"INTEL CORE M" A CHIP FOR THE ULTRA-THIN FUTURE

The portability of tablets is hard to beat, but when it comes to running power-hungry software, they fall short of bulkier laptops. Intel’s Core M processor, the first to include ultra­small 14-nanometer transistors (the previous generation’s were 22nm), cuts power consumption by 60 percent and size by half. This paves the way for thinner, fanless tablets and laptops, like the Lenovo ThinkPad Helix and the HP Envy X2. Intel

"APPLE MAC PRO" COMPUTER TOWER, REINVENTED

Normally when a designer or video editor is hard at work, everyone nearby can tell: The computer is running at a scream and heating up the area in the process. A radical redesign makes the Apple Mac Pro the first high-performance PC that packs tremendous horsepower into a quiet, 9.9-inch-tall cylindrical body—one-eighth the volume of its predecessor. Instead of adding heat sinks and fans for each processor and graphics card—a typical layout that adds a lot of bulk and noise—engineers built the Mac Pro around an aluminum thermal core with a single fan at the top. The configuration cuts the tower’s decibel level in half. Apple computers have long been a proving ground for innovative design (how many MacBook Air clones have you seen today?), so don’t be surprised if future desktops borrow this arrangement.From $2,999 Apple

DEKA “LUKE” ARM THE BIONIC ARM

Even with today’s most advanced prosthetic limbs, amputees still struggle to perform certain basic tasks. But the bionic arm made by Deka, the R&D firm founded by inventor Dean Kamen, is nearly as dexterous as the real thing. Nicknamed for the cybernetic hand in Star Wars, the Luke Arm is the first prosthesis that allows a person to make multiple movements, such as rotating the wrist and opening the hand, at once.

“Ten minutes after putting it on, people are able to pick things up,” says Stewart Coulter, the Luke Arm project manager. “Our office is littered with things that people have built with it.” In a clinical trial, 90 percent of the 36 participants were able to do previously impossible tasks, such as unlocking a door or using chopsticks.

Electrodes on the skin near the attachment site pick up the electrical impulses signaling muscle contractions and send them to a computer in the prosthesis. The processor translates these messages into motion of the integrated elbow, wrist, and hand. Users coordinate complex movements with a joystick-like sensor on their shoe.

“It works the way the patient thinks,” says Chuck Hildreth Jr., who lost his arms in a work accident more than 30 years ago and has been testing the prototypes since 2008. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the arm in May. Deka hasn’t announced a date for its commercial release or a price, but when the Luke Arm hits the market, Hildreth says he’ll be first in line to buy one. DEKA

"GOOGLE CARDBOARD" VIRTUAL REALITY ON A DIME

Instead of building a headset from scratch, Google created Cardboard, a complete virtual reality (VR) experience made from $25 worth of parts (a corrugated box, plastic lenses, rubber bands, glue, and magnets). A smartphone fits into the front of the box to serve as both the screen and the brains of the headset. An app enables users to take virtual tours in Google Earth or play games. And, for the truly inspired, a free tool kit makes VR development easier than ever. $25 Google

"STIR KINETIC DESK" OFFICE FURNITURE THAT KEEPS YOU MOVING

Standing for part of the day can prolong a person’s life. Yet more than half of sit-to-stand office desks never leave the sitting position. The Kinetic Desk prompts users to move more frequently. A user programs the desired percentage of daily sitting and standing time on a touchscreen, and the desk takes over. When it’s time for a shift, the desk will signal the user with a nudge, which he or she can accept or deny by tapping the screen. Over time, the desk learns patterns—say, a preference to stand after lunch—and tweaks the schedule accordingly. $3,890 Stir

"APPLE IBEACON" A NETWORK FOR INDOOR NAVIGATION

iBeacon, Apple’s new communication tool, brings locational awareness indoors. Unlike GPS, which typically requires an unobstructed path between the device and satellite, the platform relies on small Bluetooth modules that identify people’s proximity in a given location inside or out. The beacons can then push tailored content (such as exhibit notes in museums or coupons in a store) directly to smartphones. Developers have already built hundreds of applications, including one that lets fans order concessions in baseball stadiums and another that guides blind passengers through the San Francisco airport. Apple

"LG DISPLAY FLEXIBLE OLED" THE FIRST ROLLABLE SCREEN

Long have we lived with the promise of truly flexible displays, and long have the nuances of material design kept it from becoming reality. Earlier this year, LG introduced the first large-size mass-producible flexible OLED display. Thanks in part to a bendable polyimide film (instead of hard plastic) on the backplane panel, the 18-inch high-resolution screen can roll into a one-inch-wide tube. The company expects to develop an ultra-HD flexible monitor that’s greater than 60 inches by 2017.

