| Emerging technology | Status | Potential applications | Related articles |
| Aerogel | Hypothetical, experiments, diffusion, early uses | Improved insulation, insulative glass if it can be made clear, sleeves for oil pipelines, aerospace, high-heat & extreme cold applications | |
| Amorphous metal | Experiments | Armor | |
| Bioplastic | Some products developed | | |
| Conductive polymers | Research, experiments, prototypes | Lighter and cheaper wires, antistatic materials, organic solar cells | Jacquard weaving |
| Cryogenic treatment | Research, experiments, prototypes | Oil and gas Blowout preventers, jet engines, power turbines, locomotives, electric vehicles, gears and bearings | |
| Dynamic Armor | Prototypes | Better protection for ships from shaped charge weapons | |
| Fullerene | Experiments, diffusion | Programmable matter | |
| Graphene | Hypothetical, experiments, diffusion, early uses | Components with higher strength to weight ratios, transistors that operate at higher frequency, lower cost of display screens in mobile devices, storing hydrogen for fuel cell powered cars, sensors to diagnose diseases, more efficient batteries | |
| Lab-on-a-chip | Some commercialization | | |
| High-temperature superconductivity | Cryogenic receiver front-end RF and microwave filter systems for mobile phone base stations; prototypes in dry ice; Hypothetical and experiments for higher temperatures | No loss conductors, frictionless bearings, magnetic levitation, lossless high-capacity accumulators, electric cars, heat-free integral circuits and processors | |
| Magnetic nanoparticles | In development | | - |
| Magnetorheological fluid | developed and researched | Magnetorheological damper heavy motor damping, operator seat/cab damping in construction vehicles, seismic dampers positioned in building absorbing detrimental shock waves and oscillations within the structure making them earthquake-proof, enhance body armour fluid bullet resistant, Humvees, and various other all-terrain vehicles employ dynamic MR shock absorbers/dampers. Magnetorheological finishing was used in the construction of the Hubble Space Telescope's corrective lens, shock absorbers of a vehicle's suspension are filled with magnetorheological fluid. | Electrorheological fluid |
| Microfluidics | | | |
| High-temperature superfluidity | Superfluid gyroscopes already exist but work at very low temperatures | High-precision measure of gravity, navigation and maneuver devices, possible devices to emit gravitomagnetic field, frictionless mechanical devices | |
| Metamaterials | Hypothetical, experiments, diffusion | Microscopes, cameras, metamaterial cloaking, cloaking devices | |
| Metal foam | Research, commercialization | Space colonies, floating cities | |
| Multi-function structures | Hypothetical, experiments, some prototypes, few commercial | Wide range, e.g., self health monitoring, self healing material, morphing | |
| Nanomaterials: carbon nanotubes | Hypothetical, experiments, diffusion, early uses | Stronger, lighter materials, space elevator | Potential applications of carbon nanotubes, carbon fiber |
| Programmable matter | Hypothetical, experiments | Wide range, e.g., claytronics, synthetic biology | |
| Quantum dots | Research, experiments, prototypes, commercialized | Quantum dot laser, quantum dot display, future use as programmable matter in display technologies, optical data communications, medicine | |
| Silicene | Hypothetical, research | | |
| Superalloy | Research, diffusion | Aircraft jet engines | |
| Synthetic diamond | Research, commercialization | Electronics | |
| Time crystals | Research experiments | Quantum computers with stable qubits | |
| Translucent concrete | Commercialization | Construction of skyscrapers, towers, and sculptures like Europe Gate | |
| Hypereutectic alloy | Research, commercialization | Metals | Hypereutectic piston |
| Super-plastic alloy | Research, commercialization | Metals | Superplasticity |
| Emerging technology | Status | Potential applications | Related articles |
| Drone display | In use | Artistic uses, advertising | Swarm robotics |
| Flexible display | Research, In use | Displays over curved surfaces, Electronic scrolls, Wearable technology | Electronic Paper |
