Mind Reading? Here's the Technology IBM Predicts Will Be Available in Just Five Years

Originally posted on Gizmodo by Adrian Covert.

Mind Reading. Power harvesting. No more passwords. The Death of spam. Technology for everyone. These are five things IBM believes are the future. Not 50 years in the future, but more like five years in the future.

IBM's annual 5 in 5 list is not just another collection of whimsical predictions. Each item in its five is a subject area in which IBM is actively engaged in research. IBM innovates as much as anyone in technology today, so when IBM says something will happen soon, there's a pretty good chance it's gonna happen (see also: Watson).

Watch this video of IBM's 5 in 5 predictions:

• IBM research in bioinformatics has given them great insights into brain activity during certain tasks and think it's not so far fetched to assume we'll be able to make calls or control computers.
• IBM wants to be able to take all the kinetic energy generated by ourselves and the machines we use, and transfer that into juice for our electronic devices. Imagine if there was a standard where you could attach a power harvester to any piece of equipment with moving parts.
• There have been biometric scanners for awhile now, but how secure they've really been is up for debate. But the technology continues to improve, and IBM believes that face, retinal and voice scans will provide enough unique data to work as a security measure for the most sensitive of applications.

For the rest of IBM's 5 in 5 list, be sure to check out their page here.