KISTI Presents 10 Promising Future Technologies and 300 Commercialization Items
Numerous medical fields including body augmentation, software wearables, and bio.

What are the new promising future technologies that will emerge after 2017?

The Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI), which has been announcing promising future technologies every year, has once again announced the technology fields that will change the future this year. KISTI also presented promising commercialization items that will open new avenues for small and medium-sized enterprises and startups.

It was announced that promising future technologies were selected to support national competitiveness by comparing and analyzing the investment leadership and concentration of domestic and major developed countries, and adding factors such as alignment with domestic science and technology policies and alignment with domestic and international issues and trends.

The top 10 promising future technologies selected this time are bio-printing, synthetic cell technology, body augmentation technology, medical virtual reality application technology, soft wearable technology, automotive lightweight material technology, Industrial Internet, next-generation communication technology utilizing visible light (Li-Fi), intelligent cyber security, and chameleon environment-sensitive materials.


▲ Microsoft aims to apply virtual reality using HoloLens to the medical field. (MS video)

Bioprinting is a 3D printing technology that produces tissues or organs by layering living cells into a desired shape or pattern, and synthetic cell technology refers to a technology that creates artificial cells by introducing an artificially synthesized genome into a living organism from which genes have been removed.

Body augmentation technology is a technology that attempts to permanently or temporarily overcome the limitations of the human body through natural or artificial means, and medical virtual reality application technology can apply a virtual three-dimensional digital environment that mimics the real world in the medical field.

Soft wearable technology refers to technology that is worn on the body to continuously collect a user's biosignals and information about the surrounding environment, and enables communication with the user through voice, video, touch, etc., while lightweight automotive materials include aluminum, magnesium, and high-strength steel.It includes materials used for lightweighting automobile bodies, such as metal materials like plates and carbon fiber reinforced composite materials.

The Industrial Internet of Things (Industrial IoT) is a collective term for platform technologies that create new added value based on the connection of machines, data, and people by applying and utilizing the Internet of Things across all sectors of manufacturing, including processes, products, services, marketing, and distribution. Additionally, next-generation communication utilizing visible light (Li-Fi), which transmits data by embedding digital information in light using visible light—compared to Wi-Fi transmission technology that uses radio electromagnetic waves—was also included in the top 10 technologies. Li-Fi is considered a next-generation communication technology with wireless internet speeds up to 100 times faster than existing WiFi.

Intelligent cybersecurity technology utilizes artificial intelligence techniques to automate the detection and response to vast cybersecurity threats and predict even unknown potential threats, while Chameleon Environment-Sensitive Material is an advanced stimulus-response chemical material capable of reversibly or irreversibly controlling its chemical properties and physical form by autonomously reacting to minute changes in the external environment caused by physical/chemical stimuli (heat, mechanical force, pressure, magnetism, electric fields, light, pressure, chemicals, pH, etc.).

KISTI has identified promising future technologies through scanning global public investment information and expects them to be commercialized within the next 5 to 10 years, which will have a significant impact on economic and social development, such as the creation of new markets and industries.


<55 Promising Commercialization Items for SMEs>

For reference, among the 11 promising future technologies announced by KISTI last year, actual research and development has begun in earnest or investment plans have been announced for technologies such as machine control that moves according to thought, neuro-mimetic semiconductor chips, soft robots, biomimetic five-sense recognition sensors, and quantum computer technology. In addition, the 11 major technologies included eco-friendly carbon-zero engines, intelligent nanomachines for diagnosis and treatment, functional molecular electronic devices, urban, ocean, and desert greening technologies, super bacteria response technologies, and artificial photosynthesis-based clean energy production technologies.

Meanwhile, KISTI selected 300 promising items for commercialization in five fields (ICT, electronics/machinery/equipment, chemistry/materials, bio/medical, and others) as promising items for small and medium-sized enterprises.

Among these, they were categorized into four groups based on market-technological and financial potential, and 55 items (see table) with high market, technological, and financial potential were selected. Of these, 23 were selected in the ICT sector and 16 in the electronics/machinery/equipment sector, indicating that a significant number of promising items related to the 'Fourth Industrial Revolution' were projected to be core businesses for future growth.