NTT Docomo released videos in 2003-2004 about life in 201X.
Docomo has long been a leader in mobile payment.
The issues with these future visions –
They are loaded with all kinds of new form factors for pico-projectors, video glasses, video watches, electronic paper and holograms.
There is also the appearance of full market penetration and support from multiple companies and integration of networks and systems. Market deployment, market penetration and user adoption take time.
1 million picoprojectors were sold in 2010 out of 8.5 million video projectors in total and some market projections are for 27 million picoprojectors to sell by 2015 out of 39 million total video projectors.
There is video calling now with Skype and Facetime and Google Talk.
Cisco has sold a few thousand video telepresence conference rooms.
This video is from 2008-
Facetime and telepresence conference rooms exist
There will be
Google Talk with video is the Android version of Facetime
With $35 (India) tablets and $99-199 Android tablets with Google Talk or with IPhone and iPads with Facetime there could be a lot more video calling. However, there is still the user adoption issue and actually having the need. Regular non-video calling will still be dominant.
26 to 29 minute translation demo of conversation mode translation
Google Translate converation mode appears to still only to be alpha version in English and Spanish.
UPDATE – Oct 13, 2011, the Google translate app now can translate among 14 spoken languages. Along with English and Spanish, the app now translates between Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Russian and Turkish.
Vocre is an app for the iPhone that utilizes three different technologies on the backend to transcribe speech to text, translate the text from one language to another, then speak the text to your conversation partner. Despite the complex background handoffs, the frontend process is quick and seamless. The language engine and word lists reside on a server, giving Vocre a leg up on exiting translators, as it recognizes millions of words instead of thousands.
Way too expensive to use for a real conversation. $1 only gets 10 translations. That’s each person saying only 5 sentences.
Vocre at iTunes. There are other translation apps
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Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.