IBM has announced its fifth annual Next Five in Five – a list of five technologies that the company believes “have the potential to change the way people work, live and play over the next five years.” While there are no flying cars or robot servants on the list, there are holographic friends, air-powered batteries, personal environmental sensors, customized commutes and building-heating computers.

3D telepresence

It may not be a flying car, but it’s definitely one we’ve seen in sci-fi movies before – the ability to converse with a life-size holographic image of another person in real time. The futurists at IBM point to recent advances in 3D cameras and movies, predicting that holography chat (aka 3D telepresence) can’t be all that far behind. Already, the University of Arizona has unveiled a system that can transmit holographic images in near-real-time.

It is also predicted that 3D visualization could be applied to data, allowing researchers to “step inside” software programs (wasn’t that just in a movie?), computer models, or pretty much anything else that is limited by a simple 2D screen. IBM compares it to the way in which the Earth appears undistorted when we experience it first-hand in three dimensions, yet it appears pinched at the top and bottom when we see it on a two-dimensional world map.

Air-powered or non-existent batteries

Lithium-air batteries are already in the works, and IBM predicts that batteries “that use the air we breath to react with energy-dense metal” will result in smaller, lighter rechargeable batteries that last ten times longer than today’s lithium-ion variety. While such batteries could be used in everything from cars to home appliances, it is also suggested that small items such as mobile phones might not need batteries at all. IBM is trying to reduce the amount power required for such devices to less than 0.5 volts per transistor. At those rates, it is claimed, they could be powered via “energy scavenging” – like already-existing kinetic wrist watches that get their power from the user’s arm movements, or experimental piezoelectric devices.

Personal sensors creating “citizen scientists”

As it currently stands, most scientific data must be gathered by scientists, who have to go out in the field and set up sensors or other data recording devices. Within five years, however, a lot of that data could be gathered and transmitted by sensors in our phones, cars, wallets, computers, or just about anything else that is subjected to the real world. Such sensors could be used to create massive data sets used for everything from fighting global warming to tracking invasive species. IBM also sees custom scientific smartphone apps playing a part in “citizen science,” and has already launched an app called Creek Watch, that allows us regular folks to update the local water authority on creek conditions.

Customized commutes

Invaluable as Mapquest and other online mapping services have become to many of us, apparently it’s just the tip of the iceberg. In the not-so-distant future, says IBM, sensors and other data sources (such as the aforementioned citizen scientists, perhaps?) will provide a continuous stream of information on traffic conditions, road construction, public transit schedules, and other factors that could affect your commute. When you inquire about the quickest way of getting from A to B, computer systems will do more than simply consulting a map – they will also take into account all the variables unique to that day and time, combine them with mathematical models and predictive analytics technologies, and advise a route accordingly. It is also possible that, utilizing such data, traffic management systems could learn traffic patterns, and self-adjust themselves to minimize congestion.

Harvesting computer heat

It is estimated that half of the energy consumed by data centers goes toward cooling computer processors, with most of the removed hot air simply being blown into the atmosphere. Instead, IBM sees that heat being captured to warm the air in other areas of the building, to heat water, or to be converted into electricity. The company has already developed an on-chip water-cooling system for computer clusters, which is being demonstrated on the Swiss Aquasar supercomputer. It utilizes a network of microfluidic capillaries inside a heat sink, attached to the surface of each chip. Water flows within a few microns of the semiconductor material, picks up heat from it, then pipes the warm water to a heat exchanger – from there, the cooled water returns to the computers, within a closed loop system.

As with last year’s list, given that all of these technologies are already in experimental use, it’s a pretty good bet that they will indeed one day find their way our lives. Whether that day is within the next five years, however, is another question.

Nanotube Heat Wave And it burns, burns, burns …

Johnny Cash can’t have known about carbon nanotubes when he sang about that burning ring of fire, but MIT scientists have shown how the tiny tubes can channel a ring of heat that creates electrical current — about 100 times as much energy per unit of weight when compared with a lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery.

The new experiments involved nanotubes, or submicroscopic structures just a few billionths of a meter in diameter, that can conduct both electricity and heat. Engineers coated the nanotubes with reactive fuel that produces heat by decomposing, and then ignited it with laser beams or high-voltage sparks.

That set off a fast-moving heat wave that traveled through the nanotube’s hollow cylinder 10,000 times faster than in the reactive fuel itself, and reached a temperature of 4,940 degrees F (3,000 Kelvin). The fast-moving heat also pushed electrons along the tube and created a noticeable electrical current.

Such combustion waves were studied mathematically for a century, according to Michael Strano, a chemical engineer at MIT. Strano first predicted that a nanotube or nanowire could channel the heat pulse and create electrical current, but now his group has realized that prediction.

