The future of electrical engineering and electronics lies in innovative and interdisciplinary solutions, with new materials, miniaturisation, modularisation and virtualisation playing key roles and IT penetration of all businesses coming to the fore, says Prof Claus Weyrich, managing board member of Siemens AG in Germany.
The next steps could be wearable electronics, as well as the recognition of facial expressions, emotions and even brain activity.
Prof Claus Weyrich, managing board member, Siemens AG
In a recent presentation entitled "pictures of the future", Weyrich discussed the potential changes that the convergence of technologies will have on the way we live, and the types of technologies that may exist in the future.
"Socio-economic trends influence the development of technologies, so factors such as the mobile workforce, a society driven by information and the rapid advancement of globalisation will all play a role in driving the development of new technologies.
"The next step in terms of information and communications is the move from human/computer interaction to human/computer cooperation," says Weyrich.
He says that today we use a mouse, keyboards, touch-screens and a user interface design, but in the world of tomorrow, interaction with a computer could well include the machine recognising speech, gestures, handwriting and multi-modal interaction.
"The next steps could be wearable electronics, as well as the recognition of facial expressions, emotions and even brain activity."
Weyrich says technological development is expected to converge in a manner that will see it playing a greater role in everything from product lifecycle management - thanks to digital mock-ups, test-benches and process simulation - to transportation.
"Besides environmentally-friendly fuels and GPS positioning, we foresee adaptive cruise controls for cars, as well as in-car navigation and information systems, vehicle-to-vehicle communication and smart safety systems for better traffic management.
"In the medical arena we are moving towards a totally digital hospital, with integrated patient data, minimally invasive therapies and 3D scan data acquisition and diagnosis support."
The digital hospital will even take in care at home, with the advent of an online pharmacy, in-house electronic disease monitoring and control, and online rehabilitation programmes for those recovering from injuries.
"Today we are faced with global challenges which will require innovative and interdisciplinary solutions."
He emphasised that the above were only predictions. "The economic affordability of some of the above-mentioned developments could decide whether they actually come to pass, rather than whether they are simply technologically possible.
"However, as Heinrich Pierer, CEO and president of Siemens AG, says, the best way of predicting the future is to invent and to shape it yourself, so here at Siemens we are always working on the future," says Weyrich.
Share
