For the last several decades, we have been seeing how technology is rapidly impacting our lives and the way we live. From laptops to the Internet and smartphones, emerging technologies have become part and parcel of our daily lives. This evolution continues as engineers and visionaries will continue to advance technologies as time goes by. 

It has been a tradition at MIT (News - Alert) Technology Review to identify ten emerging technologies every year that are likely to influence people and the way they live. Now, there are numerous emerging technologies out there and MIT editors have to select the ones that solve hard problems and give people powerful new ways to use them to expand human capabilities. On Tuesday, the publication released ten emerging technologies that it expects will change the world this year.

These include smart watches, memory implants, additive manufacturing, supergrids, temporary social media, prenatal DNA sequencing, Baxter (industrial robot), deep learning, big data from cheap phones, and ultra-efficient solar power. In fact, this year for the first time, the publication is calling the above mentioned offerings “breakthrough technologies.”

Further, media reports indicate that smartphone makers like Apple, Google, Microsoft, Samsung (News - Alert) and others are developing smartphone-like smart watches that are capable of making calls and showing video simultaneously. As a result, market research firm ABI Research (News - Alert) is predicting that more than one million smart watches will be shipped in 2013.  Factors driving its adoption include the high penetration of smartphones in many world markets, the wide availability of low cost MEMS sensors, energy efficient connectivity technologies such as Bluetooth 4.0 and a flourishing app ecosystem.

Memory implant sounds like a science fiction movie. But, the truth is that scientists like Theodore W. Berger of Biomedical Engineering Laboratories at the University of Southern California are making it for real. Berger and his team are developing chips that will mimic the signal processing performed by neurons when they are functioning properly. Berger intends to restore the ability to create long-term memories by implanting such chips in the brain of people whose brains have suffered damage from Alzheimer’s, stroke, injury, or disrupted neuronal networks that often prevent long-term memories from forming.

Regarding additive manufacturing, companies have begun to tap the benefits of 3D printing. One good example is General Electric. Using 3D printing, the company is in the process of building fuel nozzles for new aircrafts.

While high-voltage DC seems like a potential alternative to AC lines for a supergrid, temporary social media platforms like Snapchat, which allows users to send pictures that will automatically destruct after a given period of time, are allowing users to interact socially while not broadcasting those interactions to the world.

Meanwhile, the market for prenatal DNA testing using sequencers continues to expand. And advances in robotic technology shows the potential to dramatically impact the workplace.

To extending deep learning into applications beyond speech and image recognition, experts think it will require more conceptual and software breakthroughs, in addition to continued advances in processing power. However, reports indicate that deep learning has reignited some of the grand challenges in artificial intelligence (AI).

As big data from cell phones become valuable for marketing and selling products, the availability of very efficient solar cells is making alternate energy forms a reality.