Abstract
Technological innovations have always played a key role in the human civilization’s progression. Occasionally, these innovations develop to such an extent that they open up completely new pathways in individual fields and even reshape our society as a whole. However, to exert this prominent impact, a technology must first emerge, i.e. it must mature and become visible. This chapter introduces this process’s underlying concepts and, thereby, provides a deep understanding of the emerging technologies’ nature and their important implications, for example, affecting specific domains by changing the actors’ and institutions’ composition in this domain. To this end, this chapter gives an overview of the five most important attributes that characterize emerging technologies. The chapter also presents selected examples of currently emerging technologies, namely immersive technologies, virtual assistants, and artificial intelligence. Each technology is briefly described in accordance with its attributes, followed by a discussion of the technology’s exemplary applications to highlight its emerging character, and, thus, provide an understanding of their potential future impact on specific application areas and our society as a whole.
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Further Reading
Fryer LK, Nakao K, Thompson A (2019) Chatbot learning partners: connecting learning experiences, interest and competence. Comput Hum Behav 93:279–289
Furht B (2011) Handbook of augmented reality. Springer, New York, NY
Janarthanam S (2017) Hands-on chatbots and conversational UI development. Packt Publishing, Birmingham
Luger GF (2009) Artificial intelligence: structures and strategies for complex problem solving, 6th edn. Pearson Education, Boston, MA
Poole D, Mackworth AK, Goebel R (1998) Computational intelligence: a logical approach. Oxford University Press, New York, NY
Rotolo D, Hicks D, Martin BR (2015) What is an emerging technology? Res Policy 44(10):1827–1843
Russell SJ, Norvig P (2010) Artificial intelligence. A modern approach, 3rd edn. Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ
Stahl BC (2011) What does the future hold? A critical view on emerging information and communication technologies and their social consequences. In: Chiasson M, Henfridsson O, Karsten H, DeGross JI (eds) Researching the future in information systems: IFIP WG 8.2 Working Conference, Future IS 2011, Turku, 6–8 June 2011. Springer, Heidelberg, pp 59–76
Zahedi FM, Walia N, Jain H (2016) Augmented virtual doctor office: theory-based design and assessment. J Manag Inf Syst 33(3):776–808
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Sunyaev, A. (2020). Emerging Technologies. In: Internet Computing. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34957-8_12
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