These are the 5 technologies that are bringing the future to the here and now – and how to cash in on them.

Photovoltaics Technology

Whats photovoltaics? Solar panels. Photovoltaic production has been doubling every 2 years, increasing by an average of 48 percent each year since 2002, making it the world’s fastest-growing energy technology. Photovoltaics are best known as a method for generating electric power by using solar cells to convert energy from the sun into electricity. An example of how photovoltaics will be integrated in our future architectural landscape can be seen in the Co-operative Insurance Tower in Manchester England and in solar parking meters that use the suns energy to power itself while feeding electricity into the power grid.

• Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. (Nasdaq: ENER) manufactures and sells thin-film solar laminates that convert sunlight to energy using proprietary technology. Distributed globally under the UNI-SOLAR® brand, the company’s products are ideally suited for cost-effective solutions for roofing applications because they are lightweight, durable, flexible, can be integrated directly with building materials, and generate more energy in real-world conditions.

• The current market leader in solar panel efficiency (measured by energy conversion ratio) is SunPower (Nasdaq: SPWRB) a San Jose based company. Sunpower’s cells have a conversion ratio of 23.4%, well above the market average of 12-18%.

• Applied Materials (NASDAQ: AMAT) has been around for awhile, making a name for itself in the semiconductor and LCD markets. They have recently announced they will be jumping into the solar power market and have launched the Applied SunFab Thin Film Line, sure to revolutionize the market. Check out the Bloomberg company spotlight in my video section.

I own all three of these companies to make sure if one takes off, Im there for the ride.

Biomechanics and Bioengineering Technology

Biomechanics is the application of mechanical principles to living organisms, and Bioengineering is the application of engineering principles to address challenges in the fields of biology and medicine. Translation: Biomechanics and bioengineering is using science to make the human body “better”. Its creating prosthetic legs for quadriplegics, its creating nanocells to help the immune system battle disease, and its giving vision back to the blind using implanted camera-brain interfaces. Researchers at the University of Washington have even Here are the 3 companies that will turn us all into cyborgs.

• Human Genome Sciences (NasdaqGM: HGSI) operates as a biopharmaceutical company in the United States. The company’s clinical development pipeline includes novel drugs to treat hepatitis C, lupus, inhalation anthrax, and cancer. According to their website, HGS is working to create and develop novel therapies that can extend and improve the quality of life, and with a stock that has been consistently upgraded since July (Yahoo Finance), they are on track to do just that.

• According to my sources within the company, Sandia National Laboratories (managed and operated by the Sandia Corporation a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation – NYSE: LMT), have successfully built a bio compatible contact lens with working LEDs (see pics). They hope that future versions of the lens can act as a biomedical sensor, or provide a display that is superimposed on a person’s field of view. This technology is useful because drivers or pilots could see a vehicle’s speed projected onto the windshield, video-game companies could use the contact lenses to completely immerse players in a virtual world, and people on the go could surf the Internet on a midair virtual display screen that only they would be able to see.

• Synthetic telepathy, the foundations of which lie in neuroscience and signal processing, is based on reading electrical activity in the brain using an electroencephalograph, or EEG. Similar technology is being marketed as a way to control video games by thought. This technology was recently the subject of a $4 million grant awarded by the US Army Research Office. The intent is to develop a system that could equip soldiers with portable noninvasive brain imaging technology able to interpret thoughts related to speech and commands. The decoded thoughts could then be transmitted wirelessly. The lead researcher Michael D’Zmura, chair of the UCI Department of Cognitive Sciences, is confident that the technology can be made to work. There are technical hurdles that need to be overcome no doubt, but keep in mind that 20 years ago people would have thought that Skype and YouTube was impossible. If you think about it, synthetic telepathy is the way internet wi-fi and cell phones work - the only difference is that you have to physically move your mouth.

