5G networking makes artificial humans and real-time holograms possible, and a lot more besides
- She can make eye contact and return your smile, but she’s an ‘artificial human’ – and you’ll meet her soon, perhaps when you’re booking a holiday
- US telecom Verizon and partner start-ups are looking for uses for 5G’s speed. Real-time virtual repairs, augmented shopping are among their other ideas
Holograms. Emotive, lifelike digital human beings. Washing machine repairs directed from miles away.
The roll-out of 5G wireless networks that will continue throughout 2019 and beyond promises a slew of new smartphones that will hum along much faster than the models they’ll eventually replace. But while zippier handsets compatible with the next generation of wireless are surely welcome, 5G’s potential extends beyond them.
American telecom Verizon, and some of the entrepreneurial start-ups it is working with, recently showed a few of the fresh consumer and business experiences made possible or enhanced by 5G at its 5G Lab in New York, one of five such labs around the United States.
5G works in tandem with other technologies, notably artificial intelligence, augmented reality and enhanced computer vision – which, as the name suggests, is the machine’s ability to make sense of what it sees. In each of the examples below, 5G promises to handle the big lift in processing data that digests a lot of bandwidth.
A very real but make-believe concierge