A Day Made of Glass 2

A Day Made of Glass 2

The video we saw in class depicted a future in which glass technology enhanced every aspect of our daily life, including at schools, nature parks, work and literally every room in our homes. It is actually an argument for what Corning wants the future to look like and gives us a glimpse of Croning's vision for the future of glass technologies which features ubiquitous displays of interactive glass surfaces that add new dimensions to ordinary surfaces.

If this vision is likely to become reality, it is surely to have an impact on the way humans connect and interact. As we saw in the video, people were interacting solely and constantly through the glass surfaces. Such interaction means that humans will surely be influenced by this new technology, for better or for worse, particularly if it is as inevitable as Corning envisioned it to be.

In my humble opinion, assuming that Corning can overcome part of the technological limitations and social barriers, such technologies seem to be reachable in the very near future and their impact is going to be huge on a variety of fields:

Healthcare: According to Corning CEO Wendell Weeks, the glass is an attempt to combat germs in a hospital environment. This means that the use of glass technology could reduce the number of infections in hospitals and private clinics resulting in cleaner and more sanitary environments. In addition to that, we saw in the video that the doctor was able to examine a virtual 3D copy of the patient, which could mean that doctors from around the world can have access to patient data and exact hologram copies, allowing them to give their medical opinion from afar.

Education: We are already seeing how iPads and other tablets are making their ways into school and universities, replacing books and notepads. Although, the video visualized a whole new environment which could enhance the learning experience in classrooms, especially in Primary Schools, where teachers could use the technology to make students interact with each other through the glass surfaces and give them more accurate examples of the leaning material.

Nature: We saw children walking in the forest while an enormous display stands in front of them, displaying interactive information including a narrated guide. Eventually, touching a button on-screen brings up a video of a dinosaur that appears to be integrated into the forest behind the screen. Although this could really enhance the children's nature experience, in some way, it seemed a bit worrying that the children needed to add dinosaurs in order to make the forest interesting.