| 3D displays, Volumetric display | Research, Working prototypes, commercialization | Television, computer interfaces, cinemas, 3-dimensional imagery | Autostereoscopic display, stereoscopic display, volumetric display, Holographic display, Light Field display, Nintendo 3DS, Swept-volume display |
| Laser video displays | first commercial Laser TV in 2008, Mitsubishi LaserVue TV | Displays with very wide colour gamut | Laser TV, Comparison of display technology |
| Holography | Diffusion | | |
| Optical transistor | Some prototypes | | |
| Screenless display | Hypothetical, experiments | Augmented reality could allow the user to reference the blue prints like in a construction yard, in a 3D manner; Delivers the user constant up to date information on the stock market, the user's corporation, and meeting statuses, visual disabilities | Head-mounted display, Head-up display, adaptive optics, EyeTap, Google Glass, Microsoft HoloLens, AR cloud |
| Emerging technology | Status | Potential applications | Related articles |
| Biometrics | Diffusion | | |
| Digital scent technology | Diffusion | | Smell-O-Vision, iSmell |
| Electronic nose | Research, commercialization | Detecting spoiled food, chemical weapons and cancer | |
| E-textiles | Research, diffusion | | |
| Flexible electronics | Commercialization, research, development, some prototypes | Flexible and folding electronic devices, Flexible solar cells which are lightweight, can be rolled up for launch, and are easily deployable | Nokia Morph, Flexible organic light-emitting diode |
| Memristor | Working prototype | Smaller, faster, lower power consuming storage, analogue electronics, programmable logic, signal processing, neural networks, control systems, reconfigurable computing, brain-computer interfaces and RFID, pattern recognition | |
| Molecular electronics | Research and development | | |
| Nanoelectromechanical systems | Research and development | | |
| Solid-state transformer | In development, some prototypes | | |
| Spintronics | Working prototypes | Data storage, computing devices | MRAM |
| Thermal copper pillar bump | Working prototypes in discrete devices | Electric circuit cooling; micro-fluidic actuators; small-device thermoelectric power generation | Ultra high definition holographic disc, Metal–insulator transition |
| Three-dimensional integrated circuit | In development, commercialised | Memory and data processing | |
| Twistronics | In development | | |
| Emerging technology | Status | Potential applications | Related articles |
| Airborne wind turbine | Research | Producing electricity | KiteGen |
| Americium battery | Estimated of working battery in 5–10 years from 2019. | | |
| Artificial photosynthesis | Research, experiments growing interest in a macroscience global project | Improve natural photosynthesis, so roads buildings and vehicles convert sunlight and water into hydrogen and carbon dioxide into carbohydrates | Sustainocene, Renewable energy, Nanotechnology |
| Concentrated solar power | Growing markets in California, Spain, Northern Africa | Producing electricity | DESERTEC, BrightSource Energy, Solar Millennium |
| Cryogenic treatment | Subsea and deep water oil and gas exploration; wind and fossil fuel electric power generation, nuclear power | Oil and gas blowout preventers, jet engines, power turbines, locomotives, electric vehicles, gears and bearings | |
| Electric double-layer capacitor | Diffusion, continued development | Regenerative braking; energy storage: generally faster charging, longer lasting, more flexible, greener | |
| Energy harvesting | Experiments | Constant energy source for mobile, wearable and ubiquitous devices | Humavox |
| Flywheel energy storage | Some commercial examples | | |
| Fusion power | Hypothetical, experiments | Producing electricity, heat, fusion torch recycling with waste heat | ITER, NIF, Polywell, Dense plasma focus, Muon-catalyzed fusion, Wendelstein 7-X |
| Generation IV reactor | Research, experiments | Producing electricity, heat, transmutation of nuclear waste stockpiles from traditional reactors | |
| Gravity battery | Small-scale examples | | |
| Grid energy storage | Increasing use | | |
| Home fuel cell | Research, commercialisation | Off-the-grid, producing electricity | Autonomous building, Bloom Energy Server |
| Hypercapacitor | Research | | |
| Lithium-air battery | Research, experiments | Laptops, mobile phones, long-range electric cars; storing energy for electric grid | |
