Ten for 2010
Here’s our view of ten new things
that could make a big impact in 2010.
We’ve created the list in collaboration
with Wallpaper* magazine.
AUGMENTED REALITY
THE WORLD EXPANDED
Computer-generated images that mix with, and add to, reality. Imagine, for example, a Rough Guide superimposed on Paris as you wander round. In 2010, AR will start to become common in advertising, complex tasks like surgery or flying a plane, architecture, sightseeing, education, videoconferencing and, of course, entertainment.
BETTER PLACE
MAKING GREEN CARS WORK
2010 will be a big year for electric cars. But where will people be able to recharge their batteries? Founded by Shai Agassi, Better Place is wiring up whole countries with recharging points. And the electricity comes from renewable sources. The first trial is in Israel in 2010. Better Place is also building networks in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Japan and the US.
www.betterplace.com
CROSSBREED
A WHEEL THAT FOLDS
Inventor Duncan Fitzsimons, a recent graduate from the Royal College of Art in London, wanted to find a way to make performance bikes (which need large wheels) fold up small. This meant not just folding the frame, but somehow folding the wheel too. With help from InnovationRCA, this seemingly impossible product now exists. And its first application isn’t on bikes, but on wheelchairs. In 2010, for the first time, users will be able to fold their wheelchairs into much smaller spaces, making them much easier to store and carry.
www.duncfitz.co.uk
DIME
MAGIC SAND
Water is becoming as precious as oil. How do you stop it seeping away? One answer is sand that’s water resistant. This amazing substance is already being made by Desalt Innovation Middle East. With DIME, farmers worldwide would need much less water. And the desert actually could bloom.
www.dimecreations.com
ENHANCED EDITIONS
REINVENTING READING
E-books have arrived. But all they do is mimic conventional books on a screen. Couldn’t the experience be richer? Enhanced Editions is an iPhone app that adds sound, music and video to books. Among the first titles are Nick Cave’s The Death of Bunny Munro and Barack Obama’s The Audacity of Hope. Creator Peter Collingridge says ‘this could be the thing that changes people’s reading habits’.
www.enhanced-editions.com
GAPMINDER
TRUTH MADE VISUAL
Knowledge is power. And knowledge about the gap between rich and poor can create the power to close that gap. That’s what Gapminder offers: huge amounts of data about the world’s inequalities, presented in the most fascinating animated graphics. Or as Gapminder founder Hans Rosling says, ‘Let my dataset change your mindset’.
www.gapminder.org
NOKIA MONEY
PAY BY MOBILE
People have been using mobile phones to pay for things for years in Africa and in the far east, but in 2010 the idea reaches the whole world with Nokia Money. Through a bit of extra software on your handset, you can pay bills, and pay other Nokia users, without needing cash or a bank account. It’s a new dimension to ‘connecting people’. With 4 billion mobile phone users worldwide and only 1.6 billion bank accounts, this will be big.
www.nokia.com
PICO PROJECTORS
SMALL SCREEN TO BIG
Laptops and cameras show pictures so small that only one or two people can see them at a time. Pico projectors turn this solitary activity into a social one. Fitted into cameras or mobiles, they beam the image to fill a screen up to 60 inches wide. They’ll start appearing in all sorts of devices in 2010.
www.picoprojector-info.com
ROCKCORPS
VOLUNTEERING MADE COOL
A lot of the world’s most valuable work is done by volunteers. But they’re mostly older people. Rockcorps changes that. Founded by Stephen Greene in 2003, Rockcorps gets young people to volunteer. The deal is ‘give 4 hours, get 1 free ticket’ to exclusive rock concerts. Rockcorps has reached 30,000 people already in USA. Orange has brought it to the UK and France. Where next?
www.orangerockcorps.co.uk
WORLDWIDE TELESCOPE
EXPERIENCE THE UNIVERSE
Google has given us Google Earth. Now Microsoft takes us into outer space. With WorldWide Telescope, you can explore the stars from your laptop. The software combines images from a range of telescopes, including the Hubble Space Telescope, so that you can fly past Mars, or zoom in on distant galaxies. After a couple of years of earth-bound anxiety preoccupations, WorldWide Telescope reminds us all of the bigger universe we live in: it’s awe-inspiring and mind-stretching.
www.worldwidetelescope.orgBehind these ten inventions,
three big shifts are happening.
RICHER ONLINE
Online experiences, normally
small and flat, are becoming big
and multi-dimensional.
EAST TO WEST
People are bringing inventions
or information from the developing
world to the west.
DO THE IMPOSSIBLE
And all over the world, inventors
are once again setting out to do
the impossible.
YOUR NOMINATIONS
Augmented Reality
With augmented reality, we all will be looking at the world differently. The internet will be at its best. The base for all the next-gen UI.
January 13, 2010 | Posted by George Mathew | http://www.gmathewworks.com/
Augmented Reality is the one
Augmented reality is quite mind-blowing. It's already a reality, it's just a matter of months until it catches on.
January 13, 2010 | Posted by Branding Rockstar | http://www.albumcreative.com/
Nomination
I nominate magic sand - Dime
January 7, 2010 | Posted by Anand Sivakumaran
SOCIAL FASHION
BAGSBACK is an American handbag company that is based in Miami Beach. The company sells Colombian handbags known as mochilas. For every bag purchased, BAGSBACK gives a bag filled with school supplies, musical instruments, toys, and anything else that will help improve the life of a child in need. Our donation bag is called A BAG FULL OF DREAMS.
December 21, 2009 | Posted by BAGSBACK | http://www.BAGSBACK.org/
Invention for 2010
In my opinion, the most revolutionary and immediately awaited invention is the projector attached to hand-held devices. I tried watching a movie on my cell's screen and it was just too painful.
December 18, 2009 | Posted by MYows