Gartner has identified seven technologies that will "completely transform" business over the next 25 years, including parallel programming, wireless power sources for mobile devices, automated speech translation, and computing interfaces that detect human gestures.

"Many of the emerging technologies that will be entering the market in 2033 are already known in some form in 2008," Gartner said in a press release issued Wednesday from its Emerging Trends Symposium/ITxpo in Las Vegas.

Gartner says each of the seven technologies represents a "grand challenge" for IT researchers and CIOs, who should pay attention to the emerging research today so as to be ready for the changes they will bring.

"Gartner defines an IT Grand Challenge as a fundamental issue to be overcome within the field of IT whose resolutions will have broad and extremely beneficial economic, scientific or societal effects on all aspects of our lives," the analyst firm writes.

CIOs should chart which of these emerging technologies means the most for their businesses and track progress by reviewing related patents, the firm recommends.

Here's a rundown of Gartner's seven technology "grand" challenges:

* Eliminating the need to recharge batteries for wireless devices. The future holds portable computing devices that are charged remotely, rather than with a wire, or devices that are simply powered by a remote source, making the use of batteries unnecessary, according to Gartner. A 2007 experiment at MIT was able to transfer power wirelessly, but commercial applications of wireless powering are "a long way off."

* Parallel programming. Speed advances in computing are starting to come with multicore processors which, instead of simply speeding up a single core, use multiple processors that are a bit slower but solve problems faster by dividing tasks into smaller individual processes. The IT challenge this presents is developing applications capable of taking advantage of multicore processors. "Key issues will need to be addressed, including effectively breaking up processes into specific sub-processes, [and] determining which tasks can be handled simultaneously by multiple processes," Gartner writes.

* Natural computing interfaces. The goal of interacting with computers without a mechanical interface is a longstanding one, but obstacles remain in developing the ability for computers to detect gestures, and check those gestures in real time against a gesture "dictionary" that tells the computer what action to take.