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Slaving over textbooks and spending hours in a classroom conjugating verbs could be a thing of the past if one scientist's predictions come true.

Nicholas Negroponte of MIT predicted the demise of the computer mouse back in the 1980s and now thinks that it could be just 30 years until we can 'ingest' languages.

The founder of MIT's Media Lab and One Laptop per Child Association, said in a TED talk that we will be able to swallow pills to learn languages and works of literature in the future.

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Nicholas Negroponte (pictured) of MIT predicted the demise of the computer mouse back in the 1980s and now thinks that it could be just 30 years until we can 'ingest' information by simply taking a pill

He said that humans are adept at consuming information through our eyes, but this method may be inefficient compared with other alternatives.

Addressing the TED audience in Vancouver, Canada, Negroponte said: 'My prediction is that we'll be able to ingest information.

'You're going to swallow a pill and know English. You're going to swallow a pill and know Shakespeare.'

'And the way to do it is through the bloodstream. So once it's [the information in the pill] in your bloodstream, it basically goes through and gets into the brain…and the different pieces get deposited in the right places.'

Negroponte said that he is not the only scientist to think such a feat of learning may be possible in the next 30 years.

THE COMPUTER MOUSE COULD BE REPLACED BY A SMART THIMBLE

The computer mouse has had a good run, but almost 70 years since the design was first patented, it is now under threat from a smart 'thimble'.

The wearable 3D Touch device is fitted with an accelerometer and gyroscope, and lets people control an onscreen mouse using just a wave of their finger. 

The device, created by engineers at the University of Wyoming, uses a 3D accelerometer, magnetometer and gyroscope to orientate where the pointer should be.

The 'thimble' also uses optical flow sensors to track movement against a 2D surface.

A button between the forefinger and thumb is used in place of the left-click button on a standard mouse.

All of this location data is streamed to a laptop and is used to move the cursor, it can also be used with touchscreen-style gestures such as double tap and long press.

By combining data from all of the sensors, the 3DTouch can more accurately determine the location on the screen, and the researchers claim it can be used to move a 3D object with a positioning error of only about 1 mm.

Mr Negroponte predicts that humans will be able to take a pill (illustrated) to ingest different pieces of information, such as languages and specific works of literature, for example. He thinks the information will be carried through the blood stream before being deposited in the right part of the brain

He claims that it is when people say he is 'dead wrong' that a prediction might come true.

In the 1970s be adapted a truck with cameras to create a map, a set-up reminiscent of Google's Street View.

In his first TED talk in 1984, he predicted that we would stop using the mouse to control computers and instead use our fingers - essentially predicting touch screens which are ubiquitous on today's smartphones and tablets.

He said: 'We picked fingers because everybody thought it was ridiculous. They were low-resolution, there was concern that the hand would occlude what you want to see and that the finger would get the screen dirty.'

'One of the things about ageing is that I can tell you with great confidence that I've been to the future.

'I've been there actually many times. How many times in my life have I said, "In 10 years this will happen" … and then 10 years comes' and the prediction comes true.

In 1995, he said that we would buy books and newspapers online and read them on screens, so his latest prediction might not be as far fetched as it sounds today.