IBM, an American multinational manufacturer of software and hardware, has announced its seventh yearly ‘5 in 5’ that is a list of five innovations. IBM believes that these innovations possess the potential to transit the way people will work and interact in the next five years. The IBM ‘5 in 5’ is based on current market and social trends as well as emerging technologies from IBM’s Research and Development laboratories across the world.

This year’s IBM’s ‘5 in 5′ targets on cognitive computing which the company believes will be the foundation of the next era of computing. The new generation of computer systems will focus on the five basic human senses; sight, touch, taste, hearing and smell. The innovations will change the way people interact with computers because of the computers’ ability to mimic the human senses. Thus, the machines will learn and adapt the world as real.

The five IBM predictions which will define the future are:

Hearing
A distributed system of clever sensors will come into existence within five years from now which will detect different elements of sound such as vibrations, sound pressure and sound waves. The systems will be able to analyse different aspects of a conversation for more productive dialogues. This will help in improving the customer call interactions.

Sight
In the coming five years, systems will be able to convert the pixel into the way human eyes interprets a photograph. In future, computer systems will be able to recognize colour, texture and extract insights from visual media. This will have a deep impact on industries like healthcare and agriculture.

Smell
IBM scientists believe that in the next five years systems will be able to detect if the user is coming down with cold or any other disorder. The systems will be equipped with tiny sensors which will help the doctors to diagnose the ailment by analysing the breath odour of a patient. These systems can also be used in the agriculture sector to smell the soil conditions of crops.

Taste:
What if you can make food healthy and delicious with computing systems. IBM researchers are developing systems that can experience flavours to create most tasty recipes. The system will break down ingredients into their molecular form and blend them with what humans prefer. These systems will help us in eating healthy food.

Touch
Just imagine that you are shopping for your wedding dress via your smartphone and is able to feel the satin of the gown. According to IBM, in the coming five years, corporations like retail will be transformed by the touch ability. The scientists at IBM are working on applications for healthcare, retail and other sectors utilizing infrared, haptic and pressure sensitive technologies to simulate the touch.

Thus, these sensing capabilities will help people become more productive, aware and help them in thinking. The cognitive systems will help you keep up with the speed of information, see through complexity, make informed decisions, improve the standard of living, enrich life and break down all the barriers such as language, geographic distance, inaccessibility and cost.