiency
Telescopic pixel display	In development
Thick-film dielectric electroluminescent technology	Suspended
Time-multiplexed optical shutter	Commercialized
Volumetric display			3-dimensional imagery

Electronics

Emerging technology	Status	Potentially marginalized technologies	Potential applications
Electronic nose	Research, commercialization[39][40]	X-ray and MRI scans for detecting cancer	Detecting spoiled food, chemical weapons and cancer
E-textiles	Research, diffusion[41]
Flexible electronics	Research, development, some prototypes[42][43]		Flexible and folding electronic devices (such as smartphones), Flexible solar cells which are lightweight, can be rolled up for launch, and are easily deployable
Memristor	Working prototype[44][45]	Some current integrated circuits, many other electronics devices	Smaller, faster, lower power consuming storage, analogue electronics, Artificial intelligence
Spintronics	Working prototypes[46]	Mechanical magnetic hard disk drives	Data storage
Thermal copper pillar bump	Working prototypes in discrete devices	Conventional thermal systems, heat sinks, bulk thermoelectrics	Electric circuit cooling; micro-fluidic actuators; small-device thermoelectric power generation (see thermoelectric generator)

Energy

Emerging technology	Status	Potentially marginalized technologies	Potential applications
Vortex engine		Chimney Cooling tower Solar updraft tower	Power generation.
Airborne wind turbine	Research[47][48][49]	Fossil fuels	Producing electricity
Artificial photosynthesis	Research, experiments[50] growing interest in a macroscience global project [51]	Fossil fuel or 'archived' photosynthesis	Improve natural photosynthesis, so roads buildings and vehicles convert sunlight and water into hydrogen and carbon dioxide into carbohydrates
Biofuels	Diffusion[52]	Fossil fuels	Energy storage, more so for transport
Concentrated solar power	Growing markets in California, Spain, Northern Africa[53]	Fossil fuels, photovoltaics	Producing electricity
Electric double-layer capacitor	Diffusion, continued development[54]	Chemical batteries	Regenerative braking; energy storage: generally faster charging, longer lasting, more flexible, greener
Flywheel energy storage	Some commercial examples
Fusion power	Hypothetical, experiments; for 60+ years[55]	Fossil fuels, renewable energy, nuclear fission power	Producing electricity, heat, fusion torch recycling with waste heat
Generation IV reactor	Research, Experiments	Traditional nuclear power reactors, fossil fuels	Producing electricity, heat, transmutation of nuclear waste stockpiles from traditional reactors
Grid energy storage	Increasing use
Home fuel cell	Research, commercialisation[56][57][58]	Electrical grid	Off-the-grid, producing electricity
Hydrogen economy	Diffusion of hydrogen fuel cells; Hypothetical, experiments for lower cost hydrogen production[59]	Other energy storage methods: chemical batteries, fossil fuels	Energy storage
Lithium-air battery	Research, experiments[60]	Other energy storage methods: hydrogen, chemical batteries, some uses of fossil fuels	Laptops, mobile phones, long-range electric cars; storing energy for electric grid
Lithium iron phosphate battery	Commercialization
Molten salt battery	Applications and continuing research
Molten salt reactor	Research, Experiments	Traditional nuclear power reactors, fossil fuels	Producing electricity, heat
Nanowire battery	Experiments, prototypes[61][62]	Other energy storage methods: hydrogen, chemical batteries, some uses of fossil fuels	Laptops, mobile phones, long-range electric cars; storing energy for electric grid
Nantenna	Research[63][64][65]	Fossil fuels	Producing electricity
Silicon–air battery	Experiments
Smart grid	Research, diffusion[66][67][68]
Solar roadway	Research[69][70][71]	Fossil fuels	Producing electricity
Space-based solar power	Hypothetical
Thorium fuel cycle	Research started in the 1960s, still ongoing	Uranium based nuclear power, fossil fuels	Producing electricity, heat
Wireless energy transfer	Prototypes, diffusion, short range consumer products[72]	Power cords, plugs, batteries	Wirelessly powered equipment: laptop, cell phones, electric cars, etc.
Energy harvesting	Experiments	Batteries	Constant energy source for mobile, wearable and ubiquitous devices

