Comeback kids and Internet of Things dominate at CES

After last year’s disappointment, it seems smart glasses may not be dead, but it’s IoT that we should be watching. Andrew Hennigan on developments at the Consumer Electronics Show

Long recognised as the consumer electronics’ industry’s premier event, the Consumer Electronics Show, or CES, in Las Vegas begins each year by presenting a mixture of future concepts and real-world products.

CES2016 is no different and media coverage focuses on electric sports cars like the Faraday Futures FFZero1 concept vehicle and personal robots like the Segway Ninebot, a real-life R2D2, which are unlikely to ever have any impact on our lives. But at the same time there are also plenty of other new gadgets that give early warning of trends that will be impacting business sometime in the year.

But how many of the attractions at CES actually lead to real products?

At last year’s event, which EyeforTravel reported on, most of the headline news was about cars that had at least some level of autonomous capability. Completely autonomous vehicles are still not available to the public, but lane following and parking automation is now offered on some models, so that partly came true.

Another highlight of last year’s show, Gogoro’s electric scooter, with swappable battery packs, is still not available in most markets though when it comes, it could appeal to hotels and resorts aiming to reinforce their green image. Many other high-profile exhibits like the dancing robots remain strictly show demos, far from real-world applications.

Focus on fashion

Last year the focus in wearables at CES also moved from smart glasses to wrist-mounted wearables, and this actually happened in the real market, too. While smart glasses like Google’s Glass more or less disappeared as consumer products, activity trackers became increasingly popular with walkers, runners, cyclists and even swimmers.

At CES2016 smart glasses are back again, but this time moving away from the Google approach and taking very different directions. Legendary optical company Zeiss has appeared at CES for the first time to promote their own ‘data glasses’ technology’.

Zeiss is offering their data glass technology to other manufacturers for integration in their own frames.

This is a radically different business model from GoogleGlass and emphasises the need to build smart glass features into a fashionable frame.    

This is a radically different business model from GoogleGlass and emphasises the need to build smart glass features into a fashionable frame    

Garmin also presented a new smart glass product, Varia Vision, aimed specifically at cyclists, that also tries to fit in more unobtrusively. Varia Vision clips to ordinary sunglasses giving riders a heads-up view of navigation and trip data plus a visual warning of traffic approaching from behind. This display device will appeal to safety conscious cyclists who are reluctant to use a smartphone app, also creating more opportunities for cycle apps and services.

Wrist-mounted controls and VR transitions

There was no shortage of new wrist-mounted wearables but now they are adding new control capabilities, interfacing with IoT devices so that they can replace smartphones as controllers. In one demo Microsoft and automotive partner Volvo showed how a car owner could use a Microsoft Band 2 and voice control to send commands to their car. Not quite at the level of KITT from the TV show Knight Rider, the Volvo/Microsoft solution operates the door locks, air conditioner, horn and navigation settings, giving drivers hands-free control of some functions even before they get in.

Virtual reality has long been a key topic at CES and this year is no different, except that in 2016 we are close to the point where virtual reality transitions from being a geeky novelty to being something that ordinary people will use.

Several companies presented new headsets, aiming to make VR hardware affordable and less embarrassing to wear. There were also a few surprises, like the launch of Zeiss’s first VR smartphone-driven headset, the VR One – a premium model aiming at the people who have tried Google’s Cardboard but want a higher-end experience. VR One interfaces with drones to give a realistic flying sensation. The number of smartphone VR headset devices hints at a healthy market in 2016.

Beyond the wearables, IoT and virtual reality CES2016 had its fair share of the usual improbable novelties. Most of us are not likely to be riding the Ehang 184 personal transportation drone – a drone one intrepid passenger can ride in without touching any controls. Few dog owners are likely to buy a CleverPet video game console for their dog and, Back to the Future notwithstanding, not many of us will be wearing DigiSole, smartphone controlled heated shoes.

But then CES wouldn’t be CES without them!

Related Reads

comments powered by Disqus