Wearable Computing
Because of their every day usefulness computers have been finding their way in just about every objects at a rapid rate in ways we may not even notice we are using a computer in the background.
It is obvious that a major part of consumer electronics includes onboard computers. For example, already today many stereos and TVs provide access to music and movies on USB memory sticks through an onboard computer... Mobile phones all have a computer... Intelligent fridges provide high end features; voice over ip phones decrease costs and are even used to open the door of appartment buildings from anywhere in the world in some cases.
Even objects that traditionally are computer free are becoming increasingly dependent on them. Cars are a good example. Obviously, car stereos have been computerized for a while to allow the playing of digital music but more and more onboard computing units will appear to improve performance, decrease consumption and help with navigation among others. Already helping us avoid accidents by increasing our grip of the car (example ABS), programs will gradually assist us more and more until the self driving car prototypes already available today today become mainstream. This change will probably happen gradually throughout the next decade . Read the article on the future of cars for more details.
I expect more and more objects to integrate computing... from clothes integrating a solar powered wearable computer to furniture such as tables, maybe forcing us to rethink the way we work.
