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Originally Posted On: https://immersivesoundgaming.com/tech-that-will-invade-our-lives-in-2022/

 

Here, another year of the health crisis has passed, and another year of hope and recovery has begun. However, many tech trends accelerated in 2021 due to the ‘living with the health crisis’ reality, and if the previous two years have proved anything, it’s that the world must quickly adapt to the new reality.

Due to the technology, everyone made it through the global health crisis, which has reinvented and restructured how people work, live, and interact. But what does the next year holds?

While optimistically looking forward to 2022, here’s what the health crisis brought the last year and how those insights will influence future technology trends. In other words, you can expect a bright future ahead, with more hybrid work model options and a focus on technology as a positive influence.

However, many of the same “trends” will repeatedly appear because technology takes more time to mature before most people want to buy it. And this is true for this year as well. So some of the trends that tech companies are promoting for 2022 are already familiar to you.

One such example is Virtual reality, which involves wearing headgear and moving around controllers to play 3-D games. This is expected to be front and center again this year, rebranded as “the metaverse” by other techies and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Here are the biggest tech trends to watch out for in 2022.

1. Metaverse

One of the most popular terms right now is “metaverse.” It’s a virtual world made possible by merging several technologies, such as virtual and augmented reality. Even if it doesn’t exist yet, companies like Facebook hope that the metaverse will become a place where people can meet, work, play, study, and shop.

The next phase of the internet is expected to be ‘extended reality,’ which will blur the barriers between physical and digital existence. For example, consider in-game purchases, in which computer gamers can pay real money for virtual products and services. A customized avatar creator or a metaverse research scientist are examples of jobs in the metaverse field.

This year has more to come. Apple is expected to launch its version of a virtual reality headset, which will resemble a pair of electric goggles or ski goggles on amazon and rely on a computing device worn on the body for computational power. However, Apple has remained silent about the matter.

2. Smart homes

Smart home goods such as internet-connected door locks, thermostats, and robotic vacuum cleaners have made significant advancements in recent years. These devices have become more inexpensive and capable of interacting with digital assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple’s Siri.

Yet, for the most part, the smart home has remained chaotic. Many smart home items were incompatible with other types of technology. Some door locks, for example, only functioned with Apple phones and not with Android phones, and some thermostats could only be controlled by speaking to Google Assistant rather than Siri. Long-term problems have resulted from the lack of compatibility. For instance, a lock compatible with Apple is useless for family members or future tenants who prefer Android.

The greatest rivals like Apple, Google, Samsung, and Amazon, are cooperating this year to make the smart home more practical. They intend to produce and update house technology to support Matter, a standard that enables smart home devices to communicate with one another regardless of a virtual assistant or phone brand. Moreover, this standard is likely to be followed by more than 100 smart home items.

3. Automation

Automation technology has infiltrated everyone’s daily life in many ways, yet most of us are unaware of it. Self-driving cars, the data cleansing system of your smart devices, and smart home notifications are all great examples of automation technology.

 

As process automation and virtualization are becoming more common, over half of all existing work could be automated in the next few decades.

According to a recent study of IT and engineering leaders, 74 percent of respondents stated automation had improved the efficiency of their personnel. In addition, teams who have used process automation have experienced cost reductions of up to 30%, according to 59% of respondents.

4. Connected Health

Fitness trackers such as the Apple Watch and Fitbit, which enable you to measure movements and heart rate, are becoming more popular nowadays. As a result, this year, tech companies are experimenting with smaller wearable gadgets that collect more personal data about health.

For instance, Oura, a health-tech start-up, has released a new model of its Oura Ring, which is equipped with sensors that measure parameters such as body temperature in order to precisely anticipate menstrual cycles. Another health tech start-up, Movano, debuted a similar ring that brings together data about your heart rate, temperature, and other metrics to notify a wearer about possible chronic conditions.

5. Blockchain and DLTs

Blockchain and other distributed ledger technologies (DLT) are transforming the way businesses operate and allowing them to rethink how they manage physical and digital assets. As firms implement blockchain and DLT, creative use cases are emerging, altering the nature of doing business across organizational borders.

Apart from this, the financial services industry has also been leading the way in fully utilizing blockchain and DLT technologies to carry out safer and more efficient transactions.

6. Sustainable Energy Solutions

The renewable energy source was the only source that witnessed an increase in use during the global health crisis. During the lockdown, renewable energy usage increased by 40% in the United States. As industries were closed and people stayed at home, non-renewable energy usage was reduced globally, resulting in an 8% reduction in emissions. Therefore, it is expected that huge investments will be made to generate energy through renewable resources in the coming years.

Furthermore, intriguing new emerging energy sources such as biofuels, liquid hydrogen, and even nuclear fusion are becoming increasingly realistic, even if the full impact of some of these may not be seen until around 2022.

 

The Bottom Line

This year is expected to bring many new advancements and tech trends that will govern the technology industry and pave the way for more sustainable working and living. As the speed of digital transformation continues to accelerate, these tech trends will have the most impact on the tech industry in the coming year.