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- LONDON, May 1 (Reuters) -
Robot controlled taxis and journalists with cameras implanted in their
eyes will be commonplace by 2010, British engineers said on Monday.
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- Engineers at Roke Manor Research, a research and development
unit owned by Germany's Siemens, also predicted the end of cash and credit
cards, the advent of security systems based on fingerprints and the development
of factories in space.
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- "We are working on many of these future technologies
now, and all of these scenarios are technically possible already,"
Ian Stewart, chief technical officer at Roke Manor Research, said in
a statement.
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- In the future envisaged by the research team, humans
will be ferried home in robot-controlled taxis fitted with "auto-drive"
systems which maintain safe distances and respond to signals from beacons.
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- Television news will be revolutionised as bionic reporters
provide live images via sensors embedded in their optic nerves and transmit
them through tiny mobile phone transmitters implanted in their shoulders.
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- The humble mobile phone which has seen such development
over the last few years will become yet more powerful, replacing cash
and credit cards.
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- Tills will be able to communicate directly with mobile
phones and deduct the cost of purchases from a phone-based bank account.
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- Pin-numbers, passwords and signatures will fall into
disuse as fingerprint and retinal scans are used to identify individuals.
The new security systems would enable more secure cross-border Internet
trade, the engineers added.
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- Meanwhile, the technology to power these devices may
well be produced in space.
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- "Between 2008 and 2010, the first factory in space
will be shipped gradually from earth in modular sections. Robots...will
work on the production line overseen by a small team of humans,"
the research team predicted.
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- The absence of gravity in space makes manufacturing pure
crystals easier than on Earth and hence space factories may be used to
manufacture silicon chips and drugs, they said.
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- Online elections, electronic school books, downloadable
films, live concerts and sports events will also contribute to a more
technology-based future.
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