"DOLBY ATMOS FOR HOME" THE NEW SOUND OF HOME THEATER

In the quarter century, since Dolby first introduced home-theater surround sound, the systems have grown steadily more sophisticated: first two audio channels, then five, then seven. But the sound has always been two-dimensional, surrounding listeners in a ring, not a dome. With Atmos, Dolby and its A/V partners (Pioneer, Marantz, and Onkyo, to name a few) have added a third dimension: height, which audio engineers can use to place individual sounds anywhere in a 3-D space. Imagine watching Godzilla while helicopter rotors beat overhead.

Atmos systems consist of a receiver and at least eight speakers, two of which handle overhead audio. A processor within the receiver interprets up to 118 object tracks and precisely places sounds in any environment. The receiver then assigns object tracks to as many as 34 speakers in a room. For overhead sound, users can either install ceiling-mounted speakers or opt for Atmos-enabled floor or bookshelf models, which have upward-firing drivers that ricochet sound off the ceiling to create the illusion that it’s coming from above. This fall, studios began including Atmos tracks on select Blu-ray discs and streaming services such as Vudu. Your living room will never sound the same. Dolby

"APPLE OS X YOSEMITE" AN OS THAT SYNCS WITH YOUR SMARTPHONE

Apple’s OS X Yosemite might look like a desktop version of the company’s iOS 8 mobile operating system, but the connection goes deeper than design. Yosemite marks the first time iPhones and iPads can easily share tasks with Apple desktops and laptops. With two or more devices logged into the same iCloud account, users can orchestrate hand-offs between them: They can dial a phone number found on the desktop or resume reading an article on their phone that they’d started on the laptop. Free Apple

"RESPAWN TITANFALL" CLOUD-BOOSTED VIDEOGAME

Relying more heavily on cloud-accelerated processing than any other console game before it, Titanfall can serve up artificially intelligent background characters and complex, detailed scenes—all free of immersion-killing lag time. From $40 Respawn

"HUMIN" THE FIRST INTUITIVE ADDRESS BOOK

A person’s memory isn’t alphabetical, yet that’s how every phone organizes contacts. Humin adds context to entries, so you can search the app for a person the same way you remember him or her—for example, “the photographer” or “the person I met last month.” In addition to names and phone numbers, Humin automatically stores information such as where you met and mutual friends you have, which allows the app to send notifications for upcoming meetings or trips that are actually useful. Free Humin

"3-D MANIPULATION" AN AUGMENTED REALITY PHOTO EDITOR

The common photo-editing software allows users to move objects—a flower from the left side of a photo to the right, for example—along a plane, but that’s about all they can do. Computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon and the University of California at Berkeley have developed the first application that lets users scale, rotate, and move onscreen objects in the 3-D space. Normally, such tasks would require hours of work and professional skills, but the software does them in minutes, and with very little processing power. The software is in the experimental stage now, but energetic creatives can download a prototype version for free.

"GOOGLE ANDROID" WEAR THE WEARABLE OPERATING SYSTEM

Every major hardware manufacturer is clamoring for its share of the smartwatch action. This year alone, Motorola, LG, and Apple joined the fray, yet a true leader in wearables has yet to emerge. Instead of stepping into the hardware battle, Google leveraged what it knows best: code. In the past, each smartwatch ran its own proprietary operating system (OS), limiting the number of apps and functionality available to users. Android Wear gives Google an edge on the competition by standardizing the operating system across most manufacturers—much like Android did with its smartphone OS seven years ago. A unified OS means developers can create thousands of apps that easily sync with Android devices. With them, users will be able to place calls, control Netflix and other media players, track steps, and navigate an unfamiliar route, all from a tiny screen on the wrist. Oh, yes, and they’ll be able to tell the time too.