| Lithium iron phosphate battery | Commercialization | | |
| Lithium–sulfur battery | Research and development | | |
| Magnesium battery | Early commercialization | | |
| Magnonics | Research | Data storage | |
| Molten salt reactor | Research, experiments | Producing electricity, heat | |
| Nanowire battery | Experiments, prototypes | Laptops, mobile phones, long-range electric cars; storing energy for electric grid | |
| Nantenna | Research | Producing electricity | |
| Ocean thermal energy conversion | Prototype | | |
| Solid-state battery | Niche uses | Hybrid cars | |
| Smart grid | Research, diffusion | | Smart meter, SuperSmart Grid |
| Space-based solar power | Hypothetical | | |
| Thorium fuel cycle | Research started in the 1960s, still ongoing | Producing electricity, heat | |
| Vortex engine | | Power generation. | |
| Wireless energy transfer | Prototypes, diffusion, short range consumer products | Wirelessly powered equipment: laptop, cell phones, electric cars, etc. | WiTricity, resonant inductive coupling |
| Zero-energy building | Expansion | All homes | Passive house |
| Emerging technology | Status | Potential applications | Related articles |
| 5G cellular communications | Research and development, Early commercialization | Mobile phones, Tablets | |
| 6G cellular communications | Conceptual | Mobile phones | |
| Ambient intelligence | Hypothetical | | |
| Artificial brain | Research | Treatment of neurological disease, artificial intelligence | Blue Brain Project, Human Brain Project |
| Artificial general intelligence | Hypothetical, experiments; | Creating intelligent devices and robots; AI can counsel in scientific projects, government, army, corporate governance, film and books creation, inventions etc. | Progress in artificial intelligence, technological singularity, applications of artificial intelligence |
| Atomtronics | Hypothetical | | |
| Augmented reality | Diffusion | | Google Glass, Windows Mixed Reality, Microsoft HoloLens, Mixed reality, Smartglasses, Pokémon Go |
| Blockchain or distributed ledger technology | Diffusion | Eliminating or lowering transaction costs; distributed, open and transparent record keeping; non-hierarchical networked systems; cryptography | Bitcoin, Digital currency, Cryptocurrency, e-democracy |
| Carbon nanotube field-effect transistor | Research and development | Extending Moore's law | |
| Civic technology | Research and development, projects | Smart cities, more responsive government | Civic technology, Smart city, e-democracy, open data, intelligent environment |
| Cryptocurrency | Diffusion | Money supply, World reserve currency | Bitcoin, Digital currency |
| DNA digital data storage | Experiments | Mass data storage | |
| Exascale computing | Projects | | |
| Gesture recognition | Diffusion | | |
| Internet of Things | Diffusion | | |
| Emerging memory technologies | In development | | T-RAM, memristor, Z-RAM, TTRAM, CBRAM, SONOS, RRAM, Racetrack memory, NRAM, Phase-change memory, FJG RAM, Millipede memory, Skyrmion, Programmable metallization cell, 3D XPoint, Ferroelectric RAM, Magnetoresistive random-access memory, nvSRAM |
| Emerging magnetic data storage technologies | In development ; diffusion | Greatly improved storage density compared to current HDDs, can be combined | SMR, HAMR, BPM, MAMR, TDMR, CPP/GMR, PMR, Hard disk drive |
| Fourth-generation optical discs | Research, prototyping | Storing and archiving data previously erased for economic reasons | Blu-ray Disc, Optical storage |
| General-purpose computing on graphics processing units | Diffusion of non standardized methods | Order of magnitude faster processing of parallelizable algorithms | |
| Exocortex | Diffusion of primitive amplifications; working prototypes of more; Hypothetical, experiments on more substantial amplification | | |
| Li-Fi | Demos, requires standardization | | |
| Machine translation | Diffusion | Easier and cheaper cross-cultural communication | |
| Machine vision | Research, prototyping, commercialization | Biometrics, controlling processes, detecting events, interaction, robot vision | Computer vision, pattern recognition, digital image processing |
| Mobile collaboration and e-learning | Development, commercialization | Extends the capabilities of video conferencing for use on hand-held mobile devices in real-time over secure networks. For use in diverse industries such as manufacturing, energy, healthcare. Telework | - |
