Tech Innovations

In this age and century, technology runs the world; let no one convince you otherwise. Technology plays a big role in shaping our lives socially, physically, and emotionally. It impacts the way we work or do business, as well as our social lives, and in case you haven’t noticed, we live in a world that is increasingly becoming digital. With every tick of the clock, new software applications, intelligent systems, and equipment are being developed with the major intention of making human life easier. The big brains spend sleepless nights trying to advance already existing technologies or develop something that no one else has managed to. Well, we might not be near the point where we can eliminate ageing, reverse death, accurately predict the future, or stop time. Still, some tech developments of today will surely leave you gaping upon realizing what man can do with them today.

To cut a long story short, there are dozens to hundreds of tech innovations that the world heavily relies on in this age and day. What’s more, from manufacturing to trade, entertainment, and fashion, technology is being employed in just about every sector of the world’s economy. Without further ado, here are 10 tech innovations that are making a huge impact on the world.

1. Internet Technology

Internet Technology

There’s a high likelihood that you’re thinking, “Is this not the most basic type of technology out there”? Well, you’re not wrong, and you can’t be further from the truth either. To skip the contradictory tone, the internet is perhaps one of the most used forms of technology in today's world. Even though its foundations started much earlier, the internet, as we know it today, can be said to have started gaining roots back in the early 1980s, only to embark on its full recognition journey in 1990. Over the years, the internet has evolved greatly to become the household name it is today. According to Internet World Statistics, the total number of internet users in the world as of June 2019 was 4.4 billion, approximately 57.3% of the global population. If the same statistic records were anything to go by, the number of global internet users grew by a staggering 1,125% from 2000 to 2019.

Today, most of these internet users depend on this technology not only for social interaction but also as a means of accessing crucial information on things they’re interested in, news, life tips, educational material, shopping, gossip, fashion, and much more. In businesses, it also provides a platform through which employees can communicate and touch base with their employers, even from remote locations. The internet has also made lives easier for citizens of various countries and states, in the sense that they can receive crucial services and information from their governments without spending hours in queues. The same applies to banking and monetary transactions, where the internet has provided a platform where buyers, sellers, and the doers of transactions involving money don’t have to wait for days. On the same note, the internet cloud also allows individuals and users to store information that is most crucial to them so that it is highly secure. Still, any authorized person can access it at any time, regardless of their geographical location.

In a nutshell, the scope of this article may not be able to accommodate a complete list of the benefits of the Internet and its impacts on today’s world. However, there’s a brief summed-up statement that anyone who has used it will agree to… the world could come to a standstill without the Internet!


2. Mobile Technology

Well, the word mobile may have more than a few definitions. However, in this context, we’re specifically referring to mobile devices, including smartphones, tablets, iPods, laptops, and other mobile devices. Long gone are the days when you had to carry a couple of coins to a phone booth to keep in touch with your loved ones from miles away. Today, it only takes a few taps on your smartphone to send an SMS from halfway across the globe, and the recipient can communicate back within a matter of seconds. Forget phone calls and ordinary SMS. Social media (which is part of the internet) is running the communication and social world today. Mobile Apps such as Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter, have taken over the world of social interaction and communication today.



To refer to the earlier point, many statistical studies have revealed it won’t be long until the majority of internet users are those accessing the web using their mobile devices. This, combined with the fact that social media apps are dominating today’s world of human interaction and communication, is one of the reasons why some of the most successful brands in the world of business are harnessing the power of mobile technology.

Forget the usual ones such as games, social, and interactive apps that most people have on their phones... there’s an app for budgeting, accounting, exercise, dieting, and “literally anything” that you may think of. There’s even an app that will give you a prediction of how you will look a few decades from now when you’re older. At will, you can spy on your kid’s whereabouts by simply installing a mobile spy app on their phones, and you’ll be less worried about their safety or what they’re doing online or who they’re communicating with on their phones. In short, it would take a whole book volume or several to cover all the impacts that mobile technology has had on today’s world, but you’ll agree that some of the ones mentioned gave you a quick overview.


3. Wireless Technology

Wireless Technology

Talk of Bluetooth; talk of Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi)… wireless technology is being embraced in all world economy sectors these days. Today, you don’t even have to deal with wires running all over your home in the name of having an internet connection. Today’s computers, home electronics, mobile gadgets, workplace equipment, and automation systems are created so that they use wireless technology to connect and pair with each other or even access the internet. From the TV remote you use to switch your TV from one station to the other, the Bluetooth earphones you use when driving on the freeway, and the wireless-enabled printing machine you use at work, wireless technology has evolved over time. It has made our lives easier in so many ways.

Not many may know this, but wireless tech innovations benefit the world both directly and indirectly in many sectors of our economy. For instance, we rely heavily on science for better health, added convenience, better living, and much more. But don’t forget that science is mostly based on experimentation, fact-finding, and proof. Well, it so happens that wireless tech innovations are being heavily relied upon these days in scientific studies, both in commercial and academic institutions.

