IBM predicts 5 tech changes in 5 years

Every year, IBM picks five technologies that it predicts are going to change our lives in the next five years. This year's crop of life changers includes efficient capture of renewable energy, proliferation of biometric identification to authenticate your identity, control of machines with your mind, elimination of the digital divide, and the end of spam.

Energy is everywhere -- where we walk, where our computers produce heat, where water travels through the pipes in our homes -- and in the next five years, we'll be more efficient at capturing that energy for personal use, IBM explained. "Advances in renewable energy technology will allow individuals to collect this kinetic energy, which now goes to waste, and use it to help power our homes, workplaces and cities," it predicted. It also forecasted the end of passwords as the primary way to access everything. Devices to authenticate your identity by biometric means will become commonplace in the next five years and passwords will become a thing of the past. "Imagine," IBM said, "you will be able to walk up to an ATM machine to securely withdraw money by simply speaking your name or looking into a tiny sensor that can recognize the unique patterns in the retina of your eye."