IT and communications

Emerging technology	Status
4G cellular communication	First commercial LTE networks deployed in Sweden December 2009; candidate systems LTE-advanced and IEEE 802.16m (Mobile WiMAX Release 2) in development Potential applications Pervasive computing Related articles Mobile broadband, mobile TV, Interactive TV, 3D-TV,[73] holographic cameras[73]
Ambient intelligence	Hypothetical Neurological disease's treatments, artificial intelligence
Artificial brain	Research[74]  Blue Brain Project
Artificial intelligence	Hypothetical, experiments; limited uses in specialized domains[75][76][77] Human decision, analysis, etc. Creating intelligent devices Progress in artificial intelligence, technological singularity, applications of artificial intelligence
Atomtronics	Hypothetical
Augmented Reality	diffusion
Cybermethodology
Emerging memory technologies T-RAM, Z-RAM, TTRAM, CBRAM, SONOS, RRAM, Racetrack memory, NRAM, Millipede memory	In development
Fourth-generation optical discs (3D optical data storage, Holographic data storage)	Research, prototyping[78] Storing and archiving data previously erased for economic reasons Blu-ray Disc, Optical storage
General-purpose computing on graphics processing units	Diffusion of non standardized methods CPU for a few specialized uses Order of magnitude faster processing of parallelizable algorithms
Machine augmented cognition, exocortices	Diffusion of primitive amplifications; working prototypes of more; Hypothetical, experiments on more substantial amplification
Machine translation	Diffusion[79][80]  Easier and cheaper cross-cultural communication
Machine vision	Research, prototyping, commercialization[74] Computer vision, pattern recognition, digital image processing Biotic vision and perception, including humans Biometrics, controlling processes (e.g., in driverless car, automated guided vehicle), detecting events (e.g., in visual surveillance), interaction (e.g., in human-computer interaction), robot vision
Mobile collaboration Traditional video-conferencing systems Extends the capabilities of video conferencing for use on hand-held mobile devices in real-time over secure networks. For use in diverse industries such as manufacturing, energy, healthcare.[82]	Development, commercialization[81]
Optical computing	Hypothetical, experiments; some components of integrated circuits have been developed[83] Many electronics devices, integrated circuits Smaller, faster, lower power consuming computing
Quantum computing	Hypothetical, experiments,[84] commercialization[85] Much faster computing, for some kinds of problems, chemical modeling, new materials with programmed properties, Hypothetical of high-temperature superconductivity and superfluidity Secure communications Smartstores - RFID based self checkout (keeping track of all incoming and outgoing products), food packaging, smart shelves, smart carts. See: potential uses
Quantum cryptography	Commercialization[86]
Radio-frequency identification	Diffusion of high cost[87][88][89]
Semantic Web or answer machine	Limited use Making the web machine-readable by annotating data on the web based on its meaning
Speech recognition	Research,Development,Commercialization
Three-dimensional integrated circuit	Development, commercialization[90][91]
Virtual Reality	diffusion Entertainment, education

Manufacturing

Emerging technology	Status	Potentially marginalized technologies	Potential applications
3D printing	Commercial production[92][93]	Manual prototype production, some methods of mass production that lack customizability	Rapidly prototyping and producing plastic objects and multi-material items, with potential to significantly customize products for individual consumers
Claytronics	Hypothetical, experiment	3D printing, traditional manufacturing methods and tools
Molecular assembler	Hypothetical, experiment	3D printing, traditional manufacturing methods and tools
Utility fog	Hypothetical, experiment

