The following are extracts from the mirai nenpyo (future timeline) database prepared by the team led by Masataka Yoshikawa, research director of the Institute of Life and Living at Hakuhodo Inc., Japan's second-largest advertising agency. By collecting vast amounts of published information spanning many fields concerning the future, the team aims to objectively assess the data in an effort to, as Yoshikawa puts it, "Try to grasp the direction it points to and get a bird's-eye view of trends into the future."

If you are curious to glimpse into some parts of the data these professional analysts collected, read on . . .

2007: A teleconferencing system displaying life-size images of people in different locations will hit the market, making them feel like they are all in the same room.