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CES 2017: The Trends at CES Unveiled
As I wandered the CES Unveiled show floor on Tuesday evening, it was easy to spot where a lot of attention is being paid in the consumer technology landscape.
4 Min Read
During Tuesday evening's CES Unveiled event here in Las Vegas there were nearly 200 exhibitors clamoring for the attention of over 1,500 media attendees in a room that did not feel much bigger than an American football field.
There were vendors along the walls and in several rows that dissected the room from one end to the other.
The areas this technology covered were as varied as the number of exhibitors on the show floor.
However, as I walked around the room live streaming on Periscope, taking pictures and talking to vendors I did notice some definite trends in some broad subject areas.
Home Automation/Smart Homes
The steady flow of sensors, hubs, and connected devices for your home continues to be a big focus for many companies. This year it is not just connected refrigerators but it now includes things like:
Showers that can be controlled by an app and diagnosed remotely by the manufacturer or be customized with certain colors. Water usage can also be tracked to measure water savings efforts.
Wine Sommelier to serve up that perfect glass of wine.
Home security cameras abound that can be connected to your smart phone.
Smart Mirrors
Food Recyclers
Smart radiator valves
Smart vents to control air circulation.
Helper platforms, many times called robots, that can provide unique services such as information retrieval, skills training, and medical alerts to family and friends as necessary.
Health/Hygiene/Medical
The ability to track progress in many health and well being areas gives consumers the tools to have better metrics to measure their progress through several areas of life:
Stroke rehabilitation that uses gamification to improve a patients increased mobility but to also provide definitive data that shows that progress instead of general observations.
A connected toothbrush that can not only track how long you brush but also identify areas of the mouth that might be having issues through Artificial Intelligence. The data can be shared with your dentists to improve overall dental hygiene and oral care.
A device that uses lasers to address hair loss.
A hairbrush that can help you measure effectiveness of your hair care/brushing for healthy hair.
A connected cane that can be used to summon help if someone falls or can detect abnormal conditions and alert relatives or medical personnel.
A wrist worn device for constantly tracking blood pressure and heart rate.
Audio/Visual/Home Entertainment
This is an area that has long been a target of tech companies to improve the production of and use of audio-visual devices.
A programmable remote control that can be setup to control any service/device.
360 degree recording devices/cameras to immerse individuals even further into virtual reality.
Connected speakers including solar powered and waterproof.
Smart ear buds.
Streaming devices for cord cutters that integrate current streaming services into one portal.
Gimmicky speakers that float above their base.
Lifestyle Tracking
This area covers everything from smart clothes to other devices that track your activities each day. Some people do not like the wrist based activity trackers that are so common so having an alternate style can be very attractive to some consumers. However, I will say this - the wrist still tends to be the primary spot for many of these trackers.
Other options seen include:
Rings
Shoe inserts
Bags
Either embedded sensors in clothing or sensors that can be attached to measure full body activity.
I also saw one wrist based option that replaces your analog/non-connected wrist watch with a band that incorporates the tracking but lets you use your favorite normal watch.
Gaming/Virtual Reality
The continued focus on making gaming more immersive was evidenced here in many ways:
Eye tracking software so that your gaze is picked up in game and used to change the focus on the screen.
Virtual Reality head mounted devices.
Peripherals such as connected shoes, a device that looks like a Roomba for you to stand on and move around in a virtual environment and head mounted devices for VR that use Inside-Out technology to keep you from bumping into furniture.
Lots of high-end gaming machines to run your favorite games and incorporate virtual reality and these peripherals.
Of course, all of these areas only scratch the surface of what will be on display this week at CES so be sure to stay in touch with our coverage here at SuperSite: Windows on our CES page.
Also, be sure to check out Lisa's observations from last night's CES Unveiled as she compares the small improvements in some of this technology compared to what she saw last year.
But, wait...there's probably more so be sure to follow me on Twitter and Google+.
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