| Multimodal contactless biometric face/iris systems | Deployed at various airports and federal security checkpoints | Unimodal facial recognition scanners | |
| Nanoradio | Research & Development, diffusion | | |
| Navigation Doppler lidar | Under development | | |
| Neuromorphic engineering | Research & development | | |
| Optical computing | Hypothetical, experiments; some components of integrated circuits have been developed | Smaller, faster, lower power consuming computing | |
| Quantum computing | Hypothetical, experiments, commercialization | Much faster computing, for some kinds of problems, chemical modeling, new materials with programmed properties, Hypothetical of high-temperature superconductivity and superfluidity | |
| Quantum cryptography | Commercialization | Secure communications | |
| Quantum radar | Prototypes | | |
| Radio-frequency identification | Diffusion of high cost | Smartstores – RFID based self checkout, food packaging, smart shelves, smart carts. See: potential uses | |
| Semantic Web or answer machine | Research, limited use | Making the web machine-readable by annotating data on the web based on its meaning | Corporate Semantic Web, Semantic Web Services, Semantic Web Stack, Web 3.0 |
| Smart speaker | Commercialization | Home automation, communication with people and machines | Amazon Echo, Google Home, HomePod |
| Software-defined radio | Development, commercialization | Cognitive radio, Mesh networks, Software defined antenna | GNU Radio, List of software-defined radios, Universal Software Radio Peripheral |
| Speech recognition | Research, development, commercialization | | |
| Subvocal recognition | Research, development, commercialization | | |
| Virtual Reality | Diffusion | Entertainment, education | Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, PlayStation VR |
| X-ray communication | Demonstrations | | |
| Hybrid forensics | Research, commercialization | digital forensics, electronic discovery, malware detection, IT compliance | |
| Emerging technology | Status | Potential applications | Related articles |
| Artificial uterus | Hypothetical, research | space travel, extracorporeal pregnancy, Reprogenetics, same-sex procreation | |
| Body implants, prosthesis | Trials, from animal to human clinical, to commercial production | Brain implant, retinal implant | Prosthetics, prosthetics in fiction, cyborg |
| Cryonics | Hypothetical, research, commercialization | Life extension | |
| De-extinction | Research, development, trials | Animal husbandry, pets, zoos | Recreating the woolly mammoth species |
| Human DNA vaccination | Clinical trials | | |
| Enzybiotics | Successful first trials | | |
| Genetic engineering of organisms and viruses | Research, development, commercialization | Creating and modifying species, bio-machines, eliminating genetic disorders, new materials production, healthier and cheaper food, creating drugs and vaccines, research in natural sciences, bioremediation, detecting arsenic, CO2 reducing superplant, | Biopunk, Genetically modified food, superhuman, human enhancement, transhumanism, gene doping, designer baby, genetic pollution |
| Hibernation or suspended animation | Research, development, animal trials | Organ transplantation, space travel, prolonged surgery, emergency care | |
| Life extension, Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence | Research, experiments, animal testing | Increased life spans | Immortality, biological immortality |
| Nanomedicines | Research, experiments, limited use | | |
| Nanosensors | Research and development | | |
| Omni Processor | Research and development; some prototypes | | |
| Oncolytic virus | Human trials, commercialisation | Cancer therapy, imaging | Oncolytic virus |
| Personalized medicine, full genome sequencing | Research, experiments | Personalized medical procedures, genome sequencing during drug trials | Personal genomics |
| Phage therapy | First trial uses | | |
| Plantibody | clinical trials | | |
| Regenerative medicine | Some laboratory trials | Life extension | |
| Robotic surgery | Research, diffusion | | |
| Senolytic | Under investigation | | - |
| Stem cell treatments | Research, experiments, phase I human trial spinal cord injury treatment, cultured cornea transplants | Treatment for a wide range of diseases and injuries | Stem cell, stem cell treatments, Skin cell gun, |
