The future. Full of flying cars, personalized ads, and glitzy, clean convenience. At the touch of a button you will be able to know everything about anything in front of you. But the crazy thing is, most of these gadgets already exist, and you can buy them now! We may not have hovering skateboards, but we do have a lot of stuff that would simply amaze Doc Brown and Marty.
Passenger drone
Imagine, you’re late to a meeting and are forced to take a cab. The only problem – traffic is a nightmare. If only you could somehow put the destination into an app and fly to where you need to go. Well, now you can. The recently unveiled Ehang 184 is a giant quadcopter drone big enough to fit one passenger. It has no controls, as all you need to do is step inside and put the address you need to go into the accompanying app. It then takes off and self navigates to your destination! The drone is set to be rolled out in Dubai in the summer of 2017.
Foldable LED screens
There are plenty of rigid, flat mobile devices from which to read the news or watch movies. But imagine being able to roll up your screen like a newspaper to be able to store anywhere? Or even seeing a moving billboard that wraps around a building? Well, this technology is already here, and is probably being used in a sports stadium near you! You’ll even be able to buy your own foldable LED screen soon, as Samsung is making a folding device which turns into an eight inch tablet from a five inch smartphone. And the best part – you never need to worry about breaking a screen again!
Molecular food scanner
Are you trying to watch your figure and want to know how many calories you’re eating with every meal? Maybe you’re in an argument with a friend over whether or not that guacamole adds too much fat to your burrito? Now you can, with the “DietScanner.” The DietScanner is a handheld device connected to an app downloaded onto the user’s smartphone. The scanner itself scans the molecules in the food, getting a reading on its nutritional value and what the chemical makeup of the food is, sending the info directly to the palm of your hand. A great way to prove to your friends that you’re eating healthy!
Pinpointed speakers
You’re walking through a grocery store when suddenly you hear a whisper saying “buy cookies.” You look to the left, and there they are! Who said that? Did anyone else hear it? Are you going crazy?? Don’t worry, you just stepped into the field of an Audio Spotlight system. This speaker system focuses messages at a person standing in the system’s “spotlight,” and the message is only heard by that person – almost like a private message just to them. The crazy thing is, this is already being used in grocery stores and museums all around the world! So, the next time you hear a strange voice in your head, don’t worry, it’s probably just an ad.
Wearable translator
Have you ever been in a foreign country and needed to ask where the nearest bathroom was? Have you ever been talking to someone who speaks another language, only to have them angrily walk away after misunderstanding something you said? That soon may be a thing of the past with the ILI wearable translator. All you need to do is speak English into the translator, and the machine will say what you said in the language that you need! The translator currently only does English, Japanese, and Chinese, but will be able to support more languages soon! Most importantly your chances will improve with that cute Italian on the piazza.