From cutting our lawns to scheduling our heating systems, digital technology is already helping us save time on many day-to-day tasks.

With constant leaps being made in computer science, here are some of the developments we could see in the near future:

In medicine, 3D printing is already helping to deliver low-cost, personalised treatments to patients – including prosthetic limbs, artificial eyes, implants and robotic arms.

The future possibilities with 3D printing are endless with plans to print tailored pills combining all the medication a patient needs to take that day in one tablet and the ability to produce unique cutting guides for surgeons ahead of operations.

In education, the pandemic accelerated the use of digital learning when school closures forced remote learning – with teachers utilising video conferencing, uploading work and marking assignments online.

The use of AR (Augmented Reality) could provide pupils with the chance to visit the places they are learning about digitally in the future through developing technologies like Google Glass smart glasses, making school trips to faraway places more achievable through a computer-simulated recreation.

At work, digital assistants will take over more manual business processes to save time and reduce human error, while robots will become further utilised in areas like warehousing and surveillance.

In transport, driverless cars are already a possibility with Tesla vehicles already having full self-driving capability – something proven to reduce crashes, which are mainly caused by driver error.

Advancing technologies in transport mean we could one day see driverless lorries travelling in convoy, solar panels on car roofs helping to power them, widened use of drones for hands-free deliveries and robots and humans venturing further into space.

Closer to home, gadgets like robotic vacuum cleaners and lawnmowers are already taking over some household cleaning duties, while interactive fitness equipment like Peloton bikes have revolutionised the home gym experience.

Smart home systems enable us to control everything from lighting and heating to our washing machines, using either our phones or voice assistants like Amazon Alexa and Siri.

Ongoing advancements in home tech include smart doorbells which take the temperatures of your guests if you don’t want illnesses spreading, home security systems that let you control your home remotely and smart toilets, which analyse your waste and flag up any potential health issues.

Smart home systems are an example of the Internet of Things (IoT) – a description given to physical objects that have sensors and technologies to connect and exchange data with systems over the internet.

The future possibilities with this are endless – from devices analysing your data to plan ahead for you to the growth of 5G internet to speed up connectivity, the IoT is likely to digitalise many more aspects of our lives in the near future.