Never accuse Google (NSDQ: GOOG) of not thinking big. During CEO Eric Schmidt’s IFA keynote in Berlin on Tuesday…
— Mobile product director Hugo Barra demoed a forthcoming update to Android’s Google Translate, Conversation Mode, which effectively replicates Star Trek’s Universal Voice Translator – it uses the phone to facilitate a two-way conversation between people speaking in different languages.
— Google TV product marketing manager Brittany Bohnet revealed that the forthcoming TV software will offer input via iPhone and Android, possibly leading to voice control of your TV, she said.
Schmidt said his footsoldiers had shown delegates “two really historic things”: “These were things that were the stuff of science fiction a few years ago – and now they’re very, very real.”
But Schmidt wasn’t done with the big-think. Here are some more, futuristic forecasts he gave…
— “We’re about to see a new age of augmented humanity, when computers will make it possible for us to do what we really want to do
— “The internet has replaced the economics of scarcity with the economics of ubiquity. Any business that is built on controlling the flow of information is having difficulty.”
— “Your car should be able to drive itself! After all, your car knows where it is, knows where the other cars are and where it should be going.”
— “A near-term future in which you don’t forget anything, because the computer remembers. You’re never lost.”
— “Not only are you never lonely, you’re never bored! We’ll suggest what you should be watching, because we know what you care about.”
— “We can suggest what you should do next, what you care about. Imagine: We know where you are, we know what you like.”