There are many emerging technologies in the news at the moment from driverless cars to VR, but what you may not see is that many of these technologies are used everyday by people in a wide variety of industries. Many businesses even utilize technology not commonly available to the public through trials direct with the OEM, for others this technology is common place but needs to be adapted for widespread usage.
Agriculture
Utilizing either GPS or a combination of radio and lasers, many farms use driverless tractors that are able to function autonomously on their own or in tandem with other machinery. This example of precision farming isn’t just a result 
of farmers’ desires to put their feet up, this allows for a reduction of overlap in fields which in turn reduces fuel consumption. In 2013, one farm’s set up (see image on the right) allowed for a single man in a control center to control 16 separate vehicles in different locations from 25 miles away. Whilst the price is constantly falling, the machinery including the laser/radio set up currently costs $100,000 for a 200hp tractor which works out at $500/hp. Alternative cheaper systems can be fitted to standard tractors meaning that they can be driven with an operator inside if required who can program routes from a tablet or drive manually.
Since drones first became commercially available, farms have been using both fixed wing planes and quadcopters for numerous reasons including: crop health assessment, field mapping, flood damage surveillance and soil analysis. Numerous forms of cameras allow for specific tests to be done as required, while RGB sensors can be used for plant counting and visual inspections. Near-infrared sensors allow for erosion analysis and moisture management, whilst thermal cameras can be used for irrigation scheduling and maturity evaluation. During December of 2013 and January of 2014, the agriculturally heavy area of the Somerset Levels, UK suffered significant flooding with 17,000 acres of land under water. Many farmers used drones at this point to assess the damage, which had the added side effect of allowing the public to see the damage caused, which helped with aid.
Offices
Earlier this year, up to 400 members of staff at Stockholm company Epicenter volunteered to be implanted with NFC/RFID chips. These chips using the mifare protocol allow these staff members to enter through security doors or pay for food and drinks on site by just placing their hand near a reader. Hannes Sjöblad, founder of a Swedish association of biohackers, gave the following quotes regarding the move, “It’s a small, but indeed fast-growing, 
fraction which has chosen to try it out. There are also several other offices, companies, gyms and education institutions in Stockholm where people access the facilities with implanted RFID/NFC chips.”
The chips have 888 bytes of storage, meaning they are capable of storing small amounts of information such as URLs and business card like information which can be read by an NFC enabled smartphone. They are just slightly larger than a grain of rice which is installed with a simple injection and can be removed easily if needed by a general practitioner. Previously, Verichip tried to bring implants to the marketplace for the storage of medical records but faced heavy opposition from protesters focused on religious, privacy and ethical grounds.
While not widely used yet, Skype translator is definitely worth an honorable mention here. The tool, which is currently still a preview, allows for almost real-time audio translation between different languages. Currently only English and Spanish are supported for vocal translation, but as written translation over Skype works in over 40 languages, we can expect support for some of these languages to be added soon. This is going to be of huge benefit to businesses who frequently deal with partners in other countries. Video conferencing between different languages will not require employees fluent in multiple languages or a 3rd party translator which can become expensive quickly. The tool also offers a transcript of the conversation in both languages allowing for easier referral back to previous comments in your native language.
Health Care & The Emergency Services
Google Glass, whilst no longer available to the public, has been adopted by some doctors around the world. Several features give them opportunities that would be much more complicated otherwise. The camera built-in to Glass allows for trainee surgeons to watch and learn live throughout surgery. DR Parekh, associate professor of orthopaedic surgery at Duke University, streamed himself performing surgery whilst in India and discovered that between 15,000 and 20,000 people were watching at the time. The display allows for doctors to view medical records such as CAT scans and XRays as well as important live data such as heart rate. Doctors have also used Glass to consult with experts in specific fields in the event of unexpected circumstances allowing for advice to be given and with specialized mats, demonstrate ideas by overlaying his own hands on to the display (See video below).