Fancy a light bulb with its own internet address? How about a television that tells you when you're being burgled?
"Augmented reality" expert Chris O'Connell shares his thoughts on three emerging technology trends set to reshape daily life this year.
Free texts - Third-party free text message applications are on
the rise - and there's nothing big telcos can do about it.
"As people realise you can send your mates texts through things like Facebook ... that's just going to take off." Android phone applications, including MightyText, let consumers bypass the old charges, and mean the days of Telecom and Vodafone earning coin for every text are dying. "The genie's out of the bottle," O'Connell says.
Internet TV - An increasing number of televisions are now internet capable. Big-screen benefits when watching videos or Skype-ing will become irresistible to consumers. "You'll start getting lots of TVs with in-built access to YouTube," O'Connell says. An ageing population will require health boards to adopt technology to cut costs. O'Connell says doctors could monitor patients with webcams attached to TVs.