| Synthetic biology, synthetic genomics | Research, development, first synthetic bacteria created May 2010 | Creating infinitely scalable production processes based on programmable species of bacteria and other life forms | BioBrick, iGEM, synthetic genomics |
| Tissue engineering | Research, diffusion | Organ printing, Tooth regeneration | |
| Tricorder | Research and development | Diagnosing medical conditions | Medical tricorder |
| Virotherapy | Research, human trials | Gene therapy, cancer therapy | Virotherapy, Oncolytic Virus |
| Vitrification or cryoprotectant | Hypothetical, some experiments | Organ transplantation, cryonics | |
| Emerging technology | Status | Potential applications | Related articles |
| Caseless ammunition | Field tests and some niche markets | Warfare | Lightweight Small Arms Technologies |
| Cloaking device | Successful experiments cloaking small objects under some conditions | Cloaking microscope tips at optical frequencies | Metamaterial cloaking |
| Directed energy weapon | Research, development, some prototypes | Warfare | Laser Weapon System |
| Electrolaser | Research and development | | |
| Electromagnetic weapons | Research and development | Warfare | Coilgun, Railgun |
| Electrothermal-chemical technology | Research and development | Tank, artillery, and close-in weapon systems | |
| Force field | Hypothetical, experiments | Military and law enforcement, space travel | Plasma window |
| Green bullet | Development | Environment-friendly ammunition | |
| Hypersonic weapons | Development, Undergoing testing, Maybe in use | Glide vehicles and cruise missiles that can go 5 times the speed of sound or more. | Avangard,Kh-47M2 Kinzhal,3M22 Zircon, BrahMos-II, Prompt Global Strike, DARPA Falcon Project, DF-ZF, Boeing X-51 Waverider |
| Laser weapon | Research and development, trials | Tracking and destruction of rockets, bombs, drones etc. | Advanced Tactical Laser, High Energy Liquid Laser Area Defense System |
| MAHEM | In development | | |
| Particle beam weapon | Research and development | Warfare | Strategic Defense Initiative |
| Plasma weapon | Research | | |
| Pure fusion weapon | Hypothetical | | |
| Sonic weapon | Research and development | | |
| Stealth technology | Research and development | Electronic countermeasures | Plasma stealth, Stealth aircraft, Radar-absorbent material |
| Vortex ring gun | Research and development | Crowd control | |
| Wireless long-range electric shock weapon | Expansion | Law enforcement guns | |
| Emerging technology | Status | Potential applications | Related articles | - |
| Android, gynoid | Research, development, prototypes, diffusion, commercializing | Disabled, infant and older people care, housekeeping, sex-worker, flight-attendant, model, hostess, waiter, security guard | | - |
| Gastrobot | Some prototypes | | | |
| Molecular nanotechnology, nanorobotics | Hypothetical, experiments | Machines that can make anything given the materials, cheap planetary terraforming | | - |
| Powered exoskeleton | Research, development, prototypes, diffusion, commercializing | Heavy lifting, paralysis, muscle related diseases, warfare, construction, firefighting, care for the elderly and disabled. | LOPES, ReWalk, Human Universal Load Carrier, fictional armor Iron Man's armor, Future Force Warrior | - |
| Self-reconfiguring modular robot | Hypothetical, experiments, early prototypes | As a universal physical machine, SRCMR may change the way we make many physical structures and machines | Robot, swarm robotics, autonomous research robot | - |
| Swarm robotics | Hypothetical, experiments | Autonomous construction, space construction | Swarm intelligence, autonomous robotics, nanorobotics, particle swarm optimization, multi-agent systems, behavior-based robotics | - |
| Unmanned vehicle | Research and development, diffusion, commercial | Transport of goods, mass surveillance, eavesdropping, oceanography, commercial aerial livestock monitoring, wildfire mapping, pipeline security, home security, road patrol and anti-piracy, patrol the nation's borders, scout property, and hunt down fugitives, oil, gas and mineral exploration and production, geophysical surveys, geomagnetic surveys, scientific research in areas too dangerous for pilots like a hurricane tornado hunter, firefighting, military operations and peacekeeping operations, search and rescue, explosives and bomb disposal, gatekeeper and checkpoint operations, urban street presence, police raids in urban settings. | Unmanned aerial vehicle, AeroVironment, AeroVironment Global Observer, AeroVironment Nano Hummingbird, Unmanned combat air vehicle, Unmanned ground vehicle, Unmanned space vehicle, Unmanned surface vehicle, Unmanned underwater vehicle, Autonomous underwater vehicle | - |
