Innovation in the tech industry is constantly pushing the boundaries of what we thought was possible, and this year has been no exception. OERLive’s Alvin Thomas deep dives into the world of technology to find out what’s buzzing.

From advancements in Artificial Intelligence to the James Webb Space Telescope, the tech industry has seen a plethora of groundbreaking inventions that are set to change the way we live and work. In this roundup, we’ll be taking a closer look at some of the most exciting and influential tech innovations of the year.

From software that can analyze data in real-time to hardware that can revolutionise the way we interact with the world around us, these are the technologies that are poised to shape the future. So join us as we explore the cutting-edge world of tech innovation and discover the inventions that are set to change the game.

1. NASA James Webb Space Telescope

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), currently orbiting a million miles away at the second sun-Earth Lagrange point or L2, has been put into commission by NASA in 2022 as the world’s most powerful space telescope.

Over the next 20 years, as stated by the Space Telescope Science Institute, it will gaze upon celestial objects that formed up to 13.6bn years ago, which is only a few hundred million years after the Big Bang.

In just a few short months, the JWST has already produced stunning images through its near-infrared light observations. Its future targets include studying 100 galaxies at once, six of the brightest and most distant quasars, examining the atmospheres of known exoplanets, or “super-Earths,” and observing the creation of planets and stars.

This image is dominated by NGC 7469, a luminous, face-on spiral galaxy approximately 90 000 light-years in diameter that lies roughly 220 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Pegasus. Its companion galaxy IC 5283 is partly visible in the lower left portion of this image.

It will also focus on objects closer to Earth, such as Jupiter and its moons, asteroids, and near-Earth objects. Like its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope, the JWST is expected to greatly expand our understanding and knowledge of the universe and our place in it.

2. AI Image Generators

Artificial Intelligence – or AI – may be the buzzword of the decade, but its potential to revolutionise industries far outweighs any negative connotations associated with it. The photography and creative industry is one that has witnessed an AI outburst in 2022, with the introduction of AI generators such as DALL-E, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion.

These public tools are easy to use, requiring only text prompts from users to generate pieces of art. However, it is important to note that in order to get the desired results, the user must carefully curate the prompt words.

That said, this technology is far from complete. For instance, Google has stated that it will not release its own AI image generator – Imagen – to the public due to the tendency to ‘reinforce gender stereotypes’ and ‘bias towards generating images of people with lighter skin’. Google say that this bias is a result of the training data, which can include inappropriate content such as racial slurs or other explicit content.

Other AI image generators have also faced ethical issues related to copyright and derivative works by scraping art websites for their datasets. Despite any reservations about generative images, it is clear that AI-created art is here to stay.

Engineering physical challenges in humans have confounded technologists for decades – but a breakthrough product in advanced prosthetics is expected to directly impact the lives of people of determination (PoD).

Enter, the Esper Hand – a prosthetic arm that can be controlled by the wearer’s mind using non-invasive sensors that detect muscle activity or “electrical cues” and transmit this information to trigger actions in the hand.

This technology, known as a brain-computer interface (BCI), is often used by paralysis patients to control machines with their thoughts.

The co-founder of Esper Bionics, Dima Gazda, claims that the arm is three times faster than many other prosthetics currently available.

Esper Hand has five movable digits that can rotate and grip in multiple ways, allowing the wearer to perform everyday tasks such as opening a bottle, driving a car, using kitchen utensils, or tapping a phone screen.

The arm is made from a combination of polyoxymethylene plastic, fluoroplastics, nylon, aluminium, steel, titan, bronze, and three types of silicone, and weighs 380 grams. It comes in four sizes and five colours.