Even in the past ten years or so, we’ve seen an incredible
rise in the amount of technological innovations which have taken place within
the workplace. With the influx of new gadgets, IT equipment and technological
gadgetry which has flooded both our private and working lives, it’s only
natural to expect a whole lot more to infiltrate offices across the world over
the next few years.
If you think that only ten years a go, if you’d have
mentioned tablets in the workplace, you might have received some funny looks.
Mainly because iPads and the Galaxy Nexus didn’t even exist then! Social
networks, internet, email, GPS, touch screen mobile phones and many more
innovations are now prominent in all
walks of life, and their prices are tumbling southward on an ever more
consistent basis. This only means that their usage will increase in the future
with corporations investing in devices which aid productivity across all areas
of a business.
Thinking about the technology which we now use that a decade
ago didn’t even exist back then, there is even more reason to keep one eye on
the future, here’s 8 technological innovations we expect to infiltrate the
workplace in the coming years.
3D Printing
If your job involves designing or manufacturing products, you
may soon find yourself with a 3D printer in your office, or even on your desk.
This technology creates 3 dimensional objects by adding materials such as
plastic, layer by layer, using computer aided design until an object is formed.
It will allow for designers to very quickly make design
prototypes at their desks, and they’ll then have a better chance of catching
design errors early on - resulting in cheaper manufacturing processes across
the board.
Cloud technology
Forget costly servers which need continual maintenance whilst
also taking up valuable office space. Cloud technology is the latest
development in file storage. Instead of a businesses using physical storage
servers, the future
is set to occur somewhere in the clouds.
Google, Microsoft, Dropbox and Box all have their own various
versions of cloud storage and all happen to have business editions which even
now, in 2014, are becoming regularly used. We expect cloud storage to become
more prominent in the future, especially with the productivity apps which
increase office efficiency that major cloud players Google and Microsoft are
equipping their cloud products with.
Web based cloud technology offers security, and allows
sophisticated collaboration such as Google Apps which many small enterprises
and even larger businesses are already using.
Smartdesks
Adjustable smartdesks, or kinetic desks are set to
revolutionise the way we spend our time at the office. There have been plenty
of reports recently which have looked into the issue of continual sitting down,
hence the need for something like the kinetic desk which adjusts.
Wearable technology
Nowadays, our smartphones and tablets allow us to take
photos, videos and have many other functions, but the predictions are that by
2020 it will be the devices that we wear which we will be turning to first.
This will be the case both at home and in the workplace, and we’re already
starting to shift towards this with the Google Glass developments over the past
couple of years.
It might be a number of years before wearable tech glasses or
watches become prominent in the workplace, with it happening before we know it,
and there will be a point when we simply don’t question it anymore.
Video conferencing
Skype was the trailblazer when it came to video calling but
it has now been taken to a new level through technologies like Google
Chromebox. Chromebox again is just the start of what we expect to develop and
become something which is much more prominent in offices, which is reliable,
high resolution, high sound quality videoconferencing.
Talking to your computer
Voice activated software will take off, and while it’s not
perfect yet, it will improve.
More touch screens
We now have touch screen mobile phones, laptops and
televisions but did you ever think that touch screen tables would become a
reality? Not only is the workplace set to see this innovation over the next
five to ten years or so, but it’s thought that classrooms will be able to
benefit from multi-touch, multi-user smartdesks which assist with pupil
learning.
Imagine being able to display a project to a client, or a
team within your business on a large smart table, not only would users be able
to collaborate with ease, but documents could be accessed from a cloud storage
facility with consummate ease.
No more offices
This could happen, with portable technologies and documents
stored over the cloud, there’s then no need to be situated in a physical
office. Working on the go will become the norm, and as wi-fi improves,
connectivity will no longer be an issue.
In the 1970’s, office’s were populated with workers who typed
their work on typewriters, and to think that we are now talking about
technology which you wear on your person is incredible. Who knows what the
distant future will hold!
Written by Jennifer Smith on
behalf of Cloud Solutions, a leader in the provision of Cloud Technologies.
Image courtesy of Pinterest
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