Emerging technologies

• Immersive technologies


  Technologies which allow the user to engage naturally with the blended reality by the integration of virtual content with the physical environment
• Augmented reality (AR)


  Blends computer-generated information onto the user's real environment
• Virtual reality (VR)


  Uses computer-generated information to provide a full sense of immersion
• Augmented Reality (AR)


  Integration of digital information with the user's environment in real-time
• Examples of AR


  • Snapchat lenses
  • Pokemon Go
• Virtual Reality (VR)


  Fully immersive, tricks your senses into thinking you're in a different environment or world apart from the real world
• Mixed Reality (MR)


  Merging of real and virtual worlds to produce new environments and visualizations where physical and digital objects coexist and interact in real-time
• Example of MR


  • Playing a virtual video game, grab your real-world water bottle, and smack an imaginary character from the game with the bottle
• Key characteristic of MR


  The synthetic content and the real-world content are able to react to each other in real-time
• Architecture of AR Systems

  1. Infrastructure Tracker Unit

  2. Processing Unit

  3. Visual Unit
• Infrastructure Tracker Unit


  • Responsible for collecting data from the real world, sending them to the Processing Unit
• Processing Unit


  • Mixes the virtual content with the real content and sends the result to the Video Out module of the Visual Unit
• Visual Unit


  • Video see-through: Uses a Head-Mounted Display (HMD) that employs a video-mixing and displays the merged images on a closed-view HMD
  • Optical see-through: Uses an HMD that employs optical combiners to merge the images within an open-view HMD
• Emerging technology


  A new technology; The continuing development of existing technology; Technologies that are currently developing; Technologies that are expected to be available within the next five to ten years; Technologies that are creating or are expected to create significant social or economic effects
• Technology


  The application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes (e.g. industry); Machinery or equipment developed from the application of scientific knowledge; Branch of knowledge dealing with engineering or applied sciences; Tools and machines that may be used to solve real-world problems
• Evolution


  The process of developing by gradual processes
• Industrial Revolution (I.R.)


  • A period of major industrialization and innovation that took place during the late 1700s and early 1800s
  • An Industrial Revolution shifts a society from using tools to make products to use new sources of energy, such as coal, to power machines in factories
  • The revolution started in England, with a series of innovations to make labor more efficient and productive
  • The Industrial Revolution was a time when the manufacturing of goods moved from small shops and homes to large factories
  • This shift brought about changes in culture as people moved from rural areas to big cities in order to work in the industries
• First industrial revolution


  1. Mechanization through water and steam power

  2. Began in the 1760s

  3. Transition from manual to machines
• Second industrial revolution


  1. Mass production and assembly lines using electricity

  2. Known as "Technological Revolution"

  3. Began in the 1870s
• Third industrial revolution


  1. Adoption of computers and automation

  2. Nicknamed "Digital Revolution" because transition of mechanical and analog to digital systems

  3. Began in the 1950s
• Fourth industrial revolution


  1. Smart and autonomous systems fueled by availability of data and machine learning

  2. Robotics

  3. AI

  4. IoT

  5. Autonomous vehicles
• Generally, All the 4 I.Rs changed and transformed the world into modern society for the past 4 centuries
• The Most Important Inventions of the Industrial Revolution were in the areas of Transportation, Communication, and Industry
• The four types of industries

  • Primary industry (getting raw materials)
  • Secondary industry (manufacturing)
  • Tertiary industries (providing services)
  • Quaternary industry (research and development)
• Data


  • The new oil and strategic asset since we are living in the age of big data
  • Drives or even determines the future of science, technology, the economy, and possibly everything in our world today and tomorrow
  • Presents enormous challenges that in turn bring incredible innovation and economic opportunities
  • Involves not only core disciplines such as computing, informatics, and statistics, but also the broad-based fields of business, social science, and health/medical science
• Four basic kinds of digital electronic systems

  • Memory devices (store information)
  • Microprocessors (execute instructions to process data)
  • Logic devices (provide specific functions)
  • Network (collection of connected devices)
• Programmable devices


  Chips that incorporate Field Programmable logic devices (FPGAs), Complex programmable logic devices (CPLD), and Programmable logic devices (PLD)
• Computer


  • The most common programmable device: it can be programmed to follow a set of instructions and produce some results
  • Has different types depending on their purposes
  • Small computers (many electronic devices we use such as calculators, phones) perform only one or small number of operations, but still they are programmed to follow a certain set of instructions to achieve that
• Network-related equipment's (Service Enabling Devices)

  • Traditional channel service unit (CSU) and data service unit (DSU)
  • Modems
  • Routers
  • Switches
  • Conferencing equipment
  • Network appliances (NIDs and SIDs)
  • Hosting equipment and servers
• Human to Machine Interaction (HMI/HCI)


  • Refers to the communication and interaction between a human and a machine via a user interface
  • Natural interfaces becoming so common: devices are capable of understanding some of human gestures
  • HCI is the study of how people interact with computers and to what extent could computers interact with human beings successfully
  • HCI improves the interaction between users and computers by making computers more user-friendly and receptive to the user's needs
• Three components in HCI

  • The user
  • The computer
  • The interaction (how they interact with each other)
• Disciplines Contributing to Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)

  • Cognitive psychology
  • Computer science
  • Linguistics
  • Engineering and design
  • Artificial intelligence
  • Human factors