How to spot a game changer

NOWADAYS hardly a week goes by without the announcement of yet another new technological development promising to make our lives easier, more exciting or at least healthier. Examples include Apple's smart-home technology for operating domestic appliances, Japanese robots able to read emotions for the elderly, wearable activity trackers such as Fitbits and Fire, Amazon's smart TV adaptor for connecting TVs to the Internet.

The big question for investors and venture capitalists as well as incumbent companies which might be threatened by these inventions is which of these is a real "game changer"?

In other words, a technology like the iPad that rapidly comes into common use and changes our day-to-day lives. We've been hearing about smart-home technology for at least 10 years, but it still hasn't really caught on. And, apart from the Furby, we humans just don't seem to be able to get on so well with robots. However, more and more people are now linking their TVs to the Internet.