When I was younger I used to watch a TV show called Tomorrow's World. It would show you glimpses of the future and what products and technology we could hope to see in years to come. I remember when I must have been about 10 or 12 and I said to my mum ' I bet in the future there will be big pictures on the wall that you can get letters on instead of envelopes in the post'. Little did I know that years from then email would be invented with flat-screen smart TV's that would do exactly that. Not that they have completely replaced letters but I don't think it is far off the way the post office is prioritising parcels these days.
Anyway, it got me thinking about another idea I had years ago when I first got my solar panels for my house, but I am sure it's probably already in production somewhere. I am not for one minute suggesting I have invented any of these things or come up with the ideas but it's interesting to see that we are already getting closer to some of the things I thought were science fiction at the time.
With the invention of electric cars, I think it would be so much more efficient if the roof of the electric car had a thin solar panel on it so that it could generate it's own electricity and not need to stop to charge up at charging points. The surplus electricity could be stored in a second/third battery so you always had extra charge for longer journey's at night or when it wasn't particularly bright. They already have flexible solar panels so I'm sure it isn't too far behind.
When I googled solar panels and cars it came up with an image so clearly this is nothing new and is already being worked on?
The next evolution in this could be a smart paint that contained nano technology that the cars were sprayed with. Initially the first batch would just contain nanobots that acted as solar cells. New cars would be sprayed with this smart paint which would then mean the whole of the car was a moving solar panel. Maybe you could have the option to connect your car at home and sell power back to the grid from your 2nd or 3rd battery if you knew you weren't going to need it? Everyone could be generating electricity every day?
This same paint could be used to retrofit cars simply by spraying them with the smart paint and fitting a converter of some kind to make the car a hybrid? I don't know the tech behind how easy that would be but it would defo save scrapping cars that are currently petrol or diesel.
The same paint could also then be used. to coat any surface to make it into a solar panel. The entire roof of a house could be sprayed with this paint which would be the equivalent of fitting solar panels. Instead of chunky panels thought that can only fit into certain spaces, every inch of the roof could be sprayed and homes could generate their own electricity.
Again I googled. to find images and would you believe it, there is already a paint that exists. So it would seem my ideas from years ago weren't for sci-fi at all. Now if I had a blog way back then I would have been able to put these ideas in it then as proof that I did think of these things. I'm not saying I invented it or anything but I could see this sort of thing becoming a reality. This image was from 2018 so imagine how far it might have already moved on now we are 5 years further down the line. HERE is the link to their website if it's of interest.
This same smart paint could also have wifi technology built in so that cars had their own wifi, homes wouldn't need routers and cables, it could all be added to their smart paint for their roof. Wireless charging could be another nano technology added to the paint so when you entered a "smart building" you didn't need to plug in your phone or connect to their wifi it was just all delivered through the smart paint on the walls inside. I don't mean every wall would be painted with it and end up frying peoples brains, but an area the same as having a wireless router. I would hope though that if they have nanotech to do all this that the radio waves would somehow have been made safe to be around all the time by then.
The need for childrens toys to have batteries could be a thing of the past. If they were painted with smart paint. Simply leave them in the sunlight for a few hours to charge them up and away they go.
Anyway, that's just another of my ramblings that I thought I would get out fo my brain and dump onto my blog. Who knows what may tomorrow bring ;-)