Rx apps and 4 other things from the future
5. Swallow this pill, then track on your phone!
The future of health is undergoing a revolution as we speak, from apps to help you track everything from your heart rate to happiness, to doctors prescribing, well, apps. Now, there's a brand new device that you actually swallow to help you
monitor metrics from inside your body.
The ingestible sensor, called Proteus, is only about the size of a grain of sand and easily integrated into a pill. Once inside your body, the data gets relayed through your body to a patch worn on the skin, to a mobile application on your phone.
Sounds futuristic, but Proteus has already been cleared by the FDA and approved for marketing in the EU, so look for this soon!
4. Robots will greet you at the bank of the future
Just a couple of weeks ago, we heard about how the future of retail will be unrecognizable within 10 years. What about
the future of banking? Inside a bank of the future, will robots greet you at the door? Will ATMs have biometric logins that read your handprint? Will digital avatars help you with your account transactions?
The answer may be yes, and all of these concepts are already being tested in São Paulo. Banco Bradesco, one of Brazil's largest banks, has opened a new branch that is a showcase for exactly these types of state-of-the-art future banking technologies.
Somehow, the idea of having robots assist with my banking is totally OK with me.
3. 360° Pac-Man game!
Classic arcade game fans, would you jump at the chance to literally dive into the world of Ms. Pac-Man and play it in a 360° space? If so, now’s your chance, at the Museum of Art & Design in New York.
Japanese game director Keita Takahashi has created the “
3D Pac-Man Room,” and it’s exactly what it sounds like. The installation uses projection mapping technology to immerse the player in the game world from floor to ceiling. Looks amazing to me.
2. Print your face onto a princess
The next time you take your kids to Disney’s theme parks in Orlando, they will have the option of taking home a uniquely personalized souvenir --
a princess doll sporting their very own face.
Disney is making its foray into photo scanning and 3-D printing in a big way. Here's how it works: special software constructs a 3-D model of your child's face from a series of photos. Then, once your child selects a doll, a 3-D printer prints out the customized result.
Starting at $99.95, every kid can now “D-tech” themselves. Looking at the way this technology is enabling hyper-personalization on a mass scale, it becomes clear that the future of the toy industry is going to be forever changed.
1. Check-ins get a face-lift
What's even easier than walking into a favorite establishment, taking out your phone, opening an app, and checking in?
Checking in with just your face, literally.
Utilizing facial recognition technology, a concept camera tentatively called "Facedeals" will check you in simply by scanning your face as you walk through the door.
Obviously, a million questions instantly spring to mind around this future scenario, not the least of which is, what happens if you have an identical twin?
