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GLIMPSE FROM THE FUTURE BY ASAD IQBAL (SSUET) |
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FUTURE OFFICES The office environment will dramatically change in 50 years' time, with desktop computers disappearing, robots handling more manual tasks, and global connectivity enabling more intercontinental collaboration. Data centers located outside the city will run powerful database and processing applications, serving up computing power as a utility. Many more people will work remotely, using handheld devices to stay connected wherever they go, although those devices will be much more sophisticated and easier to use than current handhelds. People will still rely on the Internet, but will not have to connect via a Web browser or type in Web addresses to get the information or applications they want. The connectivity cloud will enable easy information-sharing between people, but will also serve as a mechanism where computers can talk to one another and automatically complete many basic tasks, such as controlling lighting and heating or tracking physical security. The physical clustering of employees will not be as important in the future, and the global network will mean more office jobs will be threatened by outsourcing; on the other hand, increasing factory automation will outperform cheap human labor in some cases. More applications will be voice-activated and computer displays will be built into nearly every surface, while Haptics will be used instead of a mouse, so that computers will be able to read hand movements or other gestures. SMART HOME The emergence and spread of sophisticated consumer networking technologies such as broadband and mobile phones over the last several years has been a major factor in the drive toward the smart home. Wireless networks can establish communications among household devices as well as the Internet, while always-on broadband connections permit appliances to send and receive information whenever they wish. A home could be turned into a distributed computing system with the incorporation of wireless chips into every household device. Mobile phones could also become a key enabling technology for smart homes, with companies such as Nokia planning to use them as devices that can remotely control all household appliances. Before this can happen, the devices must be designed to support ease-of-use and simple interconnection, a challenge that will not be met until companies make learning the responsibility of the technology rather than the consumers, incompatibility between devices from different manufacturers is another obstacle, one that must be overcome with the institution of a wireless-networking standard GREEN ELECTRONICS For the first time, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers have incorporated a plant's ability to convert sunlight to energy into a solid-state electronic "spinach sandwich" device that may one day power laptops and cell phones. At the heart of the device is a protein complex dubbed Photo system I (PSI). Derived from spinach chloroplasts, PSI is 10 to 20 nanometers wide.
So far, scientists and
engineers' efforts to harness the photosynthetic properties of green plants
have been most successful with naturally soft organic materials in liquid
solutions. But if organic solar cells are to be practical for commercial
devices, they need to be integrated with solid-state electronics. The
researchers ground up ordinary spinach and purified it with a centrifuge to
isolate a protein deep within the cell. The resulting dark green pellets
were purified still further and coaxed into a water-soluble state. One of
the challenges was to keep the proteins in the same configuration as they
appear naturally in the organism.
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