Horizon Europe, the EU’s research and innovation framework program for the period 2021-2027, is one of the milestones that the community authorities have set to experience a new revolution in the economies of the Member States. A new decade thus opens marked by the total connectivity brought by 5G networks.
The low latency of the fifth generation of mobile phone technologies will allow the famous concept of the Internet of Things to reach its maximum splendor. This will allow the devices to almost “talk” to each other.
It will be the moment of truth for the autonomous car, but the views of the technology industry go further. The total connection also refers to the human being, and the union of him with the devices. There have already been some small-scale tests with prototypes, and they seem to show that this type of technology is viable. One of the most advanced is Elon Musk with his Neuralink project.
The first tests from the R&D laboratories of the leading universities in the sector are already working with the human body to be just another ‘gadget’. In fact, technological implants under the skin are expected to be a reality in this new decade.
Some experts also predict that in this new decade we will see different smart devices implantable in the body hit the market, starting with chips to transmit small amounts of information, for example, to make payments or open doors with special locks. There are already robotic forearm prostheses developed by companies such as Open Bionics, which detect the muscle movements of their users to articulate wrists and hands.
Work is also underway on the connection with the brain to even be able to control prostheses. Currently, they usually have some connection failures with the nerves and limit the person’s mobility, problems that need to be resolved while progress is made in other points, such as giving them a sense of touch through sensors installed in them. The problem is that the price of the most autonomous ones is still very high.
Halfway between transportation and tourism, to reach certain destinations you will only need a virtual reality (VR) viewer. At least that’s what Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, thinks. The question remains to be seen if virtual reality really wins the favor of the public, if augmented reality wins the day or if everything remains mixed. At the moment, this last reality is capable of performing an operation in an operating room.
Wind turbines held in the air (with helium or gliding wings) and 3D printers for organic materials (bioprinting for health purposes) could also cease to be a theory by 2030.