Materials science

Emerging technology	Status	Potentially marginalized technologies	Potential applications
Aerogel	Hypothetical, experiments, diffusion, early uses[94]	Traditional Insulation, Glass	Improved insulation, insulative glass if it can be made clear, sleeves for oil pipelines, aerospace, high-heat & extreme cold applications
Conductive Polymers	Research, experiments, prototypes	Conductors	Lighter and cheaper wires, antistatic materials, organic solar cells
Femtotechnology, Picotechnology	Hypothetical	Present nuclear	New materials; nuclear weapons, power
Graphene	Hypothetical, experiments, diffusion, early uses[95][96]	silicon-based integrated circuit	Components with higher strength to weight ratios, transistors that operate at higher frequency, lower cost of display screens in mobile devices, storing hydrogen for fuel cell powered cars, sensors to diagnose diseases[97]
High-temperature superconductivity	Cryogenic receiver front-end (CRFE) RF and microwave filter systems for mobile phone base stations; prototypes in dry ice; Hypothetical and experiments for higher temperatures[98]	Copper wire, semiconductor integral circuits	No loss conductors, frictionless bearings, magnetic levitation, lossless high-capacity accumulators, electric cars, heat-free integral circuits and processors
High-temperature superfluidity	Superfluid gyroscopes already exist but work at very low temperatures	Mechanical gyroscope	High-precision measure of gravity, navigation and maneuver devices, possible devices to emit gravitomagnetic field, frictionless mechanical devices
Metamaterials	Hypothetical, experiments, diffusion[99]	Classical optics	Microscopes, cameras, metamaterial cloaking, cloaking devices
Multi-function structures[100]	Hypothetical, experiments, some prototypes, few commercial	Composite materials mostly	Wide range, e.g., self health monitoring, self healing material, morphing...
Nanomaterials: carbon nanotubes	Hypothetical, experiments, diffusion, early uses[101][102]	Structural steel and aluminium	Stronger, lighter materials, space elevator
Programmable matter	Hypothetical, experiments[103][104]	Coatings, catalysts	Wide range, e.g., claytronics, synthetic biology
Quantum dots	Research, experiments, prototypes[105]	LCD, LED	Quantum dot laser, future use as programmable matter in display technologies (TV, projection), optical data communications (high-speed data transmission), medicine (laser scalpel)
Silicene	Hypothetical, research	Field-effect transistors

Military

Emerging technology	Status	Potentially marginalized technologies	Potential applications
Airborne laser	Research and development, trials, discontinued	Missile defense	Tracking and destruction of tactical ballistic missiles
Antimatter weapon	Hypothetical	Nuclear weapons
Caseless ammunition	Field tests and some niche markets	Cartridges
Directed energy weapon	Research, development, some prototypes[106]	Firearms	Warfare
Electrolaser	Research and development	Taser
Electromagnetic weapons	Research and development[107][108]	Firearms	Warfare
Electrothermal-chemical technology	Research and development	Conventional ammunition	Tank, artillery, and close-in weapon systems
Particle beam weapon	Research and development	Firearms	Warfare
Plasma weapon	Research
Pure fusion weapon	Hypothetical
Sonic weapon	Research and development
Stealth technology	Research and development	Camouflage	Electronic countermeasures
Vortex ring gun	Research and development	tear gas	Crowd control

Neuroscience

Emerging technology	Status	Potentially marginalized technologies	Potential applications
Abolition of Suffering	Hypothetical
Ampakine			Enhance attention span and alertness, and facilitate learning and memory
Artificial brain	IBM Blue Brain project
Brain-computer interface	Research and commercialization	Video games, television, and movies	A revolution in entertainment, medicine, and computing.
Brain-reading, Neuroinformatics	Research[109][110][111]		Mind uploading, enabling individuals with brain damage to communicate[112]
Electroencephalography	Research, diffusion[113][114]	Keyboards and other interfaces	Controlling electronic devices via brain waves
Neuroprosthetics			Visual prosthesis, brain implant, exocortex, retinal implant