In an early success for the two-year, $19 million, Brain Machine Interfaces program, a research team led by Duke University neurobiologist Miguel Nicolelis outfitted the brain of a small, South American owl monkey with 100 hair-like sensors. The sensors allowed the researchers to analyze the monkey’s neural impulses as the animal manipulated a joystick to match a cursor with a series of lights displayed on a nearby computer screen. The impulses were then converted into code that computers could understand. The monkey repeated the motion – only this time, two robotic arms (one in an adjacent room and another 600 miles away in a Boston laboratory) also moved in response to the wireless signals sent straight from the monkey’s brain. – http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1103/111003nj1.htm

Weapons and Armor Technology

MGL (Multiple Grenade Launcher) is a lightweight 40 mm semi-automatic, 6-shot grenade launcher manufactured in South Africa by Milkor

30 Years ago, the existence of a Stealth Bomber was the stuff of conspiracy theory. 20 years ago, space weapons were laughed at. 10 Years ago, the thought of killing enemies with remote controlled robots was silly. Today, the thought of killing each other off with beams of light or concentrated air or even the manipulation of the weather and tactical earthquakes is the stuff of science fiction. Or so your thought.

Two months ago, the US Air Force acknowledged that the RQ-170 actually exists. God only knows what else exists that you wont hear about for another decade. Force fields, invisibility for soldiers, and wirelessly transmitted explosives are confirmed government and university projects that have been underway. Here are just four of the companies that are at the cutting edge of combat.

Photo of the RQ-170 in Kandahar, Afghanistan

• General Atomics, the company that made the Predator and Reaper UAV drones in use in the Middle East, has a capacitor product line that includes energy storage, high energy density capacitors, high repetition rate pulse capacitors, DC filter capacitors, high frequency AC capacitors, and very high voltage capacitors. They are also producing fusion based, cryogenic, meltdown-proof reactors and advanced gas turbine technology. In other words, high tech weapons and facilities.

• Ceradyne (NASDAQ: CRDN) produces ceramic armor that has the same bullet proof effectiveness of steel, but is 70% lighter. Their plates of armor are light enough to fit aircraft, be worn as body armor in Iraq (I wore some) and can also be used to coat bullets. Check out this video from Ceradyne recently aired on the History Channel

• From the early 1900s until his death, Nikola Tesla (the dude that made those electric globes that look like lighting in a fishbowl) worked on plans for a directed-energy weapon. In 1937, he composed a treatise entitled “The Art of Projecting Concentrated Non-dispersive Energy through the Natural Media” concerning charged particle beams. You think the military would just sit on this and not develop the technology for a hundred years? “Project Pandora”,  conducted by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research included externally induced auditory input from pulsed microwave audio-grams of words or oral sounds which create the effect of hearing voices that are not a part of the recipients own thought processes. Microwave pulses can also affect the skin and the dermis, the thick sensitive layer of skin and connective tissue beneath the epidermis that contains blood, lymph vessels, sweat glands, and nerve endings, generating a burn from as far as 700 yards. Directed energy weapons such as Boeing’s (NYSE:BA) Airborne Laser which can be mounted on a 747 jet is able to burn the skin off enemy missiles. They wont confirm or deny that these weapons are currently in operation.

Nikola Tesla

Even though higher level agencies wont confirm they use these technologies, the police force actively showcases them. The Active Denial System (ADS) is a strong millimeter-wave transmitter primarily used for crowd control. Defense contractor Raytheon has developed a smaller version of the ADS, the Silent Guardian. This stripped-down model is primarily marketed for use by law enforcement agencies, the military and other security providers. The system is operated and aimed with a joystick and aiming screen. The device can be used for targets up to 550 m away.

Travel Technology

Trains

When it comes to long distance land travel, Maglevs are the way of the future. Even in infancy, this new technology has the power to transform the way we travel. Videos can explain better than I can:

Space Planes

Virgin Galactic is a while away from going public, but has already gotten major money from some private investors (Abu Dhabi’s Aabar Investments is paying $280 million for a 32% stake in the business). This puts VG in the “top three” Virgin-owned companies, according to a spokesman, alongside Virgin Atlantic and gym chain Virgin Active. Personally, Branson has put $100 million into his space tourism company, which already has 300 people signed up at $200,000 per ticket. Keep an eye on this company, and jump on its IPO as soon as its available!

