Future Tech

I (heart) futurists. I actually fancy myself to be sort of an armchair futurist (*wink*). I especially love learning about new technology and looking ahead to the potential implications and ramifications of these advances.

Here are a couple of videos that I watched recently that scratched my futurist itch …

Pranav Mistry shares at the TEDIndia conference his research into developing SixthSense technology:

This video by MAYA Design creatively explains “the invisible but fast approaching challenges and opportunities in the pervasive computing age”:

Last night, I enjoyed the Social Media Holiday Party put on by the Search Engine Marketing Association of Charlotte. Jeff Elder led a panel discussion with four of the Queen City’s social media professionals, and the conversation included future technology and “what’s next” in social media. While Foursquare got a mention, the panel seemed to agree that the real innovations that are set to change the game in 2010 are geo-tagging and augmented reality (a.k.a. location-based) applications.

Today, Mashable hunk Pete Cashmore dropped his “10 Web trends to watch in 2010″ on CNN.com. Cashmore includes location-based applications and augmented reality in his top 10, along with: the real-time Web, content curation (I like this one!), cloud computing, Internet TV/movies, software/hardware convergence, social gaming, mobile payments, and last (but certainly not least) fame abundancy/privacy scarcity.

I don’t have the programming chops to create groundbreaking devices like Pranav Mistry or setup cloud computing or what-have-you. But I would love to be involved in creating content for some augmented reality applications and/or curating content (which is something I feel like I’ve always done, to some degree). Got any projects for me? [makes "hang loose" hand gesture and puts up to face, mouthing, "call me!"]