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What’s next in the world of computer hardware? Are we getting close to those TV ads where the guy is placing stock trade orders via an interface in his eyeglasses lens?

Maybe not quite yet. But here are a few developments that may hit the market in the next few years – or decades:

• Fabric laptops. Instead of a metal case, some portable computers will be housed in a lightweight, flexible material like a book cover. Display screens will be about as thick as a laminated piece of paper. To accomplish this feat, hard drives will be replaced by flash drives or solid state drives, and batteries will be much smaller and lighter.
• DNA computers. In 1965, Intel founder Gordon Moore predicted that microprocessors would double in complexity every two years. This process may soon reach its limit, because today’s silicon microprocessors are limited in their physical speed and size. Scientists have found that DNA molecules, the material genes are made of in all living things, have the potential to perform complex mathematical functions by combining in variations.
• Cloud computers. All files and applications will be stored not on individual drives but on a massive, centralized network. Users would only need to purchase an inexpensive screen-keyboard-mouse interface.
• Printable processors. You may be able to print out your own microprocessor chips using flexible, ink-like circuitry on plastic or fabric.
• Scratch and sniff. Aromatherapy technologies are actually being developed to interlace viewing experiences with interactive scent generators, which will release everything from popcorn smells (to provide the movie theater experience) to ocean or beach scents to accompany scenes of water.
• Microstorage. Memory formats such as carbon nanotubes will enable components to be arranged atom-by-atom. By the year 2050, it’s likely that a device the size of a micro-SD card will have storage equivalent to three times the brain capacity of the entire human race.