3 Tech Breakthroughs to Take Off in 2016

The year ahead is poised to be exciting. What’s with the explosion of products in the wearable tech, drone, and virtual reality. Investors are putting their money in technology, this is why we’re looking forward to a more tech-driven 2016. In an interview with CBS News, CNET senior editor Dan Ackermen named three tech breakthroughs that are likely to take off in the next 12 months.

Virtual Reality

The idea of virtual reality is not new, but techmakers have made significant progress in the VR technology.

“We’ve been talking about the current generation of it for a couple of years, but the catch is there’s nothing really you can buy right now. All those big systems like the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive, they’re allegedly coming next year, finally, after years of delays,” Ackermen said.

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Where before immersive video experience means using bulky headset, sophisticated versions are soon to hit the market. This means that Google’s Cardboard and Samsung’s Gear VR are soon to be replaced by the real thing coming next year.

VAs

Siri is good but it certainly can get frustrating, but hang on because things are going to get better. Amazon.com is set to launch its first ever virtual assistant, the Amazon Echo.

The Amazon Echo, is a 9.25-inch (23.5 cm) tall cylinder wireless speaker and voice commad device with a seven-piece microphone array. It responds to the word Alexa and is capable of doing a number of stuff including making to-do lists, playing audio books, providing weather and traffic information, controlling smart devices, and more.

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“You can talk to it, you can say its name. I say, ‘Alexa, what’s the weather today?'” and it gives you the answer. “It actually understands your voice. I’ve worked with voice recognition technology for years – you have Siri on your iPhone — half the time they don’t understand what you’re saying. I’ll say this gets you 80 percent of the time, and these days, that’s actually pretty good,” Ackerman shared.

HDR TV

Are you planning to get a new HD TV? We suggest you hold that purchase or get disappointed. High Dynamic Range TV is the next big thing in home television, boasting expanded color palette in TV pictures and enhanced light and dark contrasts.

Filmmakers and broadcasters though will still have to start producing content shot in the HDR format, so it may take a while before you’ll find any value to that new HDR TV.