Ten great inventions the world is waiting for

New Delhi: Inventions like the steam engine, aeroplane, wireless, computer and electricity have changed the face of mankind for ever. Yet, scientists across the world are striving for newer and newer inventions which our ancestors, or our present generation, may never have dreamt of. And now we've been promised flying cars, teleporters and jet packs for years but none of them – as yet – have made it to the high street. Here we present a list of ten future inventions which everyone is waiting for and which will bring major change in our lifestyle.1. Dream linking Using pillows with conducting fibres in the fabric, it will be possible to see monitor electrical activity from the brain.This will not only show when someone is dreaming, but recent developments indicate that we'll also be able to tell what they are dreaming about.It is also possible for two people to share dreams.2. The Flying Car The dream of the flying car simply won't go away. Glenn Curtiss rolled out Autoplane in 1917, the first attempt at such a vehicle, and the design trend continues to this day. Terrafugia's 2010 Transition is one of the more recent prototypes, but the basic design still breaks down to a vehicle that functions as both an automobile and anairplane.But let's face it: The popular dream of flying cars far exceeds the notion of driving onto an airfield and taxiing out for takeoff. From “Blade Runner” to the pages of “Popular Mechanics,” the concept is as much about floating cars and highways in the sky. Between 1996 and 2002, NASA's Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Project explored the possibilities of antigravity.Needless to say, we're still waiting on the flying cars and hoverboards. 3. Miniaturized Medical Equipment Truly tiny implants that can test, diagnose, and even alert doctors to problems with their patients will replace costly routine visits. Researchers in the Netherlands say they've developed a pill that can be loaded with medicine and programmed to travel to a specific part of the body to unload it. A pen-size device is being developed at the University of Texas that can detect skin cancer without the need for a biopsy.4. Robot Maids The vision of the computerized maid goes beyond mere automated dust busting. What we've been waiting for is a true robotic domestic servant capable of safely navigating a human living environment to carry out everything from cleaning the toilet to cooking pancakes. In order to actually move through our kitchens and interact with us, robots will need to be capable of social learning. A truly social bot will need to be able to learn from humans and emulate their actions. It will need to evaluate environmental stimuli with a discriminating eye. In short, a true robotic maid would need to be autonomous. Leading robotics labs around the world continue to make progress in this field.5. Video tattoosIt will soon be possible to have electronic displays printed on thin plastic membranes, just like the ones you use for temporary tattoos that you put on your skin.With them you could turn your whole forearm into a computer display You will also be able to get electronic makeup.You would just wipe it all over your face and then touch it to, and it will instantly become whatever you want.You will be able to change your appearance several times a day depending on your mood.6. Immortality and body sharingWhile computers get smarter, the brain-IT link will also get better, so you'll use external IT more, until most of your mind is outside your brain.When your body dies, you'll only lose the bits still based in the brain. Most of your mind will carry on.You'll go to your funeral, buy an android body and carry on. Death won't be a career problem.If you don't want to use an android, maybe you'll link into your friends' bodies and share them, just as students hang out on friends' sofas.7. Personal Jetpacks Jetpacks didn't originate in some screenwriter's overactive imagination, though. They were first dreamed up by German scientists during World War II. In the 1950s, at Bell Aerosystems in New York, a visionary engineer named Wendell F. Moore created his own version of the concept, a 125-pound (56.7-kilogram) “rocket belt” powered by a canister of liquid nitrogen.And in 1961, President John F. Kennedy was on hand to watch a successful demonstration of the device at Fort Bragg, N.C.An Associated Press article from the time reported that “a practical, working rocket belt, torn from the pages of science fiction, has made a reality of mankind's age-old dream of flying with the birds”.In 2011, a remote-controlled prototype of a jetpack made by a New Zealand company called Martin Aircraft actually demonstrated the ability to reach an altitude of 5,000 feet (1,524 meters) and cruise at 62 miles per hour (100 kilometers per hour), and stayed aloft for 30 minutes . However, according to the company's Web site, the gadgets are not yet being offered for sale.8. The Air-conditioned suit In 1951, Popular Science touted the idea of an air-conditioned suit cooled through ducts built into an insulated lining, which would be cooled by a small refrigeration unit attached to the body .In 1993, an inventor actually patented a “wearable air conditioner” with water-filled coils built into the fabric that would be cooled by chemical reactions. But such attire never made it onto clothing store racks, possibly because of how much a water-filled suit might weigh, or how difficult it would be to power a wearable air conditioner. Perhaps the closest anyone's come was a Japanese company that, in the late 2000s, marketed a shirt with a small built-in fan that could be powered by plugging it into a computer's USB port .9. Atomic-powered homes In 1955, Robert E. Ferry, general manager of the Institute of Boiler and Radiator Manufacturers, gave a speech in which he predicted that individual homes would be heated and cooled by small reactors within three to six years.The system Ferry envisioned would use a tiny portable reactor about twice the size of an automobile battery, which he predicted would cost about $1,500 to install in a house. The homeowner would adjust the temperature by manipulating a set of controlling graphite rods, smaller but similar to those used in power plant reactors. Not only would the “A-Boiler” keep a house warm in winter and cool in summer without running up utility bills, but it also would provide unlimited amounts of hot water and melt the snow from sidewalks and driveways. Atomic power would be cheap and efficient, and according to Frank L. Phillips, the nuclear engineer who consulted on the blueprint, the technology already existed to create a practical home reactor, and the only thing holding it back was “inadequate supplies of fissionable materials” .10. Active skin Tiny tiny skin-cell sized electronic capsules blown into the skin would enable us to record nerve signals associated with any sensation.Then you could relive the experience days or years later.From a favourite ski run to the feel of everyday objects, you can replay the full sensory experience.Computer games will become totally immersive too.