Automotive electronics and driverless prototypes

With the Internet of Things also comes automotive electronics and, farther down the road, completely autonomous cars. Next year, auto makers will continue to integrate new technologies into vehicles, particularly among dashboard screens.
Synaptics Inc. SYNA, -3.76% is one of these players. The chip maker’s CEO, Rick Bergman, told MarketWatch that the automobile market is Synaptics’ “next big growth area.” He says there are multiple areas in the near term for human interface improvements, such as replacing dashboards with more advanced touch solutions. Eventually, the company hopes to integrate its fingerprint scanning technology, which can be found on Samsung Electronics’s Galaxy S5 005930, -1.06% , into cars for security and authentication.Roger Kay, founder of tech consulting company Endpoint Technologies, imagines a world where the windows of a car are just 360-degree screens, enabling a person to watch movies as their robotic car chauffeurs them around. Stuck in traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike? Switch the screen to the Swiss Alps for some R&R, or stream a movie since your car will probably have its own broadband. Of course, that’s probably much farther down the road, likely 10 or more years, he said.
“Automobile companies are slow to move,” Kay said. “But every year they get a little closer to the real thing.”
Google announced it has built a fully functional driverless car that will likely hit the streets of Silicon Valley in early 2015. Of course, there are a number of legal hurdles that must be cleared before autonomous driving is the norm.

Augmented reality

Augmented reality, or technologies that enhance the regular world around your eyes with visuals, continues to attract the interest of developers. In 2015, it will be adopted into more commercial applications.

Intel Corp. INTC, -0.83%   and Google recently announced a partnership that replaces Intel’s chips with Texas Instruments’ TXN, +0.02%  as the brains of Google’s next-generation Glass. The two said they plan to promote Glass to companies such as hospital networks and manufacturers. Google has teamed with developers to build apps specific to the workplace. Augmented reality can also be used for training purposes, such as in emergency situations or during space or air travel.

Sony unveiled a Google Glass-like headset at the giant Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this year that can be affixed to a person’s regular lenses and superimpose high-resolution OLED images, videos and text in front of a person’s eye. Sony reportedly plans to start mass producing the smart eyewear later this 2015.

LaCie RuggedKey

The LaCie RuggedKey is built to withstand accidental drops from heights far above what you'd encounter on your way to the office. Its rubber construction is 100-meter drop-resistant. That means ultimate protection for your key – and your data – for all of life's little stumbles. The RuggedKey has a USB 3.0 interface and file transfer speed of up to 150 MB/s, but it's also backward compatible with USB 2.0. The USB also comes with AES 256-bit encryption for data security.

Audi just created diesel fuel from air and water

Audi is looking to fuel the future without fossil fuels. One of the company's pilot plants in Germany has just produced the first batches of a synthetic diesel made using only water and air. The company's pilot plant, which is operated by German startup Sunfire, produced its first batches of the "e-diesel" this month. German Federal Minister of Education and Research Johanna Wanka put a few liters of the fuel in her work car, an Audi A8, to commemorate the accomplishment.

Avenue Trucks adds suspension to existing skateboards

Although we've seen at least one off-road skateboard with built-in suspension, aftermarket suspension systems for more traditional boards are few and far between. The designers at California-based Avenue Trucks, however, are out to change that. They claim that their suspension trucks should improve the skateboarding experience in several key ways. 

Implantable device could allow for better-targeted cancer treatment

While there are a large number of approved cancer treatments, identifying which drugs are best suited to individual patients is extremely difficult for doctors. A team of MIT researchers has developed a small, implantable device that aims to change this by allowing scientists to measure the effectiveness of different drugs, on a patient-by-patient basis.

Transparent butterfly wings could inspire low-reflectivity displays

Researchers from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany have studied the wings of glasswing butterflies in an effort to determine what causes their low-reflective nature. It's believed that the findings of the study could lead to less reflective screens on mobile phones, tablets and other devices.