| Emerging technology | Status | Potential applications | Related articles |
| Airless tire | Research, development, early prototypes | Safer tires | Tweel |
| Alternative fuel vehicle | Commercialization, diffusion | Reducing air pollution, decreasing oil consumption | Electric vehicle, Hydrogen vehicle, Compressed air vehicle |
| Autonomous Rail Rapid Transit | Commercialization, diffusion | Reducing air pollution, decreasing oil consumption | Electric vehicle, Hydrogen vehicle, Compressed air vehicle |
| Beam-powered propulsion | Hypothetical | | Laser propulsion |
| Electro hydrodynamic propulsion | Research, development, prototypes | Better flying transportation, efficient propulsion in air | Electrohydrodynamics |
| Flexible wings, fluidic flight controls | Experiments, prototypes | Controlling aircraft, ships | Aircraft flight control system, BAE Systems Demon, fluidics |
| Flying car | Early commercialization, prototypes | More effective transportation | Terrafugia Transition, Moller M400 Skycar, Urban Aeronautics X-Hawk, AeroMobil |
| Fusion rocket | Research, development | Fast interplanetary travel, with limited Interstellar applications | |
| Hoverbike | Working prototypes, early commercialization | Package delivery, search and rescue | - |
| Hovertrain, Ground effect train | Research, development | Trains with higher speed | Aérotrain, Duke Hospital PRT, Hovercraft |
| High Altitude Platforms | Experimentation | Communications | |
| Jet pack or backpack helicopter | Early commercialization, prototypes | More effective transportation | |
| Maglev train, Vactrain | Research, early commercialization | Trains with higher speed | Transrapid, Shanghai Maglev Train, Linimo |
| Magnetic levitation | Research, development, Commercialization | High temperature superconductivity, cryogenics, low temperature refrigerators, superconducting magnet design and construction, fiber reinforced plastics for vehicles and structural concretes, communication and high power solid-state controls, vehicle design, precision manufacturing, construction and fabrication of concrete structures, maglev car, maglev based spacecraft launch | Vactrain, Levicar |
| Mass driver | Prototypes | | |
| Nuclear photonic rocket | Hypothetical | Interplanetary travel | - |
| Personal rapid transit | Early commercialization, diffusion | More effective transportation | Morgantown PRT, ULTra |
| Photon rocket | Hypothetical | Local interstellar travel | |
| Photonic laser thruster | Prototypes | | |
| Physical Internet | Research | | - |
| Scooter-sharing system | Commercialization | Increased density | Bird |
| Vactrain | Research, development | Faster way to get somewhere | ET3 Global Alliance, Hyperloop |
| Propellant depot | Research, development | enabling deep-space missions with more massive payloads, satellite life extension, ultimately lowering the cost per kg launched to space | |
| Pulse detonation engine | Testbed demos | Fast interplanetary travel, with some possible interstellar travel applications | |
| Reusable launch system | Research, early commercialization | Surface-to-orbit transport | Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, SpaceX Starship, New Glenn |
| Space elevator | Research, development | | Non-rocket spacelaunch, Orbital ring, Sky hook, Space fountain |
| Spaceplane | Research, development | Hypersonic transport | A2, Skylon |
| Supersonic transport | Commercialization, diffusion | Airliner with higher speed | Concorde, Tupolev Tu-144 |
| Vehicular communication systems | Research and development, some diffusion | Vehicle safety obstacle inform others warnings on entering intersections, traffic management, accommodating ambulances, fire trucks, and police cars to a specific situation such as hot pursuits and bad weather, driver assistance systems, automated highways. | Artificial Passenger, Dedicated short-range communications, Intelligent transportation system |
