Technology 1975 - 2016

By ElijahR4B

  • Automation system

    1975
    Pico Electronics develops X-10 home automation system.

  • First Personal computer

    First Personal computer
    1976
    Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs launch the Apple I: one of the world's first personal home computers

  • Vacuum cleaners

    Vacuum cleaners
    1970s– 1980s
    James Dyson invents the bagless, cyclonic vacuum cleaner.

  • Quantum computers

    1970s-1980s
    Scientists including Charles Bennett, Paul Benioff, Richard Feynman, and David Deutsch sketch out how quantum computers might work.

  • CD players MP3 players

    CD players MP3 players
    1980s
    Japanese electrical pioneer Akio Morita develops the Sony Walkman, the first truly portable player for recorded music.

  • History of computers

    1981
    Stung by Apple's success, IBM releases its own affordable personal computer (PC).

  • Space Shuttle

    1981
    The Space Shuttle makes its maiden voyage.

  • Lasers

    1981
    Patricia Bath develops laser eye surgery for removing cataracts.

  • Quantum dots

    1981-1982
    Alexei Ekimov and Louis E. Brus (independently) discover quantum dots.

  • CD players

    1983
    Compact discs (CDs) are launched as a new way to store music by the Sony and Philips corporations.

  • DLP® projectors

    1987
    Larry Hornbeck, working at Texas Instruments, develops DLP® projection—now used in many projection TV systems

  • Internet World Wide Web

    1989
    Tim Berners-Lee invents the World Wide Web.
    Internet
    World Wide Web

  • Radio-controlled clocks Quartz clocks and watches

    1990
    German watchmaking company Junghans introduces the MEGA 1, believed to be the world's first radio-controlled wristwatch.

  • Computers Linux

    1991
    Linus Torvalds creates the first version of Linux, a collaboratively written computer operating system.

  • Iris scans

    1994
    American-born mathematician John Daugman perfects the mathematics that make iris scanning systems possible.

  • VoIP

    1994
    Israeli computer scientists Alon Cohen and Lior Haramaty invent VoIP for sending telephone calls over the Internet.

  • E-commerce

    1995
    Pierre Omidyar launches the eBay auction website.

  • Streaming media

    1995
    Broadcast.com becomes one of the world's first online radio stations.

  • HDTV

    1996
    WRAL-HD broadcasts the first high-definition television (HDTV) signal in the United States.

  • Wireless Internet

    1997
    Electronics companies agree to make Wi-Fi a worldwide standard for wireless Internet.

  • MP3 music player

    2001

    Apple revolutionizes music listening by unveiling its iPod MP3 music player.

  • Roomba Robots

    2002
    iRobot Corporation releases the first version of its Roomba® vacuum cleaning robot.

  • Touchscreens

    2004
    Electronic voting plays a major part in a controversial US Presidential Election. 2004
    Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov discover graphene. Graphene

  • Computers

    2005
    A pioneering low-cost laptop for developing countries called OLPC is announced by MIT computing pioneer Nicholas Negroponte.

  • Electronic books

    2007
    Amazon.com launches its Kindle electronic book (e-book) reader.
    2007
    Apple introduces a touchscreen cellphone called the iPhone.
    Cellphones
    Touchscreens

  • Computers Touchscreens /3D Television Television

    2010
    Apple releases its touchscreen tablet computer, the iPad.
    2010
    3D TV starts to become more widely available.

  • Pneumatic transport tube

    Pneumatic transport tube
    2013
    Elon Musk announces "hyperloop"—a giant, pneumatic tube transport system.

  • Supercomputers

    2015
    Supercomputers (the world's fastest computers) are now a mere 30 times less powerful than human brains.

  • Nanotechnology

    Nanotechnology
    2016 Three nanotechnologists win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for building miniature machines out of molecules2