The combination of governmental and corporate data tracking are enabling outside entities to track increasingly granular details about our lives and interactions. Most of the reasons offer positives and are focused on protecting citizens or providing services we find useful. In order to do these jobs more efficiently, inroads to more data are critical in order to query across enough channels to create accurate connections such as identifying a terrorist organization's leader or helping us make certain we get enough exercise per day.

Our march into tomorrow keeps making for better todays. Here are vidoes of three important technologies providing individuals with physical limitations the opportunity to experience and interact with the world around them.

What is Tek RMD - 9:26 long - from Matia Robotics

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This year's CES was filled with new wearable technologies looking for the next big thing, but Thinkgeek is selling a tongue-in-cheek wearable as a spidey-sense shirt that vibrates when someone approaches from behind, signaling the wearer a person is within 5 feet.

The device is a novelty, announced just before last year's Comic-Con, but would make great sense as a real wearable or a feature included in a line of self-protection wearables. So much discussion on the benefit of wearables has focused inwards so far. Step tracking or distance measuring was the first real attempt. Tracking body data such as heart rate, blood pressure, blood sugar and such for biorhythm projection is where the current cycle is focused. How long before we focus outward?

Back at Apple's 2013 event, they mentioned iBeacon as part of their new upgrades. This technology uses Bluetooth Low Energy to alert your phone when it comes within range of a beacon - a small, low-powered device used to identify a place. Sneaky Apple not only announced a major competitor to NFC (Near Field Communiction), they also announced that some of their products (and others) have built in beacon functionality and have had them for some time. With the rollout of iOS 7 and OS X 10.9, there are suddenly tens of millions of iBeacon ready devices which can both seek or offer location awareness.

Why is this important? Bluetooth low energy technology currently offers a range of 50 meters/160 feet using a trickle of energy (less than 15 milliamps according to this page). Your phone is suddenly able to identify interesting or even necessary locations within that range with very little impact on the device itself. This is a major step towards the Internet of Things and, as with most leaps forward, will have both positive and negative impacts on our lives and privacy.