IBM Predicts: 5 Transformative Innovations

The thing is, innovation just keeps on coming.  Much is incremental, but sometimes a new idea comes along that is transformative (or at least has the potential to be).  IBM's been trying to predict what's next for about a hundred years, from its earliest days as a builder of punch card readers to it's more recent habit of producing annual lists of what it thinks tech innovation will bring.  Sometimes the predictions miss, like when the 1950s era CEO predicted that total global demand for that new product of theirs, the computer, would be 5.  Other predictions, like computers could become personal devices, paid off big time.
  The most recent list makes 5 predictions about potentially game-changing innovations that could occur within the next five years:

1. Technology will be able to capture, store, and use common human movements as a significant power source.  Hybrid technology in cars is beginning to recapture power from motion changes - can technology be scaled down to capture human motions like walking or riding a bike?
2. Speech and facial recognition technologies can aid in creating unique identifiers for people, and a seamlessly interconnected network can use these instead of multiple sets of log-ins and passwords. "Each person has a unique biological identity and behind all that is data," IBM said. "Smarter systems will be able to use this information in real-time to make sure whenever someone is attempting to access your information, it matches your unique biometric profile."
3. Mind reading moves from fiction to fact.  Advances in the ability to monitor and record electrical brain activity are already revolutionizing cognitive research and aid those with spinal injuries.  As we learn to interpret the brain's signals, the human brain could become a direct input device.
4. The Digital Divide closes.  In the West, the Divide's pretty much gone, at least in terms of basic access.  Smartphones, tablets, and other connected devices will help shrink remaining gaps in use faster, and on a wider scale than relying on computers alone.
5. Junk mail becomes smart mail.  If you think of junk mail as unsolicited offers for random goods and services, then the connected net's ability to collect, store, and utilize individual preferences and behaviors allows smarter marketing.  You'll still be bombarded by unsolicited offers of goods and services, but in the future you're likely to actually be interested in them.  In addition, spam filters can also use that information to be more precise and effective, and help ensure that what you see is of at least potential interest or relevance.

Source -  5 Innovations IBM Says Will Change Your Life,  Information Week