THE new sunday express Voices Pushpesh Pant Shinie Antony Madhulika Liddle Prof Rajendra Pratap Gupta Ravi Shankar Mata Amritanandamayi MAGAZINE Buffet People Wellness Books Food Art & Culture Entertainment january 24 2021 SUNDAY PAGES 12 21 ech T r he yea rt nds fo Tre Technology has adapted to the pandemic in 2021 to maximise business and talent opportunities, signalling a shift which could place Artificial Intelligence as the major augmenter of everyday life APPS YOU NEED By Suchayan Mandal Use and Return We have seen fashion influencers renting out their apparels and accessories. Why can’t anybody else do it? It takes a simple interface where you can rent out your shoes, books, clothes and even crockeries at a hyper-local level at a very nominal cost. This will help keep the buying habits of millennials in control as well as put your things to use. Medical Remedy at Home At a time when telemedicine is taking shape in India, it’s time to bring in a medical remedy app. Searching Google or going to WebMD doesn’t really help every time. In many cases these are US-based sites, and symptoms do vary along with medicines. An app can be in place where you can tell your symptoms, and it can suggest if OTC can cure, else it can connect to a doctor over chat for better diagnosis. B ack in the 1960s, the US Defence Department needed a technology to monitor seismic activities resulting from earthquake and nuclear activities. Researchers at California University developed ARPANET on a third-generation computer to help augment defence capabilities. Little did they know that they were changing history in their labs to transform the future forever. ARPANET were the building blocks of the internet of today But it crashed at ‘LO’ . when researchers tried writing LOGIN. Cut to 2021. India’s high-speed internet is probably the cheapest in the world. This year will be remarkable in terms of telecom companies finally introducing us to 5G network. There will be super-thin LED TVs, and wearables and personal assistants taking away monopoly of smartphones for every activity gradually . No, that won’t deter the smartphonemakers who would keep bringing us newer products every month. But the fact is, technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) with predictive analysis have already begun to initiate a newer ecosystem, which will have all-new plug-and-play devices to take us away from the smartphone overdependence. The year 2021 in tech will see wearables and Virtual Personal Assistants (VPA)enabled speakers with enhanced analytics taking the centrestage along with smart- AR for Virtual Learning phones, which would keep winning bigger wars and paving way for other technologies and gadgets. New improved technologies this year seem to be aimed at benefiting companies over customers on a macro scale. Many businesses have shut down or downsized during the pandemic. Massive job losses have bred economic crisis. AI is both upping its IQ and EQ. Artificial Intelligence: AI is moving up to the next level with “edge AI” or “AI on the edge”. Data needs to be no longer sent for cloud processing. Bandwidth will be preserved while cloud services will be cheaper. In a country like India where communication disruption is the normal in rural areas, industries can make real-time decisions. A vital AI leap is in sidestepping expertise so that employees with no tech expertise can identify threats using pre-programed software. AI apps and ML have taken healthcare by storm enabling commonplace diagnosis to complicated surgeries. Conversely, AI is a threat to privacy by moulding better with the Internet of Things (IoT) that collects and transfers data wirelessly through interrelated, internet devices without human control. Mystery Devices: Data is king. Telematics is the use of wireless devices and ‘black boxes’ to view inputs and outputs but without transparency—to transmit real-time data to a business. Talent Identification: We live in the digital age where there is premium on talent. Companies are adopting a Darwinian solution in hiring. AI-based applications are already helping companies identify the right hires. The parameters are experience, technical expertise, intellectual skills, soft skills and cultural consonance. Sustainable Conscience: With sustainability entering business in a big way , renting over selling will be the new standard—recycle, share and warehousing. Quantum Leap: Quantum Computing to make high-speed intervention in healthcare, banking and finance by assessing credit risk and fraud detection. Robot Invasion: There is a darker side to the future. Robots will play a larger role in industry threatening jobs. McKinsey , estimates that less than 5 percent of jobs can be totally automated, and about 60 percent partially . Reality Bytes: Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Extended Reality (ER), which are hitherto popular in gaming, will be used more for military training exercises. It will soon interface with AI in areas of entertainment, education, marketing and health; 14 million AR and VR devices were sold in 2019. Third Party Out: Blockchain makes data secure because it can only add data and not remove it, obviating fraud in third-party transactions. Ringing In: Smartphones evolved as ultimate learning tools during the lockdown, and later when schools shut and teachers met students virtually It . has entered the world of finance and healthcare. Doing Homework: Technology has enabled us to work remotely with highlevel efficiency Organisations such as . Microsoft, Tata Steel, Google, CISCO, Siemens among the big league, and plenty of others from the mid and small ones have joined the work-from-home bandwagon indefinitely This will reshape commercial . and retail real estate, transportation, and economies of Indian cities. This comes with privacy compromise: employee-monitoring and mobile-tethering are used to monitor work efficiency qualitatively and quantitatively . But there are fun things too like hydrogen planes, Cadillac air taxis and driverless cars to make life easier. WIRED predicts LG will launch a rollable phone. So could TCL. Coronavirus-killing ultraviolet gizmos for cars. Water-powered Bluetooth speakers in the shower for bathroom singers. Headphones and ear pods are getting unimaginable upgrades in design and clarity Exercise watches are in . constant feature competition mode. GG has gone gaga over workouts: a digital postexercise muscle soother, a smart skipping rope, a Peloton bike for home cycling, smart insoles for running shoes and smart dumbbells that can change weight at the press of a button are part of the future. Little kids have been learning online since the lockdown began. We often hear kids dozing off and teachers having a tough time. Someone has to develop an Augmented Reality (AR)-enabled tool where kids can interact with teachers in a way they are at classrooms. Also, they can watch shows, read books wearing AR Glasses for better engagement.