China becomes the largest energy consumer in the world
China's development as an industrialised country means that this soaring energy demand will continue for some time to come.* Its economic growth is spurring a massive increase in car production (15,000 being added to its roads every day), not to mention buildings and infrastructure (which includes a new power plant every week).


Credit: Kallgan



Localised renewable energy is becoming affordable
In many countries, the number of homes with solar power is growing exponentially - thanks to plummeting costs and increasing government incentives. This is particularly true in the USA, where the cost of a typical five-kilowatt rooftop system has dropped from $22,000 in 2007 to just $13,000 by the end of 2010, making it affordable to the middle classes.*


Credit: OxfordSquare



Apple debuts the iPad
The iPad is Apple's first tablet computer - a device category between a smartphone and laptop computer. Similar in functionality to a larger and more powerful iPhone or iPod touch, it runs a modified version of the same operating system (iPhone OS). Its included applications are also redesigned to take advantage of the larger screen with added functionality similar to their Mac OS X counterparts.
The iPad has a 9.7-inch (25 cm) LED backlit multi-touch display with a pixel resolution of 1024x768, 16 to 64 gigabytes (GB) of flash memory, a 1-gigahertz (GHz) Apple A4 processor, Bluetooth 2.1, and a dock connector to sync with iTunes and connect wired accessories.





Augmented Reality (AR) is entering the mainstream
A growing number of cellphones, cameras and other digital devices now feature augmented reality. This technology displays 3D virtual elements on a real-world camera view. GPS units in combination with inertial references can map a user's precise location, then relay graphics from the web (or a web-based application such as Google Earth) and superimpose them on-screen.
This concept has already been used in military training (to display imaginary aircraft and vehicles for example), but is now spreading to mainstream uses - such as travel, outdoor pursuits, communication, gaming and entertainment. Other applications include architecture and interior design (to show virtual objects in a room, for example, or to view buildings before they are constructed).
In the coming years, this technology will be available in sunglasses and even contact lenses.
The market for mobile AR services is expected to reach $732 million by 2014, with revenues derived from a combination of paid-for app downloads, subscription based services and advertising.





Macular degeneration is curable
Macular degeneration - the leading cause of blindness in people aged 65 and older - can now be treated with a miniature "telescope" implanted in the eye.* Consisting of two lenses within a small glass tube, this works like a telephoto zoom lens. It combines with the cornea to project a magnified image of whatever the wearer is looking at over a large part of the retina. Only the central portion of the sufferer's vision is damaged by the disease, so magnifying the image on the eye allows the retinal cells outside the macula to detect light, refocus it, and redirect the information to the brain.


Credit: VisionCare



The first demonstration of solar-sail technology
IKAROS (Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation Of the Sun) is a Japanese experimental spacecraft. Launched in 2010, it is the first spacecraft to successfully demonstrate solar-sail technology. When fully unfurled, its membrane has a diagonal span of 20m, but a thickness of just 0.0075mm. It is kept flat by a spinning motion. Tiny solar cells, dust counters and reflective steering devices are mounted as panels on the sail.
The craft will spend six months traveling to Venus, then begin a three year journey to the Sun. A second, far larger version of IKAROS will be launched later in the decade, with a 50m (160 ft) sail. This will travel to Jupiter and the Trojan asteroids.
The advantage of solar sail compared with conventional rocket technology is that it gets low acceleration constantly, because photons keep hitting the membrane as long as the solar sail is in space. Although this acceleration is very small, the speed of the solar sail increases day by day. Therefore, solar sails are suitable for extremely long flights - including missions to the very edge of the solar system.
Also noteworthy is that the lack of propellant and ultra-lightweight structure greatly reduces both the manufacturing and launch costs.





Speech-to-speech translation is common in mobile phones
Large-vocabulary, continuous, speaker-independent speech recognition is now widespread on cellphones. It has become a popular (and free) iPhone app, as well as being available on Symbian phones and on the Nexus One, using Google's voice translation server.



Major breakthrough in robotics
Robotic manipulation of non-rigid objects - where the configuration is unknown beforehand - is now possible. A robot developed at the University of California is capable of analysing towels "on the fly", rather than being given a fixed set of movements. It can analyse different shapes, colours and materials using a pair of high-resolution cameras, then fold and arrange them into neat piles.*