Robotics

Emerging technology	Status	Potentially marginalized technologies	Potential applications
Molecular nanotechnology, nanorobotics	Hypothetical, experiments[115]	Products and parts production, retail distribution	Machines (desktop, industrial) that can make anything given the materials, cheap planetary terraforming
Powered exoskeleton	Research, development, prototypes, diffusion, commercializing[116]	Electric wheelchairs, forklifts	Heavy lifting, paralysis, muscle related diseases, warfare, construction, care for the elderly and disabled.
Self-reconfiguring modular robot	Hypothetical, experiments, early prototypes	Other ways to form physical structures and machines	As a universal physical machine, SRCMR may change the way we make many physical structures and machines
Swarm robotics	Hypothetical, experiments[117]	Distributed computing, complexity in behavior by simplicity in architecture	Autonomous construction, space construction
Unmanned vehicle	Research and development, some diffusion	Manned vehicles, human spying	Mass surveillance, eavesdropping, Oceanography, Commercial aerial surveillance of livestock monitoring, wildfire mapping, pipeline security, home security, road patrol and anti-piracy. Domestic aerial surveillance, patrol the nation's borders, scout property, and hunt down fugitives, Oil gas and mineral exploration and production, geophysical surveys, geomagnetic surveys, transport of goods, Scientific research in areas too dangerous for pilots like a droid hurricane tornado hunter, Armed attack, Search and rescue, explosives and Bomb disposal, peacekeeping operations, ground surveillance, gatekeeper/checkpoint operations, urban street presence, enhance police and military raids in urban settings.

Transport

Emerging technology	Status	Potentially marginalized technologies
Airless tire	Research, development, early prototypes[118][119][120]	Conventional tire[120]	Safer tires[120]
Alcubierre drive	Attempting to create a warp field in lab tests[121]	Conventional space propulsion	Interstellar exploration and colonization
Alternative fuel vehicle	Commercialization, diffusion	Internal combustion engine	Reducing air pollution, decreasing oil consumption
Beam-powered propulsion	Hypothetical
Driverless car	Research, development, prototypes[122][123][124]	Driver's licenses, rules of the road, traffic lights, traffic sign, highway patrols, vehicle insurances	Reducing traffic collision, increasing road capacity, reducing air pollution, reducing traffic congestion
Flexible wings (X-53 Active Aeroelastic Wing, Adaptive Compliant Wing), fluidic flight controls	Experiments, prototypes[125][126][127][128][129]	Other flight control systems: ailerons, elevators, elevons, flaps, flaperons	Controlling aircraft, ships
Flying car	Early commercialization, prototypes[130][131]	Automobile, road	More effective transportation
Hovertrain, Ground effect train	Research, development[132][133]	Conventional trains	Trains with higher speed
Ion thruster	In use
Jet pack or backpack helicopter	Early commercialization, prototypes[134][135]	Automobile	More effective transportation
Maglev train, Vactrain	Research, early commercialization[136][137][138]	Conventional trains, the wheel	Trains with higher speed
Mass driver	Prototypes
Personal rapid transit	Early commercialization, diffusion[139][140]	Automobile	More effective transportation
Physical Internet	Research[141]	conventional logistics
Propellant depot	Research, development	Heavy lift rockets	enabling deep-space missions with more massive payloads, satellite life extension, ultimately lowering the cost per kg launched to space
Pulse detonation engine	Testbed demos
Reusable launch system	Research, development	Expendable launch system	Surface-to-orbit transport
Scramjet	Research, development[142][143][144]	Conventional jet engine	Hypersonic aircraft
Solar sail	In 2010, IKAROS was the world's first spacecraft designed to use solar sailing propulsion to be successfully launched		Space travel
Space elevator	Research, development[145]
Spaceplane	Research, development[146][147][148]	Conventional airliners	Hypersonic transport
Supersonic transport	Commercialization existed, diffusion	Conventional airliners	Airliner with higher speed
Nuclear Launch Cannon	Hypothetical	Other cargo launch	Very cheap launch for cargo
High Altitude Platforms	Experimentation	Most satellites, cell phone towers	Communications
Orion Nuclear Starship	Hypothetical, Experiments	Chemical rockets	Space launch
Aeroscraft	Prototype		Heavy-lift, high altitude platform
Float to Orbit	Hypothetical	Conventional space launch	Space launch
Hyperloop	Research, development	High-speed rail	Faster way to get somewhere

