Researchers at IBM predict that mobile smartphones will be capable of projecting holographic 3D images by the year 2015.
Big Blue scientists working at the Almaden research center in San Jose, California also believe 2015 will bring “air-breathing” batteries, computer programs able to calculate when traffic jams will occur and cities powered by excess server heat.
Additional predictions include energy-dense metals that interact with the air to recharge and electronic devices powered solely by kinetic energy.
“[Sure], these are all stretch goals, and that’s good,” Paul Saffo, managing director of foresight at Discern in San Francisco, told Bloomberg.
“[Because] in an era when pessimism is the new black, a little dose of technological optimism is not a bad thing.”
Saffo added that IBM is one of the only few big corporations investing in long-term research projects.
“They have continued to do research when all the other grand research organizations are gone,” he said.
“[Of course], the nice thing about the list is that it provokes thought…If everything came true, they wouldn’t be doing their job.”
Meanwhile, Josephine Cheng, a VP at IBM’s Almaden lab, told Bloomberg that the above-mentioned projections were publicized to offer a window into the company’s “innovation engine.”
“All this demonstrates a real culture of innovation at IBM and willingness to devote itself to solving some of the world’s biggest problems,” she said.
