Virtual EVERYTHING: 6 Tech Breakthroughs You Need to See Now

September 04, 2012

Cisco’s (NASDAQ:CSCO) Dave Evans has a fantastic job. His role is to hobnob with all the brightest minds in technology and predict the future. He then builds prototypes for Cisco’s customers of this newfangled stuff in action.

BI recently met up with Evans and toured an office-of-the-future lab at Cisco’s San Jose headquarters, where he keeps a selection of these prototypes on display.

None of this stuff was built out of idle fancy—which differentiates Evans’s operation from other R&D wonderlands. Every one of these prototypes were developed for a specific Cisco customer wanting to solve a specific business problem.

Evans holds an object made from a 3D printer.

Julie Bort/Business Insider

3D printing will soon revolutionize manufacturing.Send the blueprint to the 3D printer and the thing comes out fully assembled, whether that’s a hairdryer (complete with working electrical cord) or a bicycle (complete with wheels). By 2020 and beyond, companies will be printing planes, homes and, one day, replacement human organs.

Household 3D printers are already here. MakerBot (funded through Kickstarter) has a 3D printer on the market that costs under $1,800.

Here’s a closer look at a 3D printer object.

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This ball is a single, continuous, interlaced piece of metal. It was made by a 3D printer and just couldn’t be produced today by today’s regular manufacturing methods.

Virtual clothes changes the shopping experience.

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Interactive billboards are on their way. This one can let you virtually try on clothes. Stand in front of the billboard, select the piece of clothing. It is operated with gestures, like Microsoft Kinect video game system.

Virtual shopping isn’t just for men.

Julie Bort/Business Insider

Business Insider’s Julie Bort tries on a blue dress. As you can see, it’s not the same as using a dressing room. It only gives a general idea of the fit. The dress moves around as the person moves.

Virtual humans can run the house

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Meet the predecessor to Siri. This “virtual human” understands voice commands and is sort of like a futuristic remote control. She can adjust the air conditioning, the blinds, change the TV channel, control your schedule and so on.Evans says that people are psychologically comforted by friendly, human-esq tech.

Meet your new boss, the robot.

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A robot, like this one from company Anybots, can connect to a videoconferencing system, like Cisco Telepresence.Managers with workers in lots of remote offices may park one of these bots in each office and be (almost) physically hanging out with every team.

Here come the bots!

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The bot has wheels so it can roll around the room and interact. It’s controlled over the Internet.

Smart kiosks help shoppers.

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Stores can also use interactive billboards in other ways, such as through smart kiosks. Hold up an item and the kiosk recognizes it via video camera, not a barcode.Let it link to your home’s “virtual human” and now the kiosk can tell you if you are buying the right replacement filter for your actual appliance. It can also give installation advice.

Your car’s dashboard will become like a PC.

Julie Bort/Business Insider

The car of the future will be a programmable device. Your dashboard can be like your laptop computer, filled with your personal software choices and settings.It can be linked to your key fob and when you get in the car, your dashboard loads, moving with you if you change vehicles.

Read more cool stories at Business Insider.

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