Tech Trends 2015

Image courtesy of wordpress.com

What will be as we move into the future?

Image courtesy of wordpress.com What will be as we move into the future?

Kevin Chiang, Photojournalist

Take a deep breath. You smell that? It’s the promise of a new year. And what better way to start the new year than with wild speculation on what’s going to occur? Every year, technology progresses faster and faster, and we see more and more crazy and awesome technologies.  And with the recent Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas, it’s a great time to guess as to what new tech we’ll see this year.

Fido goes Online

A lot of tech recently has been focused on making sure people are being fit. They tell you if you are doing your workout correctly, you maximum heart rate, time, so on and so forth. This year though, it seems as though your pet will get the tech. One of the devices at CES was a dog collar that had a video camera on it. It functions like a GoPro for your dog, and streams live video to your phone.  You can even give commands through it. A new feeder also debuted. It tracks feeding times and portions, so not only will your pet get his meal, but he gets portion control as well. Of course, entertaining your pet is as important as feeding it, and there will definitely be more hi-tech toys, maybe hands-free laser pointers for cats or automatic ball launchers for dogs.

More Fitness Bling

Well, about time the trend got to this. As fitness devices get used more and more, obviously some people are going to want to accessorize, and a bedazzler isn’t going to cut it. There are going to be more and more fancier fitness bands and trackers, to the point where it’s going to be more jewelry than anything else.

Cars Get More Science Fiction-y

Oh god, yes! Finally. If scientists couldn’t deliver on jetpacks, the least they could do is give us a self-driving car. With the innovations in car displays at CES, which include a touchscreen display behind the driving wheel and customizable center console, cars are going to get a lot cooler, even if they don’t quite become fully automated. In addition, one of the gimmicks of the car was having two tablets that could be used outside of the car.

3-D Printing Becomes More Prevalent

3-D printing has been around for a while now, but it hasn’t been that commonplace. A technology with such efficiency (No more buying replacement parts!) and potential printing materials , you’d think there would be more people using it. With new materials for printing introduced at CES, including maple wood (mm, woody goodness) and bronze (mm, bronzey goodness), there are definitely going to be an increase in use.