Hello guys,

I thought it’ll be cool to write about some technology inventions that we should expect this year and I’ve got 5 cool tech to explicate on. In case you’ve got some that you want to add to the list, you can let me know by leaving a reply.

1: Smart home devices

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[Smart home devices Pctechmag.com]}

I think we're going to get a lot more smart home devices, “Internet of Things (IoT)” even if it's completely unnecessary stuff, I think companies are gonna try and at least push for it. We saw a lot of new virtual assistants with Google home, Amazon echo, Apple Siri, all the companies are coming and this is going to be possible with the coming Bluetooth 5 technology. It'll be used a lot more for smart devices that can receive information without connecting directly and possibly even using local GPS like indoor GPS to triangulate where positions of objects are so if you lose something, you can literally detect exactly where it is using Bluetooth.

We're gonna see a lot more of such technology this year assuming that it does get more adopted. We know that bluetooth is usually introduced every year, the new version in new phones so it might take a year or 2 before people actually start to be able to use it even if it's introduced in new devices but we're gonna definitely see that I think by the end of this year.

2: Artificial Intelligence (AI)

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[Artificial Intelligence Vca.ag]}

I think artificial intelligence and machine learning is going to make a lot more progress than they have already, I mean there was a lot of buzz about AI last year and they've been using self-driving cars with AI which has gotten better but it's still not great, I think that it's still in its infancy but over the course of this year, it's going to get a lot better.

We might even see self-driving cars not necessarily in the foreground where everyone's gonna be knowing they're using AI but it'll stick in the background and things will just gradually get a lot and a lot better as time goes on to the point where we won't even notice how bad things were before.

Some of these uses aren't stuff you think about immediately, one really good example Google did earlier in 2017 was they had a picture through a chain-link fence and they used machine learning to remove the chain-link fence and rebuild what the picture actually looked like without it.

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[Google tool that can delete unwanted objects from photos Dailydot.com]}

That's the kind of stuff that I think is going to be super useful where our brain is really good at it but computers kind of suck, if you're looking through a chain-link fence in that example, our brain is pretty good at understanding what's behind it and knowing what is there even though there was a chain-link fence in front of it and the computers haven't been able to do that but I think we're gonna be able to do that pretty soon.

3: Self-driving cars

_{[4]
[Uber self driving car Businessinsider.com]}

There was a lot of attention with self-driving cars last year, Uber kind of started doing their own self-driving car test, Google's been doing it for a while but I think this year is going to be the year where we might start to see or maybe at least till the end of the year where self-driving cars actually get put into real service.

I'm not so sure it's going to be so quick where it'll be completely autonomous where our car will go on every road but I do think it will be the case where maybe in closed environments like college campuses or maybe only certain parts of a city like a bus route that those cars will be able to completely drive autonomously within a confined and predefined area.

I think that'll come a lot sooner than people think and probably this year because we already have self-driving cars, they just don't work perfectly yet and especially with AI and machine learning making a lot of progress, I think we're gonna see it pretty soon.

4: Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies

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[Cryptocurrencies Cryptomorrow.com]}

We saw a lot more of Blockchain and cryptocurrencies, in the end of 2017, we saw a ton of buzz about Bitcoin whether it's in a bubble who knows but it has gotten a ton of attention and you can't deny that. I think with all the new technologies with other coins coming out not just Bitcoin, there's going to be a lot of new companies that are going to get in on the game and even if a lot of these don't end up sticking around.

I also foresee lot of exploratory new technology, people doing a lot of experimentation and it's going to be very exciting to see what kind of Blockchain uses we come up with this year and maybe even cryptocurrencies starting to be used in real life.

5: Cyber security

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[Cyber security Pixabay.com]}

I think we're gonna see a lot more focus on cyber security potentially the removal of passwords and some other type of paradigm introduced because in 2016, we saw a ton of hackings, the Equifax breach was a total disaster and I think people are starting to realize their data is probably not as safe as they think it is. When you put something online, there's a pretty good chance it might get hacked one day so I think especially the big companies are going to be pushing for not just passwords being used with maybe some kind of biometric security and in general I think the whole mindset has to change.

To really assume that you will be hacked, your accounts will be hacked and that's why probably two-factor authentication is going to make a big move this year so people are gonna have to start using different passwords, stronger passwords, two-factor authentication and even when they don't put stuff up online.

I hope you enjoyed this article, be sure to smash that upvote button, reply and share your thoughts on other fascinating tech that you think we're gonna see in this year. Steem on!!!

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References: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5

Image sources: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6

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Thanks to @camzy & @samstickkz for this amazing toon.