Some semiconductor materials can also produce an electric current when heated, but the carbon nanotube experiments defy predictions by thermoelectric calculations. Strano noted that the heat wave seemed to carry along electrons or other electrical charge carriers, not unlike how an ocean wave can pick up debris.

The possibility of creating substantial energy on such a tiny scale could lead to new ultra-small electronic devices the size of rice grains, whether for implantable medical chips or other tiny sensor applications.

Strano’s MIT group plans to continue improving the efficiency and cut back on wasted energy given off as heat and light. Strano also suggested that a different reactive fuel coating for the nanotubes might produce alternating current — an intriguing contrast to current energy-storage systems that all produce direct current.

IBM predicts smarter buildings, transportation, water systems, medical will impact cities in the next five years

Casting one’s eye into a crystal ball is a risky undertaking that can leave the forecaster as visionary or fool – particularly if they are short term predictions that can easily be checked. But that hasn’t deterred the soothsayers at IBM coming up with their fourth annual “Next 5 in 5” list of innovations that will impact our lives in the next five years.

Because the world is experiencing unprecedented urbanization, with last year seeing the majority of the world’s population residing in cities for the first time in history, IBM has focused on innovations that have the potential to change how people live, work and play in cities around the globe in the coming years. The list is based on market and societal trends expected to transform cities, as well as emerging technologies from IBM’s labs around the world that have the potential to turn these predictions into reality. So what does IBM think we can expect?

Cities will have healthier immune systems

Given their population density, IBM says cities will remain hotbeds of communicable diseases. However, the emergence of a “health Internet” will give city officials, hospitals, schools and workplaces the ability to better detect, track, prepare for and prevent infections. IBM predicts this system will share anonymous medical information contained in electronic health records to provide information for public health officials to know when, where and how diseases are spreading and even which neighborhoods will be affected next. IBM is already working with organizations to standardize methods for sharing health information and analyzing infectious disease outbreaks that would enable such a system.

City buildings will sense and respond like living organisms

The trend towards “smart buildings” has already started and IBM says the trend will only gather pace with technology used to manage building systems such as heat, water, sewage, electricity, etc. Thousands of sensors inside buildings will monitor everything from motion and temperature to humidity, occupancy and light. This system will enable repairs before something breaks, emergency units to respond quickly with the necessary resources, and consumers and business owners to monitor their energy consumption and carbon emission in real-time and take action to reduce them.

Cars and buses will run on empty

This one is a pretty safe bet too. The switch from fossil fuel powered vehicles is already underway and, although there are a few potential energy sources including hydrogen and various biofuels vying for consideration, IBM predicts that improved battery technology will be the technology to power the next generation of eco-friendly vehicles. It says the new batteries won’t need to be recharged for days or months at a time, depending on how often the vehicles are driven, and will allow trips of 300 to 500 miles (480 – 800km) on a single charge. Also smart grids in cities will allow vehicles to be charged in public places using renewable energy, such as wind power, for charging so they no longer rely on coal-powered plants.

Smarter systems will quench cities’ thirst for water and save energy

To deal with the estimate that demand for water is expected to increase sixfold in the next 50 years cities will install smarter water systems to reduce water waste by up to 50 percent. Smart sewer systems will also be installed that not only prevent run-off pollution in rivers and lakes, but purify water to make it drinkable. Advanced water purification technologies will help cities recycle and reuse water locally, reducing energy used to transport water by up to 20 percent. Like smart electricity meters, interactive meters and sensors will be integrated into water systems to provide users with real time, accurate information about their water consumption to allow them to make better decisions about how and when they use this valuable resource.

Cities will respond to a crisis – even before receiving an emergency phone call

IBM hasn’t given a lot of details about just how such technology would be implemented – although it won’t be through the use of precogs like those used in the movie Minority Report – simply saying that analyzing the right information at the right time will help prevent emergencies, such as crime and disasters.

IBM says it is already helping law enforcement agencies analyze information that will allow public servants to take proactive measures to head off crime. Also the New York Fire Department has selected IBM to build a state-of-the-art system for collecting and sharing data in real-time and the company is also designing smart levee systems to prevent cities from devastating floods.

IBM hasn’t really gone out on a limb with any of their predictions. As any regular reader would know, all of the innovations outlined by IBM are already emerging, which is hardly surprising given IBM’s next five years timeframe.

Five years could be an optimistic time frame, especially when you look back at the first IBM Next 5 in 5 list compiled in 2006. It predicted the rise of a 3-D Internet and real-time speech translation becoming the norm. That leaves only one year for this to take place. Although there have been advances in both areas, it couldn’t really be said that either has changed many people’s lives just yet. It’s hard to think the same won’t be true for this new list five years from now.