Around the world in 50 years: Tech that changed our lives

FlexEnable presents WORLD THE TECH THAT CHANGED OUR Ever wondered what your life might be like without email? Or touchscreens? Or WiFi? All daydreaming aside, there's no denying that technology shapes the way we live, and it shows no sigň of stopping. Let's take a journey to surprising places, moving through the past 50 years and into the future, to look at the tech that's changed (and will change) our lives. 1967 TOUCHSCREEN ROYAL RADAR ESTABLISHMENT MALVERN, UK What was once a far-fetched sci-fi dream is now part of our everyday lives: you can find them everywhere, from airplanes to cash points to smartphones to home appliances. EMAIL 1978 MIT CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS Thanks to email, your office can virtually be anywhere you wish. It's so integral to human communication that we send over 2 million emails per second. DAB RADIO 1981 INSTITUT FUR RUNFUNKTECHNIK MUNICH, GERMANY This clever invention means limited signals and crackling tunes are a thing of the past. It's so popular that in Britain, the BBC national DAB multiplex covers 95% of all households. COMPUTER VIRUS 1986 BRAIN COMPUTER SERVICES LAHORE, PAKISTAN The software was originally developed to protect against pirating information. The virus has been so widespread that approximately one third of the world's computers have been infected at some point. 1990 WIFI DELFT UNIVERSITY NETHERLANDS WiFi has become such an integral part of our existence that 75% of Americans said that 1 week without WiFi would leave them grumpier than 1 week without coffee. CONTACTLESS TICKETING 1992 BUSCOM OY OULU, FINLAND Gets us from point A to point B hassle-free! Oyster cards were first introduced in 2003 and have revolutionised transit: by 2009, 38 million journeys were made each week using Oyster. 1994 THE CLOUD AT&T DALLAS, TEXAS We rely on the cloud to keep our precious data safe in cyber space so much so that 93% of technical professionals are noW using cloud technology. BLUETOOTH 1995 ERICSSON STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN Bluetooth technology has now become the standard for short-range wireless communication and is found in medical, industrial and consumer applications. 2000 USB STICK TREK TECHNOLOGY SINGAPORE USB flash drives allowed for the easiest transfer and storage of information at the ti me, and are now available in sizes as large as 1 Terabyte (TB), that's 1 million minutes of music! WEARABLE FITNESS 2006 TRACKING ΝΙKE BEAVERTON, OREGON This reignited a collective consciousness in personal health & fitness: now the healthcare wearable industry alone has a projected value of $867 million (£1.3 million) for 2016. 2015 PLASTIC LCD FLEXENABLE CAMBRIDGE, UK Soon we won't have to endure the heartbreak of another cracked screen. Plastic LCDS will change how and where we use displays in our lives - shatterproof, thinner and conformable means most surfaces can be brought to life. FlexEnable flexenable.com Truly flexible electronics Sources country-facts.findthedata.com | delivering-tomorrow.com media.ofcom.org.uk | dougengelbart.org|statista.com |weareable.com | apple.com radicati.com linkedin.com | kingston.com | amazon.co.uk | dutchnews.nl | allusb.com| assets.rightscale.com | bcs.org| huffingtonpost.com | topsectechnology.com IN 50 YEARS AROUND LIVES: