The CES brings some of the most important companies and professionals of the electronics industry to present their latest innovations at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The show isn’t open to the public and this year it will take place between 6 and 9 January with over 3,600 companies invited.
The show is a great tool to predict the trends of the consumer technology for the year that just began and even further, so this will give us a glimpse into what to expect. With so many companies involved and so many fields brought together it’s difficult to name the most interesting ones, so we tried to look at those that seem to be the most revolutionary or the ones we expect to see much more of in the coming year.
Samsung SUHD TV
The last years promoted the 4K technology for the TV as the main reason for which you should upgrade and you also have HDR or Dolby Vision as options. Over the last decade Samsung led the TV manufacturing industry throughout the globe and now they dazzle us with the SUHD TV which offers the most true-to-life picture quality, is cadmium free and has a 10-bit Quantum dot display. The design is curved and was described by the creators as a 360 design that can impress from all angles. Now TVs are trying to become the center of your home’s entertainment once more and these come with Internet of Things hub technology that permits the device to connect with many other SmartThings compatible devices, acting as the controller of the entire smart home.
The Smart Shower from Hydrao
We are getting one step closer to the concept of a smart home with the technology presented this year and one part of the home is the shower. A smart home means one that adapts to your needs and saves all the energy it can, so this shower head does just that. You can control the water through a system of colored lights that tells you how much water is flowing. You start with green lights, then blue, orange and red when the water flow goes over 50 liters. The Hydrao is controlled via Bluetooth and they want to implement Wifi control as well. To assemble the shower head you do the same thing as with any standard one, – you simply attach it to the shower hose and it will work. Another great feature that goes with the eco-friendly philosophy is the autonomous power system which takes the energy it needs from the water flow itself, so you won’t need any batteries to make it work.
Parrot DISCO Drone
The Parrot DISCO isn’t actually a parrot, but more of a prototype drone that anyone can pilot with ease. It is really fast and smart with a light weight and a flight time of around 45 minutes. You just have to mount the wings and the body together and then throw in in the air to fly, making it really easy to use. When it comes to landing or taking off, the drone knows what to do by itself without any outside help.
Once it is in the air you can control it via a Parrot ecosystem that communicates to the drone via Wi-Fi and the Flight Plan app will give it GPS coordinates as waypoints. The Bebop drone camera has a 3-axis digital stabilization system and the wings were designed through collaboration with senseFly which are the leaders in commercial fixed wing drones, to ensure ideal control.
The drone will probably be available for purchase later this year and it stands out through the ease with which it can be controlled. It even has an autopilot mode and the computer will take care of most of the commands anyway, so you don’t risk taking any bad maneuvers. It comes with a FullHD 1080P camera that allows live video stream and Parrot Skycontroller ensures an extended Wi-Fi range.
Withings Thermo
This might seem like an odd topic, but Withings managed to innovate in this area with their new sensors and mobile apps. Thermometers usually aim for accuracy and not much more, but this one comes with a HotSpot Sensor Technology that is simple to use, hygienic and will make sure you don’t forget to check your temperature while at the same time giving you a quick and efficient way of communicating the results to your doctor.
It received the CES Innovation Awards for Fitness & Biotech and Tech for a better world categories. The technology it uses will give you the most precise temperature and it is automatically synced with the Wi-Fi Thermo app to permit the tracking of the temperature readings and to receive reminders as well as suggestions for related symptoms or medication.
The device has 16 infrared sensors and this permits the reading of the temperature in just two seconds. The temperature feedback is colored to give you quick reads and the codes are adapted to the age profile of the user. The way in which you read the temperature is through skin contact, so you don’t get any earwax or saliva on it, thus making it a lot more hygienic than the typical thermometers and also much easier to use.
Virtual Reality devices – HTC Vive
We knew that 2016 will be the year when the virtual reality technology goes further than ever before through the release of Sony’s PlayStation VR, Oculus Rift and HTC VIVE. The VR movies and video games are now starting to get developed and they will certainly change the way we look at entertainment systems. The manufacturers of PC hardware are focusing on making sure their new products are “VR-ready” and even if many of these devices aren’t even out yet you can already find accessories for them.
The CES 2016 event was the place where HTC revealed their new version of Vive that was built in partnership with Valve and it comes with new features such as a front camera that permits an overlap between the VR and the real world. The controllers are brought to higher standards and a dual stage trigger permits smoother interactions.
Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories at CES 2016: Everything LG Introduced At Las Vegas and Tiertime to Unveil UP Mini 2 3D Printer at CES 2016
