Question

Briefly, pick three new technology trends that became more popular in the last few years, explain what they are, and the advantages and disadvantages of using them. 12nt Paragranbv T U Av

Answer 1

Technology trends chosen: Augmented reality, contactless payments, 3-D printing.

Augmented Reality: Augmented reality or AR has revolutionized the tech world. More and more apps and companies are integrating AR in order to make their experience more relatable for the user. The basic premise of AR is to put objects in our real world environment with the help of technology. The famous ‘Pokémon Go’ game is a good example of AR. In this game, users point their phone cameras in the real world and can get the experience of being a Pokémon catcher.

Advantages of augmented reality:

· One of the biggest advantage of AR is that it makes interaction easy. Something inexistent is placed in the real world for the user to see and this interaction can help users in situations like when they are buying a chair and would like to see in real time how the chair would look like in their house.

· Using AR in education can also facilitate learning as students tend to understand better with visual cues. Hence, AR is useful for learning and giving instructions.

· AR has also facilitated lives of people my giving real time traffic info on the maps on their smart devices.

· AR can also be used to boost tourism. It can be implemented in situations where tourists can use AR to see in real time, how something was in the past.

Disadvantages of augmented reality:

· AR is expensive to develop and use. It also requires the target users to have the requisite equipment to be able to use the AR feature. If I use an old phone without AR capabilities, then I will not be able to experience what a company might be offering.

· AR can cause distractions by modifying the real world and as a result, people can get confused or be so engrossed in the AR environment that they may forget they are in the real world. This happened multiple times during the Pokémon Go craze where many accidents happened because people were lost in their AR world.

· There is also a privacy issue because we are actually allowing an application to access and record our location and even see the area in which we are. Given today’s issues about breach of private data, this is a major disadvantage of AR.

Contactless Payments: This is another tech trend that has been implemented in many places. In today’s pandemic environment, contactless payments have become even more popular as they allow the customer to make a payment to the business without touching any buttons or machines. This method of payments uses Radio Field Identification Technology (RFID) and Near-Field Communication (NFC) that allows users to tap their card on a NFC enabled payment terminal and make their payment securely.

Advantages of contactless payments:

· Contactless payments allow us to make quick and hassle free payments in a secure way. One does not need to enter their pin or count any cash. The payment is done with a simple tap. This is even more useful today with the Covid-19 pandemic.

· Near field communication allows us to make payments with our smartphones. Thus, we are no longer obliged to carry all our cards in our wallets. Many apps like Apple Pay make use of NFC for contactless payments.

· Contactless payments are also a highly secure way of making payments due to their chip technology and sophisticated mechanism.

· Contactless payments are also beneficial for businesses as it leads to quicker check-outs and hence, smaller queues.

Disadvantages of contactless payments:

· There are generally low transaction limits for contactless payments. So, when the bill exceeds a certain amount, one is bound to enter their pin or use another method of payment.

· Another disadvantage is that many businesses have still not implemented contactless payment facilities. The acceptance rate is limited and therefore, having a contactless card is of no use.

· Although the process is secure, some people are still wary about using contactless payments due to fear of fraud.

· When using the feature through a smartphone, one must have an NFC enabled smartphone in order to use the contactless payment feature.

3-D Printing: This technology has also become a huge craze and will likely get even better in the years to come. Today, people are using this technology to make face masks. 3-D printing is also known as additive manufacturing and it is the process of creating (printing) three dimensional objects from digital files. Whatever digital input we give to the system, it will give the corresponding 3-D output.

Advantages of 3-D printing:

· One of the biggest advantages is that it allows us to print on demand i.e. as and when required. There is no need to have a huge storage room to store inventory.

· The objects produced through this technology are of good quality. Hence, one does not compromise on quality.

· It gives us the flexibility of design because we can design and print anything we want.

· There is also little waste involved as the technology requires that much raw material which is required to print what we have asked the system to print. It is thus environment friendly as well.

Disadvantages of 3-D printing:

· The choice of materials that one can use in 3-D printing technology is quite limited. It is expected that with future developments, one can make use of more materials.

· It also contributes to job losses in the manufacturing sector.

· There is also a limit on the size of the objects we can print using this technology.

· It is also quite an expensive technology for the average person.