Other

Emerging technology	Status	Potentially marginalized technologies
Anti-gravity	Hypothetical and experiments[149][150]
Arcology	Research, development, Commercialization
Asteroid mining	Hypothetical
Atmospheric carbon dioxide removal	Research and development	Fossil carbon sources	Climate change mitigation, closing the carbon cycle, input for carbon neutral fuel production
Biometrics	Diffusion	Keys and ID documents
Bioplastic	Some products developed	Fossil fuel plastics
Cloak of invisibility	Successful experiments cloaking small objects under some conditions[151][152]	Camouflage[152]	Cloaking microscope tips at optical frequencies[152]
Digital scent technology	Diffusion
Domed city	NASA develops a geodesic dome for a moon base		Weather-controlled city, colonization of the moon
Force field	Hypothetical, experiments[153]	Armor	Military and law enforcement, space travel
Hypertelescope	Hypothetical		astronomy
Immersive virtual reality	Hypothetical, limited commercialization	Consensus reality	An artificial environment where the user feels just as immersed as they usually feel in consensus reality.
Inflatable space habitat	Developed, prototypes built and tested	Traditional "aluminium can" space habitat modules	Space habitats
LED lamp	Commercialization	Incandescent lights, compact fluorescent lights
Magnetic levitation	Research, development, Commercialization (Maglev Train) Vactrain, Levicar	Wheels, tires, conventional transportation systems	High temperature superconductivity, cryogenics, low temperature refrigerators, superconducting magnet design and construction, fiber reinforced plastics for vehicles and structural concretes, communication and high power solid-state controls, vehicle design (aerodynamics and noise mitigation), precision manufacturing, construction and fabrication of concrete structures,[154] maglev car, maglev based spacecraft launch
Magnetic refrigeration	Already used for achieving cryogenic temperatures in the laboratory setting (below 10K)	Conventional refrigerators	Refrigeration without the need for compression and with more energy efficient which may be in refrigerators, air conditioners and spacecraft
Magnetorheological fluid Electrorheological fluid	developed and researched	Shock absorber	Magnetorheological damper heavy motor damping, operator seat/cab damping in construction vehicles, seismic dampers positioned in building absorbing detrimental shock waves and oscillations within the structure making them earthquake-proof, enhance body armor fluid bullet resistant, Humvees, and various other all-terrain vehicles employ dynamic MR shock absorbers/dampers. Magnetorheological finishing was used in the construction of the Hubble Space Telescope's corrective lens, shock absorbers of a vehicle's suspension are filled with magnetorheological fluid.
Miniaturized satellite	Research, development, some prototypes	Conventional satellites	Inexpensive satellites, constellations for low data rate communications, using formations to gather data from multiple points, in-orbit inspection of larger satellites.
Synthetic biology, synthetic genomics	Research, development, first synthetic bacteria created May 2010[155][156]	Chemical industry, petroleum industry, process manufacturing	Creating infinitely scalable production processes based on programmable species of bacteria and other life forms
Tricorder	Research and Development	Medical examinations	Diagnosing medical conditions
Vehicular communication systems	Research and development, some diffusion	Automobile safety	vehicle safety obstacle inform others warnings on entering intersections, Traffic management Accommodating ambulances, fire trucks, and police cars to a specific situation such as hot pursuits and bad weather, Driver assistance systems, Automated highways.

See also

Technology and applied sciences portal

General

Disruptive innovation, Industrial Ecology, List of inventors, List of inventions, Sustainable development

Nano-

Molecular manufacturing, Neurotechnology

Bioscience

Human Connectome Project

Ethics

Casuistry, Computer ethics, Engineering ethics, Nanoethics, Bioethics, Neuroethics, Roboethics

Other

Anthropogenics, Machine guidance, Radio frequency identification, National Science Foundation, Virtual reality

Timeline

Timeline of the future in forecasts

Transport

List of proposed future transport