Automobiles

The Tesla Roadster

Its 2010. Wheres my flying car? Not quite here yet, however, we are getting close. To help solve our oil dependency and create more economically friendly car, Tesla Motors Inc. engineers and manufactures electric vehicles (EVs). It is currently the only automaker building and selling highway-capable EVs that are affordable and modern. Tesla Motors is currently developing the Model S, an all-electric family sedan with an anticipated base price of $57,400 or $49,900 after a US federal tax credit. It will have three battery pack options for a range of up to 300 miles per charge. Tesla has taken more than 1,500 reservations for the Model S and expects to begin production in late 2011 for the 2012 model-year. Currently, Tesla produces a $100,000 Roadster -the first production automobile to use lithium-ion battery cells and the first production EV to travel more than 200 miles (320 km) per charge.

When it comes to cars, my prediction is that as Maglev technology becomes more feasible, cars will be replaced by maglev transports or systems.  From the Discovery Channel website: Meet SkyTran, a proposed rapid transportation system that uses computer-controlled vehicles that use magnets to “levitate” from their rails. A passenger would enter a pod, type in where he or she wants to go, and the computer system would do the navigating (and driving). The pods would carry up to three people and travel up to 150 mph. The system would be computerized to deploy the pods to crowded areas, and smart enough to re-route to avoid traffic jams.

With no engine, tires or batteries, a SkyTran vehicle is small, light and aerodynamic. It consumes 1/10 the energy of a car, even at higher speeds.

Computer-controlled SkyTran vehicles, mechanically locked to micro-freeways (with no intersections) above the traffic, will be much safer than cars. In emergencies, their brakes can stop much faster than a car, since they are protected from weather inside the guideway shell. Because of the closer spacing this permits, a single guideway has the passenger capacity of a three-lane freeway.

When it comes to personal flight, Trek Aerospace has already invented a single pilot Exoskeleton Flying Vehicle (first image) with a top speed of 113 mph and a range of 184 miles. The retail price is $1.25 million USD, but expect the price to come waaay down as technology advances.

This next personal helicraft is the Hummel itwo passenger lightweight helicopter. When you’re done flying it folds into a box shape for easy storage and transportation.

Quality of Life Technology

How we live is usually determined by environment: Skyscrapers are the result of limited space, and with more and more people taking up less and less land, we will either have to build bigger, badder skyscrapers, or move off land. And with the increasing threat of climate change, we might have to make some major moves. Im talking about space stations and sea cities.

Mega Skyscrapers

A few years back, the Takenaka Corporation pitched Sky City 1000 as a solution to Tokyo’s land crunch. This 3,281-foot tower will accommodate approximately 36,000 full-time residents and 100,000 workers. To invest in them, you will need to buy Japan International Stock Funds. I talk about these in Part 4 of my post entitled Welcome to Wall Street.

Underwater Cities

Crescent Hydropolis Resorts PLC is the company behind the Hydropolis in Dubai – the world’s first luxury underwater hotel. It will include three elements: the land station, where guests will be welcomed, the connecting tunnel, which will transport people by train to the main area of the hotel, and the 220 suites within the submarine leisure complex. It is one of the largest contemporary construction projects in the world, and could pave the way for more advanced undersea structures.

Facial Recognition Technology

Facial recognition technology is going to be used to enable future homes to identify and interact with specific residents. For example, wall-mounted sensors will identify you as you  enter the bathroom set the shower to your favorite temperature, remind you to take your medication, and recite your goals back to you while you brush your teeth in the morning. In addition, future homes will use a combination of voice and facial recognition technology to let homeowners inside, making house keys obsolete. “What’s a house key?” The kids won’t even know what that is 20 years from now. This technology could be included in the average newly constructed home by 2019 and retrofitted into most existing homes by 2024. Facial recognition is already being used by some people by companies like Brillertek to let you log into your accounts just by taking a picture of your face with your webcam!

Wrap

So now that you have taken a glimpse into the companies that are powering the future, put your bid in and invest. These could be the Googles, Microsofts, and Wal-Marts of this decade and beyond!

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