Dive computers of the future?

[EricTheDood]

The rate of change in technology is incredible today.

I'm more pessimistic in that regard. I grew up in the 80s and 90s where the rate of change was significantly faster than it is today. Moore's law stagnating during my college years (early 2000s) while studying Comp Sci was incredibly disappointing.

What we've seen in the last 17 years was very predictable in late 90s - much faster internet, PDAs merging with phones and becoming ubiquitous, etc. Don't get me wrong, I love technology and the improvement has been great, but back at the turn of the millennium, I really thought what we're seeing now with phones, internet, Facebook, etc would just be a subset of overall progress, not the totality. We haven't seeing anything truly revolutionary in the areas of materials, medicine, etc.

Anyway, back to the subject of SCUBA, I really see little improvement happening with dive computers over the next 10-15 years. I bought a Suunto Eon Steel last year. I predict that in 10 years, there will be slightly more streamlined units out there, but mine will still look light years ahead of 90% of other computers available. The Eon Steel has a battery that lasts 28 days. Out of the water, it'll last months before a recharge is required, which takes just a few hours on a USB connection. A lot of the computer's bulk is in the battery. Like everything else, battery breakthroughs are slow to emerge. I think it'll happen in 10-15 years because there's a ton of money behind it, but there are many aspects of battery improvement beyond energy density. For example, maybe we might see a battery that's slightly bulkier than Li-Ion but with unlimited charge cycles, or faster charge cycles. If that's the case, the computers won't get less bulky, or at least not by much, because we're still going to see the same available materials.

The "next big thing" is going to be the proliferation of self driving cars. That's where the money is. The electric car market will continue to grow, but it'll take a backseat to autonomous driving. It's not the most exciting thing in the world, but that's the reality, IMO.