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HDTV and Home Theater Podcast #329 - Five Technology Trends to Watch

Started by arad • Nov 18, 2008 • 2 posts
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#1
Every year the Consumer Electronics Association compiles Five Technology Trends to Watch. The full document is about 25 pages long, but it has some great information in it, so we went through it to pull out the highlights. The CEA claims that the "topics chosen this year by CEA market analysts cover a wide range of digital technologies that will impact the world." While they may not end world hunger or and end to war, we do agree that they are interesting trends that we all will want to keep an eye on. We'll give the HT Guys Digest version, but please read the whole article if we pique your interest.

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#2
There's a technology trend not listed here that has a good chance of being the biggest HD technology driver of this century. I'm talking about a wholesale move to virtual reality. Science fiction you say? Read the link below about a meeting that was held "in-world". Note the title of the IBM representative: "Virtual World Engineer."

The reason this is relevant to this forum is that it looks like the future is going to exist in good part on your HD set. Not just entertainment, but business and social networking. Why spend the money on a plane ticket when you can do it in a virtual world? Why go to a party at someone's home when you can socialize with avatars from widely separated locations. It's a hell of a lot cheaper and the technology allows face to face conversations complete with gestures. Right now that face you'll be looking at is a little cartoony (depending on the service), but it's easy to see that with better infrastructures near-reality is in our future. It follows that this development will be a strong driver for HD technology (including possibly 3D) because in large measure it will shift use from just entertainment to the way we do business and conduct our social life. Hold on to your hat; it's going to be an interesting ride.

http://www.metaversejournal.com/2007/09 ... ent-182130