Technology Trends for 2022

 

 Kia EV6 launching early 2022

The start of a new year is always an exciting time to consider the technologies that will receive the greatest attention and have the greatest impact in the upcoming months. Here are a few of the top trends for 2022.

Energy Storage

This will be a year of significant investment in battery manufacturing and improvements in design to reduce costs and increase vehicle range. Expect to see announcements about solid state battery designs and substitution of some lithium components with other materials including nickle and silicon. These developments will help drive growth in electric vehicles and wearables.

Electrification of Transportation

This will be a year of growing market share in new vehicles with electric or hybrid drive trains. This will be influenced by the advances in energy storage listed above as well as improvements in energy harvesting, electric motors and use of advanced materials and in-mold electronics to reduce vehicle weight. Several new models will be introduced through the year and even more in early 2023.

Artificial Intelligence in Engineering

Expanded and more sophisticated uses of artificial intelligence in design will lead to faster development of pharmaceuticals, more interactive web stores and weight reduction in automotive and aeronautic applications. Generative AI combined with improvements in additive manufacturing is particularly promising for enabling the early electrification of small aircraft. Artificial intelligence will also play an increasing role in the photographic industry.

Keep an eye on these trends as you allocate your research time and investment plans for the upcoming year.

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Refocus for 2015

I am a strong believer in the value of periodic evaluation accompanied by redirection of time and attention into new areas of interest. For me, the beginning of a new year is an ideal time for reflection and planning.

In my January 2012 post, Do Your Own Annual Review, I posed eight questions which I still believe are extremely useful.  However, they could be simplified into these three:

• What has changed in the past 12 months?
• What do I hope to change in the upcoming months?
• What do I want or need to learn to make these changes happen?

 Personally, the topics where I intend to focus most of my research and reading in 2015 are:

• Design trends in the stationery and wall decor markets.
• Applications for additive manufacturing in industry and medicine.
• The impact of printed electronics on the internet of everything.
• Implications of artificial intelligence on industry and transportation
• Lessons to be learned from late 19th century and early 20th century industrial history.

The tricky part about identifying new areas of focus is finding the time to make it happen. Since the amount of time per day in 2015 is the same as in 2014, any new to-do list needs to be accompanied by a not-to-do list.  What are you planning to give up to make room for the new areas of focus?

The year ahead will be full of exciting developments.  Some are expected and some will be delightful surprises. The Consumer Electronics Show next week should be filled with both.

What is your focus for 2015?

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The Future of Photography is Synthetic

 

A commercial photo shoot has traditionally been a complicated process. You needed the product, props, a set designer, lighting and a skilled professional photographer. Apparently, all of those things can now be synthesized in a browser based virtual design studio from Zerolens.

In a presentation at Virtual 1st last month, Nik Redl, Co-founder and CEO of Zerolens, explained how their site can be used with 3D product models to allow the creation of photo-realistic product shots in less than three minutes. The site is preloaded with a library of  customizable 3D models and they can build models of your products in a few days.

Zerolens recommends their tools to create images for e-commerce, social media and A/B testing. By simplifying the process of creating images, it should be possible to create a much wider variety of images for specific use cases.

In a conference filled with exciting photographic applications for artificial intelligence, Zerolens stood out enough to win the Best in Show Award.

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Refocus for 2015