Science-Fiction Reality

Robots that assisted heroes in shows like The Jetsons or Lost in Space and interfaces that only ever existed in movies like Minority Report or Total Recall are finally reaching us in the present.

But these may not be the droids we were looking for—not yet anyway.

While we’re a far cry from C3PO, robots are being introduced on the market a variety of ways. Retail robots like Lowe’s LoweBot mark a trend towards implementing robots in stores to help customers find products, to answer simple questions, and to assist employees with inventory scanning.

Robots are also being used in healthcare to handle time-consuming tasks like carrying food, linens, and medications across hospitals. These robots free up time for employees, allowing them to focus on providing better care.

Looking for an immersive experience like the OASIS of Ready Player One? Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) will give you what you’re looking for. Though most of these applications are being used for the gaming industry (think AR games like Pokemon GO or VR games like The Climb), there are practical applications as well.

Wal-Mart, for example, uses VR training to put employees in test environments for dealing with difficult customers, or even hectic occasions like Black Friday. Drivers for shipping companies, like UPS, use VR as a training environment for new drivers.

And haptic technology takes AR and VR further, mimicking physical touch and giving users the ability to “feel” what they’re seeing—even though it isn’t real. This further capability comes in handy for medical students, who can practice surgery and still feel what the real experien ce is like.

Curious to learn more about AI and ML and the future of humanistic software? Check out our latest white paper, “What if Software was Human?”