This year is my first attending the Consumer Electronic Show. While it isn’t exactly as cool as in person, it’s still a great event! This year CES is all digital. That’s a lot of webinars for one day but if anyone can pull off a video talk, it’s the world’s innovators at CES.
2020 was the first time we’ve seen innovation at scale
– Jeroen Tas (Chief Innovation & Strategy Officer at Philips)
Kohler Smart Kitchen
I was impressed by Kohler’s smart home. My faucet can measure exactly one cup of water? And my house can measure my water usage? I’m not sure exactly what I’d do with that information. But seeing the Kohler smart home was the first in talk of the day that highlighted the importance of “voice” as a big tech trend to watch.
Everyone please donate to my “Buy Me a Coffee” so I can afford the Japanese inspired bath tub. 😉
Vehicle Technology Innovation
There was no doubt autonomous vehicles were going to be part of CES. I was not expecting an autonomous vehicle that could go 180mph, designed by college students. The Indy Autonomous Challenge was one of the coolest presentations I saw today.
2021 Tech Trends
According to Steve Koenig, VP of research CTA and Lesley Rorhbaugh, director of research for CTA, the top tech trends in 2021 are:
- Smart homes
- Autonomous vehicles/vehicle technology innovation
- Community tech ( health care)
- Motion sensing technology
- Voice – ingredient technology (like AI)
- Augmented Reality
This is the year for AR
– Steve Koenig, VP of research CTA
Both Steve and Lesley talked about how this is the year for augmented reality. For years, people said AR was at least five years behind virtual reality. However, virtual reality seems to be stuck in the same hype cycle while augmented reality is actually gaining traction.
People are using augmented reality on their phones. They don’t need to wait for a headset. They’re using AR in wearables like Oura rings and fitness trackers. People are creating 3D scans with LiDAR on their iPads.
Starting this year, virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality won’t be separated out. Steve said, “We tend to describe experiences as degrees of immersion. I think these terms start to drop away.”
It’s finally great to see instead of wireless VR headsets, wearables we can see all the time. “People indorse VR and like these experiences. But they’re cut off. So parents at home, probably not the best fit.” “audio and voice are part of AR and VR.” Lesley added.
Verizon Keynote
5G is here! Kind of. If you live in a big city. But get ready for flights of autonomous drones, your favorite football players in your living room, and next level music experiences – all on 5G!
5G is the glue that holds a lot of these technologies together. It’s superpowered connectivity.
Coffee = Blog Fuel
If you find joy and value in what I write, please consider donating by “buying me a coffee”.
Lily Snyder 
Leave a Reply