IBM and EE Times predict

The end of one year and the start of another always brings out a series of gurus and soothsayers foretelling the future. Many are quite rightly forgotten by mid February, but the guys at IBM and EE Times probably deserve a hearing more than most. IBM have revealed five innovations that they expect to change our lives within five years. Briefly they encompass: Capturing and recycling energy from anything that moves; using biometrics security to safeguard access to information; linking human brain activities to control and activate electronic systems; the end of the digital divide and smarter, personalised priority e-mail. EE Times have produced their list of 20 hot technologies for 2012, it includes MEMS, plastic electronics, graphene, EUV lithography and 3D ICs.