IEEE Computer Society predicts top ten tech trends for 2019: assisted transportation, chatbots, and deep learning accelerators among others

Top ten trends for 2019

Deep learning accelerators

According to IEEE computer society, 2019 will see widescale adoption of companies designing their own deep learning accelerators such as GPUs, FPGAs, and TPUs, which can be used in data centers. The development of these accelerators would further allow machine learning to be used in different IoT devices and appliances.

Assisted transportation

Another trend predicted for 2019 is the adoption of assisted transportation which is already paving the way for fully autonomous vehicles. Although the future of fully autonomous vehicles is not entirely here, the self-driving tech saw a booming year in 2018. For instance, AWS introduced DeepRacer, a self-driving race car, Tesla is building its own AI hardware for self-driving cars, Alphabet’s Waymo will be launching the world’s first commercial self-driving cars in upcoming months, and so on.

Other than self-driving, assisted transportation is also highly dependent on deep learning accelerators for video recognition.

The Internet of Bodies (IoB)

As per the IEEE computer society, consumers have become very comfortable with self-monitoring using external devices like fitness trackers and smart glasses. With digital pills now entering the mainstream medicine, the body-attached, implantable, and embedded IoB devices provide richer data that enable development of unique applications. However, IEEE mentions that this tech also brings along with it the concerns related to security, privacy, physical harm, and abuse.

Social credit algorithms

Facial recognition tech was in the spotlight in 2018. For instance, Microsoft President- Brad Smith requested governments to regulate the evolution of facial recognition technology this month, Google patented a new facial recognition system that uses your social network to identify you, and so on.  According to the IEEE, social credit algorithms will now see a rise in adoption in 2019. Social credit algorithms make use of facial recognition and other advanced biometrics that help identify a person and retrieve data about them from digital platforms. This helps them check the approval or denial of access to consumer products and services.

Advanced (smart) materials and devices

IEEE computer society predicts that in 2019, advanced materials and devices for sensors, actuators, and wireless communications will see widespread adoption. These materials include tunable glass, smart paper, and ingestible transmitters, will lead to the development of applications in healthcare, packaging, and other appliances.  

“These technologies will also advance pervasive, ubiquitous, and immersive computing, such as the recent announcement of a cellular phone with a foldable screen. The use of such technologies will have a large impact on the way we perceive IoT devices and will lead to new usage models”, mentions the IEEE computer society.

Active security protection

From data breaches ( Facebook, Google, Quora, Cathay Pacific, etc) to cyber attacks, 2018 saw many security-related incidents. 2019 will now see a new generation of security mechanisms that use an active approach to fight against these security-related accidents. These would involve hooks that can be activated when new types of attacks are exposed and machine-learning mechanisms that can help identify sophisticated attacks.

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR)

Packt’s 2018 Skill Up report highlighted what game developers feel about the VR world. A whopping 86% of respondents replied with ‘Yes, VR is here to stay’. IEEE Computer Society echoes that thought as it believes that VR and AR technologies will see even greater widescale adoption and will prove to be very useful for education, engineering, and other fields in 2019. IEEE believes that now that there are advertisements for VR headsets that appear during prime-time television programs, VR/AR will see widescale adoption in 2019.

Chatbots

2019 will also see an expansion in the development of chatbot applications. Chatbots are used quite frequently for basic customer service on social networking hubs. They’re also used in operating systems as intelligent virtual assistants. Chatbots will also find its applications in interaction with cognitively impaired children for therapeutic support.

“We have recently witnessed the use of chatbots as personal assistants capable of machine-to-machine communications as well. In fact, chatbots mimic humans so well that some countries are considering requiring chatbots to disclose that they are not human”, mentions IEEE.  

Automated voice spam (robocall) prevention

IEEE predicts that the automated voice spam prevention technology will see widespread adoption in 2019. It will be able to block a spoofed caller ID and in turn enable “questionable calls” where the computer will ask questions to the caller for determining if the caller is legitimate.

Technology for humanity (specifically machine learning)

IEEE predicts an increase in the adoption rate of tech for humanity. Advances in IoT and edge computing are the leading factors driving the adoption of this technology. Other events such as fires and bridge collapses are further creating the urgency to adopt these monitoring technologies in forests and smart roads.

"The technical community depends on the Computer Society as the source of technology IP, trends, and information. IEEE-CS predictions represent our commitment to keeping our community prepared for the technological landscape of the future,” says the IEEE Computer Society.

For more information, check out the official IEEE Computer Society announcement.

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