The new year promises the usual parade of new tech products. We're sure to see Apple's next-generation iPad. Any number of new Android tablets and smartphones will flood the market, as will a similar number of Windows tablets and smartphones. Count on new televisions that aren't just high definition, but ultra high definition. And manufacturers will surely boast of lighter, thinner laptops that increasingly look and act like tablets.
In other words, expect pretty much what you would have read about this time last year, only now with faster chips, higher-resolution screens, better battery life and other incremental improvements.
But if the consumer-tech product cycle has become a wee bit predictable, it's also clear that steady progress in hard computer science and high-level engineering will continue to alter our relationship with machines in more fundamental and interesting ways.
Here are five areas that this columnist will be watching closely in 2013 and beyond:
Personal robotics: During the summer, Emily, a 25-pound robotic lifeguard, made its first successful rescue, pulling in a father and son caught in a riptide along the Oregon coast.
Willow Garage of Menlo Park continues to refine its open-source robot, which is already capable of folding laundry, serving beers and even assisting the disabled.
Meanwhile, Google's robotic cars have logged more than 300,000 miles along California roads. Last year, the Mountain View search company also helped push through a state law that directs the California Department of Motor Vehicles to adopt regulations for driverless cars by at least early 2015.
No one knows when robots will become a regular presence in our everyday lives, as common in homes as they are in factories. But clearly the hard technical problems are steadily being solved, the high prices are beginning to fall and officials are starting to consider the necessary legal structures to accommodate the coming changes.
Context-aware computing: It's become sport to bag on Apple's Siri and its sometimes incorrect or goofy answers, but it and similar services like Google Now represent an important shift in human-computer interaction.
Behind the pretty interfaces lie sophisticated artificial intelligence software that's beginning to act more like a human assistant, understanding natural language, filling in gaps in instructions and taking context into account.
Google Now, for example, will alert you of an appointment on your calendar if you're physically far from the location. For example, if you're in San Francisco at 1 p.m. and your calendar says you need to be in San Jose for a meeting at 2.
In other words, the software takes into account the time, your geographical location and a calendar entry, and provides a useful alert without any additional human input. You don't have to perform a search or check the calendar - the application takes clues and serves up information when it's needed.
We've only begun to see how this will reshape our relationship with gadgets. The fact that millions of people regularly use both the Apple and Google services will help the companies to improve the software's capabilities in 2013 and beyond.
Devices that know our locations, contacts, habits and preferences can provide useful information at the ideal time, or simply take actions on our behalf - like booking restaurants, rescheduling meetings or ordering groceries just before we run out of milk.
Of course, such a level of intimate knowledge also demands some rethinking of online privacy rights and responsibilities.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/technology/dotcommentary/article/2013-technology-advances-to-watch-4158790.php#ixzz2GhP738f1