"KONE ULTRAROPE" A CABLE THAT WILL RESHAPE SKYLINES

Of all the physical constraints that dictate our cityscapes, perhaps the most counterintuitive is the elevator cable. Very long standard cables become too heavy to haul, a limitation that restricts the height of buildings. But UltraRope, a new cable with a carbon-fiber core and high-friction coating, could double elevator heights to 3,280 feet. UltraRope weighs 80 percent less than a standard cable, with no loss in strength, and designers are already using it to build higher than ever; with UltraRope, the elevator shafts in the new Kingdom Tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, will reach a record 2,165 feet. The lighter material also helps new buildings reduce energy consumption by up to 45 percent. KONE

"LOCK8" A BIKE LOCK THAT OUTSMARTS THIEVES

Bike locks, even the burliest ones, all have the same Achilles’ heel: If given enough time, any determined thief can wrest a bicycle free. Lock8 reimagines bicycle security by using hardware and software to detect and respond to a potential theft. A gyroscope, an accelerometer, and a temperature sensor can pick up on a variety of assaults, including bolt cutters, chainsaws, blowtorches, and ice sprays. And the system will respond to any threat by blaring an alarm and sending alerts to a phone.

The brainchild of an ER doctor and an economist, Lock8 weighs less than a pound and connects to a bicycle’s rear hub. The accompanying app provides keyless entry, and by sharing the e-key, anyone can loan or rent his or her bicycle. European bike-share programs are the first to use Lock8; it’s being released this month. The company also plans to develop models for consumers. Price not set Lock8

All of your screens are going to talk to each other

As we spend more time looking at our screens, companies are looking to improve the way our devices communicate to each other. In technology speak, this trend is called “cross-platform integration.” Microsoft’s newest update of its newest operating system, Windows 10, allows devices in the same network to stream the same game across multiple devices. The notion that each device in your life has its own operating platform will feel even more archaic.

More methods for data protection will emerge

Every time a new home appliance becomes connected to the Internet, a new wearable device starts tracking more of our movements or a social network encourages us to put more of our feelings and vacation pictures online, more data is created. A lot more data. And that also means that parallel security measures will need to expand both in size and sophistication. New software security technologies will depend on identifying abnormalities in network behavior instead of identifying destructive code in software.

Video gaming will get turbo-charged with cloud-based services

The most powerful games of 2016 will rely on a combination of console and cloud-based power, says Steffen Sorrell, senior analyst at Juniper Research. Very immersive and powerful games still need the data center provided by a console, and Sorrell doesn’t expect that to change in 2016. “It’s too early in the market to completely switch over to games that are based entirely in the cloud,” says Sorrell. “Right now, if you don’t have a data center quite close to you, for those hard core gamers, it’s not good enough.” Trigger response times for fighting games, for example, won’t be fast enough running in cloud-based games, explains Sorrell. Much of the gaming industry is widely anticipating the release of Nintendo’s next generation gaming system, referenced by the code-name “Nintendo NX.”

Bitcoin technology will be more in demand with financial institutions

While the digital cryptocurrency Bitcoin has had its ups and downs in the consumer market, financial institutions are still invested in the the technology behind it -- and are looking to use it with different transactions.

Called blockchain technology, the innovation is a digital ledger or record of events. The instant, transparent nature of blockchain technology makes it ideal for transfer of money across international borders -- and this is what has peaked financial institutions’ interest.

“It’s much quicker and potentially much more secure, hence you have a lot of banks thinking, ‘Could we in some way use distributed network, like blockchain, in this way?’” says Holden. What are these new innovations need to state. The next year will see significant momentum in this space.

The year of virtual reality

Sitting in front of a flat-screen TV and watching video is going to feel like writing on a typewriter. And while virtual reality has peaked the interest of tech trailblazers, 2016 is the year it is expected to take measurable steps in targeting mainstream consumers.New virtual-reality headsets are expected from major tech companies Sony, HTC and Oculus. (Facebook acquired the company for $2 billion in 2014.)

Prices of the immersive headsets are already falling and are expected to fall further while the device’s usage is broadening beyond the gaming industry. For example, HBO recently created a completely immersive experience forGame of Thrones fans using the Oculus Rift headsets, says Windsor Holden, head of forecasting and consultancy at Juniper.