3-D images? Peshaw. Those are so 2007. What humanity needs now is what MIT researchers hope to provide very soon: super realistic "passive 6-D reflectance field displays" that not only look great, but also respond to stimuli, like lighting conditions. And, not only will these uber images do all that and a bag of chips, they'll be able to change over time as lighting conditions change, with "no electronics or active control" from we mere humans. Oh, and the displays will respond the changes in viewpoint, meaning these visual wonders will have a creepy degree of interactivity to them too (read: legitimate holograms).

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Researchers at UC Davis have designed contact lenses that can give you an in-eye checkup to make sure there's nothing wrong, as well as dispense medication automatically when needed. The "smart" lenses use an organic polymer called PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane, if you're nasty) that detects eye pressure and sends that data to a computer--important updates to get if you're at risk for glaucoma.

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Plasma rockets are the rockets of the future. They use the same stuff that makes up the sun and stars, and follow the same principles that scientists believe govern black holes. And now, NASA is ready to harness that energy for their own devices. They're planning to test a plasma rocket at the International Space Station.

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European researchers are developing a software that will give robots the power to learn when a person is sad, happy or angry. The Feelix Growing project is putting together simple robots that can detect different parameters--facial expressions, voice and proximity--to determine emotional states. The aim of the project is to develop a robot that can serve humans with special needs, such as the ill and the elderly. Using adaptable neural networks, the robot can learn the correct way to respond to people's emotions from experience.

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While most of us are adolescently psyched to see the Batman bike in the Dark Knight, we're aware of the crude reality that even trained stuntmen couldn't ride the thing without falling off. But it's OK, because we've found a suitable superhero replacement. Inspired by the lightcycles from TRON, France-based Enzyme Design has created the Icare concept. Two wheels powered by a 6-cylinder 1.8L Honda engine, it's the stuff of pure future fantasy.

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Where will we be going to enjoy our sporting events in the future? What kind of amenities and features will the stadiums have to cater to our needs as fans? PopSci has investigated some of the up-and-coming technologies that we can expect to find in the stadium of tomorrow and compiled all of these innovations into a composite that includes the best design and technology features from a dozen cutting-edge stadium plans.

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The video labs at AT&T's Atlanta HQ are not located on the higher floors of its 47-story Midtown Centre where, between demos, you can casually scrape a view of the city through giant windows. You know, where you might expect to see the future of TV. Instead, they're buried down on the second floor in a building a few doors down, in a plain grey room, whose only exceptional attribute is a wall of TVs--eight total including two 60-inchers--which are hooked up to experimental U-verse IPTV DVR boxes. In this room, sitting on the single blue-green couch, you can stare up and see the future--TV-to-phone video calling, iPhones as remote controls, on-screen visual voicemail, MST3K-style chat while viewing and more--TV as you will hopefully know it in the next couple of years.

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This is not a leaked American Gladiators uniform. It's Nike's design for the US Olympic Track and Field suits. They're made from Nike's proprietarily named (but possibly a poly-nylon blend synthetic) swift materials. Nike claims the socks and arm coverings, with their dimpled surfaces, break up drag to the tune of 12 to 19% in those areas. The suits, Nike claims, can bring a typically sub-10 second run in the 100-meter dash down by .02 seconds. [Gizmag]

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People have been clamouring for Marty McFly's future Nike's from Back to the Future Part II for years now, but Nike has done nothing about it. Until now. They aren't releasing the actual shoes from the movie, unfortunately, but they are releasing shoes "inspired by" those future kicks. It's a start. Click to see the full sneaks.

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You may know "futurist" Syd Mead from his design work on geek friendly movies like Blade Runner, Tron and Aliens--but in his most recent work he envisions a future city by the name of Doha, Qatar. Naturally, his work speaks for itself, but I must admit that it stands in stark contrast to the bleak world of Blade Runner. Maybe he has become more optimistic as the years have passed. Oh, also, Joel's interviewing Syd soon and I'm sure if you have questions, he'll ask them for you. [Syd Mead via PSFK via Treehugger via Boing Boing Gadgets]

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