In depth: Tech transformers: 10 big innovations making our gadgets better

In depth: Tech transformers: 10 big innovations making our gadgets better.

Tech transformers: 1-5

Technology often moves quite slowly: every barnstorming new product is usually followed by years or even decades of incremental improvements.

But from time to time a new technology comes along and transforms everything, leaving you wondering how you ever managed without it.

So which up-coming pieces of tech could transform the whole world, and which ones offer more hype than hope? Here are the current contenders.

1. Lytro cameras

The newly announced Lytro Illum is the first high-end camera to use light field technology, and it's the second camera from the company. Unlike traditional photos, light field images can be refocused after you take them - so if you'd rather look at the background than the foreground, you can change the focus with a click.

It's enormously clever and has the potential to revolutionise photography. But Lytro is a real underdog here: its images require a plugin to view and it's taking on a massive and well established market. Fans hope it will become the Dyson of digital photography.

2. Project Ara

Google's modular phone programme, Project Ara, could be much bigger than just phones. It's just as applicable to tablets, and Toshiba hopes to bring it to wearables too. Sensors and other key components would be swappable, so for example you might take the camera out of your phone and stick it in your smartwatch when you're going out, popping it into your tablet when you get home.

3. Oculus Rift

Facebook didn't buy Oculus VR just because it fancied doing some VR gaming: it believes the headset could be the future of movies and perhaps even social networking too. There are applications in architecture and education and 3D modelling, and it might just help people with phobias or PTSD too.

4. iWatch

Yes, we know: so far it's all hype and no trousers. But one of the most interesting rumours is that the iWatch is being positioned as the replacement for the iPod and as a controller for the next Apple TV, essentially making it the One Ring To Rule Them All. Maybe those iRing rumours weren't so far-fetched after all.

5. Project Christine

Wouldn't it be great if consoles were as powerful and as expandable as gaming PCs while keeping their basic simplicity? Razer thinks so, and its Project Christine does for gaming what Project Ara does for smartphones. It's a fully modular PC where swapping out a graphics card is no more complex than unplugging a USB device. It's not a big deal for hardcore gamers, we know, but awfully attractive to more casual users.

Tech transformers: 6-10

6. OnePlus One

Fancy a top-end Android phone for £229 ($299, around $AU400)? Say hello to the OnePlus One, a genuinely disruptive new device that delivers big power for a little price. It's the first smartphone to officially run the CyanogenMod flavour of Android and our early verdict is overwhelmingly positive.

7. Amazon Prime Phone

The much-rumoured Amazon phone is believed to have two unique features: Prime Data, which delivers Amazon-specific content without cutting into your data allowance, and a completely new kind of interface. Six cameras will track your face, changing the display so that it appears to be in 3D. If it's as good as it sounds, it could make other mobile UIs look hopelessly old-fashioned.

8. NSA-proof phones

With endless headlines about data breaches and snooping security forces, it's no wonder many people are interested in phones that don't track their every move and share data with all kinds of people. New devices such as the GSMK Cryptophone and the Blackphone offer a level of security you won't get from any Samsung, but that security comes at a price. How much are we willing to pay for privacy?

9. Amazing chargers

Battery life remains the Achilles' Heel of mobile devices, and while battery tech is improving it's doing so very slowly. That might not be a problem if devices such as StoreDot's prototype can be shrunk down to reasonable sizes: its charger for the Galaxy S4 can fully charge the device in fewer than 30 seconds.

Increasingly ubiquitous wireless chargers could help too, especially if they're like the DCRS (Dipole Coil Resonant System) demonstrated in Korea this April. It can charge 40 smartphones simultaneously from a distance of 5 metres. Its creators believe that we will "eventually have many Wi-Power zones at such places as restaurants and streets."

10. Sapphire screens

Forget Gorilla Glass: sapphire crystal screens are more scratch-resistant and they're almost as hard as diamonds. Unfortunately sapphire is also rather expensive. If firms such as Apple - which has invested heavily in sapphire tech - can get the price down and solve the brightness and colour issues that currently affect sapphire screens, shatter-proof smartphones could soon be a reality.