When working on studies involving biological experiments such as photosynthesis, respiration, and carbon cycling, for instance, it is essential to get an accurate measure of carbon dioxide used or produced for you to arrive at an accurate interpretation of results. For this purpose, the Pasco wireless CO2 sensor (see it here) is a tool that uses the power of wireless tech to allow you to get an accurate measure of dissolved or free CO2 in environmental science and life science experiments. In addition to allowing you to measure CO2 uptake in photosynthesis, the tool allows you to conduct studies involving chemical reactions and respiration of yeast. With the rechargeable battery-operated tool that uses Bluetooth connectivity, you can also compare the levels of indoor CO2 concentration with outdoor CO2 concentration.


4. Artificial Intelligence


A few decades back, who knew that machines would have the intelligence to execute tasks humans do? Okay, maybe a few were inspired, and only a handful was working tooth and nail to see this through. Well, forget the past. Today machines have taken over, especially in the employment world. Automation is now the order of the day. And it only takes feeding a machine with the knowledge that some great brains already possess, and the machines will do it all. Thanks to AI, however, humans no longer struggle to accomplish tasks we initially find tedious anymore. Needless to say, AI is being employed in a vast array of industries and sectors of the economy, including precision medicine, precision farming, and cybersecurity. Even though some view it as a stealer of human labour, AI will change the world, it is here to stay, and we are to expect more benefits from this intelligent piece of tech innovation.


5. Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality

It feels super great for the avid gamers out there to immerse yourself in a game that you so much love, especially when it feels so real and as if you’re part of the entire experience. Even though it’s been with us for a few years now, virtual reality is a technological innovation that is still not clearly known to many people. The best thing is that in addition to being a thing among gamers, virtual reality applications are limited in this age and era. This tech innovation is being used in many industries and sectors of the economy, including design, architecture, aeronautical engineering, and government departments such as the military. Some gym and exercising equipment actually incorporate this technology to help increase the yield results of gym efforts among bodybuilders and exercise enthusiasts.


6. Drone Technology

Drone Technology

Quadcopter, hexacopters, octocopters, you name them, but drones have had a really huge impact on the world over the past few years. In addition to being used for recreational purposes, they’ve had a wide range of commercial applications in photography and videography. As a matter of fact, intelligence and military departments have used unmanned aerial vehicles to spy on their enemies or even drop bombs during tactical combat. Today, if not shortly, many e-commerce brands are anticipating using drones to deliver products purchased online to their customers. Additionally, farmers have also benefited greatly from drones technology. From farm monitoring to spraying pesticides, agricultural drones have opened up a plethora of possibilities when it comes to affordable ways of monitoring their farms and crops for soil variation, discovering irrigation treatment issues, and pinpointing distressed plants. Drones can also be used to make any celebration special with the help of drone light shows.


7. 3-D Printing

3-D Printing

It might have been with for several years now, but the applications of 3-D printing are numerous and still evolving. Over the years, plastic has been the main material used by 3-D printers in delivering their products. However, researchers from various parts of the globe, including Jennifer Lewis and her team from Harvard University, are working hard to develop 3D printer inks using carefully selected materials based on their electrical conductivity, optical characteristics, and mechanical properties traits. As we head in this direction, the technology will have a wider range of applications, and we might reach a point where we can create artificial organs using 3D printers.


8. Brain Mapping

Amazing Brain

For decades and decades, Neuroscientists have been working tooth and nail to best understand the inner functioning of the brain. But there’s a recently advanced technology that has come to make this even easier… the brain mapping technology, which simply uses a combination of imaging to study the anatomy and function of the human brain and the spinal cord. Recently, a 3-dimensional atlas of the human brain was created by a team of international scientists working at the Human Brain Project. Currently, the map can show fine details of up to 20mcm in the brain's anatomical structure, even though efforts are still on to come up with an enhanced version of this map that shows details of 1-2 micrometres down from 20.


9. Robotics

Robotics

Robots and efforts to develop versions that can walk, talk, and function like humans, is a concept that has been with us for many decades now. As a matter of fact, there was a common notion that robots will largely affect human employment as well as other aspects of life in some decades to come. However, robotic engineers have faced several challenges along the way, some of the major ones, including the fact that a great deal of balance, force, coordination, and direction are needed to enable a robot to walk like a human being. Recently, engineers at Boston Dynamics, in an experiment called “dynamic balance”, managed to create a robot that can maintain balance while walking, even in unsteady and uneven terrain. All the same, the technology is still in developmental stages, and it might take a long while before we finally get there. Once completed, it is said that the final creation could be used in helping with household chores for the elderly and the disabled in society, just to mention a few applications.



10. Genome Editing

Genome Editing

Genetic engineering is not new to the world. As we know it, it has largely impacted scientific research in fields such as medical research, pharmaceutical production, and biotech crop production. CRISP, a new DNA engineering approach, enables scientists to alter the DNA of fertilized eggs, making it easier to study certain diseases and disorders and developing their respective cures or treatment approaches.

Technology as a word has a meaning deeper than most of us think. As we speak, hundreds of thousands of tech innovations make human life easier and less stressful. The above are just a few of these many heavy innovations impacting the world that we thought are worth mentioning.