Future Developments - ICT INFO 3

• Reduction in size of ICT devices by micro circuitry

• Increase in processing power

• New methods of storage such as flash memory - increases data portability

• Advances in telecommunication - allowed data to be transfered instantly across the world or locally via wireless

• Businesses can keep in touch with their employees via portable computers and mobile phones

• A few years ago, a business traveller could use a laptop to produce documents, a mobile to make calls and a PDA for short notes and contact details

• Devices are now used with phones, cameras, address books, music players and internet connectivity. The previous devices are converging into one.

• Although devices have gotten smaller, they are starting to get bigger again so the user can use the device for emails and web browsing etc.

• The idea that users could interact with a range of devices that work together seamlessly, without the user knowing. e.g. clothes could have tags so that the washing machine knows how to wash them

- Each item would need an individual ID provided by an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) - could be used in mobile phones to pay for items, like an Oyster Card.

• Visual barcodes or 'tags' can be used as another form of identification

- Semacodes can be downloaded an printed, and can be photographed by a mobile phone, which will transport the user to a companies website.

• GPS (Global Positioning System) can be used to track devices and items for security

- there are also issues of personal privacy

• The most powerful computers in the world are known as 'Supercomputers'

- Designed to carry out calculations extremely quickly

- Speed is measured in 'flops' (floating point operations per second)

- 2008 the worlds first petaflop computer was announced

• Can be used to model weather, cliamte, and the performance of new drugs

• Some devices are being designed to read the eletrical signals from the brain via electrodes that rest on a humans scalp

• The electrodes monitor tiny changes in electrical voltage, from which software interprets them to attempt to identify what the user is thinking

• Could be extremely beneficial to people with disabilities

• Better results could be produced is the electrodes were 'invasive' to the brain, but this could be dangerous

• Explorers the effects of human genes on health, enabling scientists to identify hereditary traits, and predict the liklihood of future illness

• NASA are working on developing unmanned probes that could be sent to the moon, to communicate back to earth.

• However, there are issues with powering the probes

- Solar would not work, as the probes could be in darkness for up to 14 days.

- Nuclear power is being considered