Technology has gone wild over the last few decades. It’s hard to imagine that just 20 years ago none of us had a smartphone, wireless tech or the ability to instantly send and receive mail via our computers. Since the internet arrived we have seen so many clever solutions hit our cities making life that little bit easier when travelling around. So what is on the market and how can it help you?
Rewind to the 1990’s and, if you can, imagine heading out on holiday. Learning the basics of various languages was part of the fun, however we never really had time to get to grips with it and this could lead to embarrassing or awkward moments. Not anymore thanks to the development of some pretty clever translations apps. First up, Google Translate, a free service we may be familiar with on our computers at home. However the company have developed the program to work for us even better, you can now point your phone at text in shops or restaurants and it will instantly give you the english translation. Perfect for anyone on the hop needing to get a little explanation. For the small investment of £4 you could purchase itranslatevoice.com which enables person to person conversation using natural language and a smartphone. Currently only available for iOS you just talk into the phone or pad mic and the app will translate. It supports 40 languages and is pretty on point.
Travelling around the city, especially places that are less culturally diverse such as Tokyo, can be really confusing. Whilst we do have navigation apps available to take us to our destinations, some still favour the traditional map which can highlight some interesting tourist hot spots along the way. However with major cities now installing a wayfinding kiosk you can have access to an interactive map without worrying about using your own personal data. This makes foreign city travel so simple and is a great interactive way of getting your children to understand the basics of personal navigation.
Transportation is another area we are seeing the use of new tech to make our lives simple. London has installed free wifi on much of it’s underground system, meaning workers can stay in touch whilst travelling across the city to various meetings. We also have seen trip payments made simple with smart transportation technologies. This helps people to travel without delay, especially when taking multi leg trips that require lots of different payment methods. You can even use your phone to rent a car or hail a taxi and now we can pay with a tap of our card thanks to the new touchpay systems.
How technology will shape daily life in the larger cities, we cannot be sure. What we can be certain of is that there are a gathering of cyber geeks working out the next generation of city tech and we will be seeing more incredible solutions rolled out over the decades. Maybe retina scanning is closer than we think and will soon be in banks and buildings offering even better security.