At this year’s Telstra Wholesale Market Connections Forum event, Dr. Jordan Nguyen, biomedical engineer and inventor, explained how the convergence of many technologies is key to understanding tomorrow’s game-changing tech trends.

Over the past few years, we’ve seen a number of breakthrough technologies hitting the market: they come from diverse backgrounds but, combined, they are taking technology in a new direction.

Innovations like artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) have emerged as total game changers, and businesses all over the world are steadily coming to terms with the potential benefits on offer.

Diverse experts came together to create virtual reality

But as Dr. Nguyen points out, none of these technologies appeared out of nowhere. They’re simply the convergence of a range of legacy products that have been on the market for decades.

“Older technologies like stereoscopic cameras and spherical vision cameras have been instrumental in the development of VR and AR,” he says.

“Let’s take AR for example…this amazing technology has become so sophisticated it can even be used to help cure phobias.”

Dr. Nguyen, who has a fear of spiders, recently experimented on himself by watching a virtual spider crawl up his arm. He was so startled by it, he threw off the headset and tried to shake it off.

“Your brain makes it real,” he explains. “And that’s all because we have the advanced technology to create the level of quality and precision required.”

Smartphones - diverse technolgies in one device

Furthermore, Dr. Nguyen believes that the smartphone – a piece of equipment that’s woven itself into the very fabric of our lives – has played a key role in the evolution of the world’s latest tech trends.

“We had experts set the agenda of milestones for artificial intelligence for the next 30 years. But guess what…they all happened within five” - Dr Jordan Nguyen

VR combines innovations like mobility, opticals, high-quality screens and geo-positioning – all of which are integral components of the most basic smartphone. Diverse teams of experts from each specialism have come together to create the perfect personal portable device.

“These are amazing little things,” he says. “So amazing in fact, there’s more computing power in [the smartphone] than the systems that put the first rocket on the moon.”

And because the smartphone has evolved so quickly, Dr. Nguyen believes that this has made way for technologies like VR and AI to do the same.

“We had experts set the agenda of milestones for artificial intelligence for the next 30 years,” he says. “But guess what…they all happened within five.”

Real artificial intelligence is finally with us

“On top of this, we’ve seen AI win at the ancient Chinese game of ‘Go’ – a task that requires many more moves than chess and relies on the use of human intuition.

“For the first time, computers are able to mimic human emotions and behaviour to complete tasks that have otherwise been off-limits to machines. Who knows what the next decade will bring?”

For Wholesale partners who are willing to take advantage of the innovations on offer, the technology landscape is set to be a lucrative and exciting place over the coming years. And it will be diversity of expertise which will further drive convergence.

As Dr. Nguyen concludes: “The idea for convergence is to combine technology and creativity, with innovation and diversity to build a better future for everyone.”

What you need to know:

• AI, VR and AR are modern innovations that rely on the sum of old technologies.
• The smartphone is the single biggest influence on the latest technological trends.
• Converging technologies can help all technology companies and telcos better meet customers’ needs.