Back To The Future?

Technology Trends 2015: Back To The Future?

Over the holidays I watched ‘Back to the Future II’ (or ‘Back to the Future Eleven’ as my son thought) with my children. I forgot  the 1989 film sends Marty McFly and Doc Brown back (or is it forward?) to the year 2015.  As we look ahead to 2015, let’s examine some of the predictions that were made in the movie:

Wall-mounted widescreen television that hangs over the fireplace in the McFly’s living room looks just like any one found in our homes today.

The flying car (who can forget that DeLorean?) is not a reality but as Doc Brown pointed out “This sucker’s electrical”, and today, we are  seeing a huge rise in electric cars.

Mr. Fusion, the “home energy reactor,” which enables Doc Brown to convert rubbish into power would fit perfectly into today’s sustainable and green environment. It was also the precursor to alternative sources of energy that is a hot topic.

Video Telephone was a normal method of communication in the movie. This has surely been surpassed by tools such as Skype and Face Time, which are now everywhere.

They also had glasses phones which could possibly be the forerunner toaugmented reality devices such as google glasses.

The Master-cook was mounted on a wall in the McFly’s kitchen and had a visual display for recipes to assist with cooking. But who needs that now that we have a muti-purpose tablet devices.

In fact, the handheld tablet devices used in the movie are now a reality and most people would say, “How did we live without them?”

A video simulacrum was an artificial-intelligence computer programmed to track human’s likeness and behavior patterns to interact with any individual they were in contact could be the 1sts signs of the :Internet of Things which will be a continue to be a huge trend as we move into 2015.

Computers that take orders via voice controls are already a reality and so 2014!

Wireless video games were part of the Christmas list in our house. As was stated in the movie, “You mean you have to use your hands? That’s like a baby’s toy!”

Drones filming news footage was shown, but they didn’t go as far as drones being used in logistics processes as we are starting to see.

Self-lacing trainers have not been a big hit but Nike is working on the innovation and are hoping to release the Nike MAG shoes at some point in 2015.