20 hot technologies to watch in 2010: Augmented Reality

Augmented reality is the process of overlaying the real world with additional information - bringing up book reviews when looking at a novel on your cameraphone, for example, or displaying historical facts when you're staring at a monument.

However, 2009 brought a breakthrough, thanks in no small part to the iPhone. The combination of its camera, processing power, high-quality screen and GPS means that, almost by accident, Apple has created the perfect device for running such services.

This has left companies free to concentrate on developing the software, with impressive results.

Esquire magazine experimented with the technology to bring extra content to its articles, with barcodes beneath stories triggering videos and additional information when the smartphone's camera was hovered over them.

More useful in daily life are the iPhone apps like UrbanSpoon that overlay the street with directions to restaurants, but that's barely the beginning.

The US military is developing an Android app that overlays engines with schematics, potentially turning anybody into a mechanic, while Nintendo's Ghostwire game will overlay spooks and spectres on the real world with the DSi's built-in camera.

Swedish firm TAT is even developing an app that identifies people, and floods your screen with information scavenged from the internet.

If this breakneck pace of development continues, augmented reality could prove to be the standout technology of 2010.

Other technologies to watch in 2010 include:

Number 20:  Better WiFi  
Number 19:  Hybrid-cars
Number 18:  DSLR Movies
Number 17:  Wireless Power
Number 16:  IPTV/ video on demand
Number 15: GPS on your phone
Number 14: Cloud computing
Number 13: Ebooks
Number 12: 100 megabit broadband
Number 11: The GPU/CPU
Number 10: 3D games and TV
Number 09: Solid state system drives
Number 08: Projectors in everything
Number 07: Intel Larrabee
Number 06: Mobile Flash
Number 05: Android marches on
Number 04: USB 3
Number 03: OLED
Number 02: Motion tracking