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Reflective Essay

The Emerging Technologies course (MDD410), I suppose, wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, per se. I was believing it to be of technologies that are currently coming out, or researching what could be. While thinking of what could become of technology in the future over the length of this course, it turned out to be more on technology that has recently come out, instead. It’s sort of a more refreshing take than what I was expecting, as it’s more obtainable than hypothetical technology.

I had already known a bit about these types of things, from 3D printing down to social media. I have my own 3D printer that I don’t really use all that much, though I probably should to maybe make some cool things for my model figurines that I construct and paint. But, the course did make me think deeper on the impact a lot of this stuff had. It helped make me delve deeper into how businesses utilize new technology to better sell products, or to try and push products. The questions of security vs. accessibility came up every now and again, too.

These sorts of things were, more or less, on my mind beforehand, though the course helped me to think about them more cleanly. Businesses use new apps that have streamlined designs that are easy to use and understand. AR and VR devices are present, and are slowly gaining in both popularity and power in their fields. Even crowd funding is a topic that I know of, but that I hadn’t delved too deep into the knowledge of how it works, aside from watching videos on the good Kickstarter projects and the ones that failed or scammed people. Plus, 3D printing is super expensive, so I’m glad I have one of my own!

Honestly, performing the 3D modeling, despite how Photoshop’s 3D software is sort of limited, was quite fun and engaging. I have a want to do something like that as a career path, since I want to create video game assets and all. Working with the program makes me want to take up learning Blender’s 3D program again to further increase my knowledge on the subject, too. It’s an invigorating feeling.

Finally, the course has me seeing that there are trends in technology. There are factors to follow and things to push over others that might fail. I’m sure that the idea of motion controls before the implementation of casual AR / VR seemed like a good idea at first, and it soon flopped after. But, with how the market is, the idea came back in a more refined form for AR and VR. There’s a lot of emerging technology that is quite powerful to stay ahead of today’s game.

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Stadia

Stadia

Stadia is an upcoming piece of technology for people who play video games to be able to purchase and play games without ever needing to download them or worry about their computers’ performances. It does this through streaming the service from another computer, where you have the input to this video game.

Trend to Come

We may likely see a lot of Stadia later on, but currently, the ideas surrounding the Stadia might hinder it for a bit of development time.

My Thoughts on the Technology

The stadia is likely to be a flop, in my opinion. The idea of streaming games is an awesome proposition, but it brings up the thought of bandwidth and reaction speeds for online games. If someone’s internet isn’t up to par, then the game looking amazing isn’t going to matter. Plus, their idea of negative latency is awful. As it stands now, the current claim is that Stadia will combat latency between user input and motion on screen by predicting what a player will do prior to an event, and react for the player for them. This brings a bunch of questions into the mix, because it takes a player’s actions out of the equation. Plus, having to pay for a service and paying for the games separately only to be able to play them on that service is a bad idea. It means you don’t own the things you purchase. I would not use this technology, no.

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Fad or Trend

This blog will discuss the difference that exist between fads and trends.

A fad is like a craze or a motion, while a trend sticks around for more long-term ends. A fad is likely to be far more popular and widespread, but runs a short life. They will likely be the talk of the town and far beyond, getting people talking to one another over the idea in question. It is likely to die out fast, though. 3D TV was a technological fad that had burned out quick, with their special channels and glasses to watch TV in 3D. Trends, meanwhile, burn for longer. They tend to be more stable, but trends can be positive of negative. Crossplay between video games is a growing trend that many video games have been implementing. The ability to play across different types of consoles for video games increases connectivity and is on a positive upwards climb.

References:

https://www.lifewire.com/why-3d-tv-died-4126776

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthier/2019/05/30/this-changes-everything-call-of-duty-modern-warfare-will-be-crossplay-on-ps4-xbox-one-and-pc/#3c36b2633020

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Resources for Keeping Current on Emerging Technology

It is important to keep current with technology in order to stay in contact with progress. Many new forms of technology come out every day, so keeping up to date with these pieces of innovation is key to maintaining one’s own place in both the workforce and with peers. Here’s a list of some of these services that help with that idea:

 https://www.kickstarter.com/

Kickstarter is a great way to see what sorts of new technologies are coming out. By paying attention to the projects here that are being crowdfunded successfully, one can keep up with products that are soon to be released.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tiltfive/holographic-tabletop-gaming/description

Tilt Five, an AR helmet for board games, is one such piece of technology. It’s successfully funded and will likely sell many copies when it comes out!

 https://arstechnica.com/

Ars Technica is a new site that reports on tons of new types of technologies that have come out or are emerging. Their reach extends from IT and technical ideas all the way to physical technology and products.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/10/the-pixel-4s-face-unlock-works-on-sleeping-unconscious-people/

Here, Ars Technica tells on how newer phone face recognition can scan sleeping or unconscious people to unlock their phones, possibly to call for assistance.

 https://techcrunch.com/

TechCrunch is a site that talks about startup companies in the technologies field. It helps to keep on track with current businesses and how they’re growing and evolving over time. It also talks about current issues in tech-related fields.

https://techcrunch.com/2019/10/17/sentons-launches-surfacewave-a-processor-and-tech-to-create-software-defined-surfaces-that-supercharge-touch-and-gesture/

Sentons is creating an ultrasound-using piece of technology that will read gestures made and translate them to movements for a computer system. This could help to revolutionize the way touchscreens work, even!

 https://www.wired.com/

Wired talks about all sorts of technological news in general, from cars to video games and even spaceships.

https://www.wired.com/story/prepare-deepfake-era-web-video/?itm_campaign=BottomRelatedStories_Sections_2

Deepfakes are covered on Wired’s site. They’re very, very convincing edits made with technology and programs that can trick the eye into thinking they’re real.

 https://www.digitaltrends.com/

Digital Trends does just as the name describes: digital trends! They also perform regular technological trends, but they keep up to date on the ideas behind everything.

https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/phone-case-artificial-skin/

Well, I guess this is technically emerging technology! Digital Trends talks about how you can have a squishy, skin-like case for phones, just in case you wanted to squeeze your phone’s artificial skin.