Ces from the Floor January 2017 Las Vegas

CES FROM THE FLOOR JANUARY 2017 LAS VEGAS

FROM THE FLOOR...

CES is overwhelming, even if you’re an Web, mobile Web and mobile apps worked old hand, and this year it was larger than together. ever. Eureka Park, the startup zone, also Now we’re seeing the next great set a new record, cramming in 600 com- proliferation which takes us beyond active panies side by side in tiny booths. attention, beyond context we consciously On the first day of the event we take supply and beyond the pixel as the only groups of clients on a 90-minute tour way of talking back. of the show floor at Tech West. Now the There are new ways to measure the world dust has settled, here’s a reminder of with sensors embedded in more products; what we talked about, with a few extra new ways to act on the world with more examples from the rest of the show. infrastructure that can be automated; new Our theme for CES as a whole is Pixels — modalities — including the rise of conver- realising the big picture. On this tour, sation in general and voice conversation in looking that bit farther out, we took our particular — and new actors such as digital visitors beyond the pixel, because we assistants to whom we delegate responsi- see a world with more and more ways bilities. to measure and interact that do not For marketers this provides a rich canvas necessarily involve screens. of interaction, with unprecedented oppor- Twenty years ago digital marketing was tunities to be embedded in people’s lives. It dominated by the desktop Web: experienc- also brings a raft of new challenges, makes designed around a predictable form fac- ing medium-term strategy ever more vital tor used in predictable settings, all taking as a way to cope with the rapidly shifting place on screens. Over the last ten years landscape of technologies and behaviours. mobile changed that. The size and shape The roles of brands, their behaviours and of screens proliferated, but an even bigger how they represent themselves are all in proliferation was the number and variety of for big shifts. contexts in which that interaction occurred. In here we take a look at health and fitness, It created not just a broad shift of attention smart homes, voice, emotion, and VR/AR. to mobile but new ways in which desktop

HEALTH AND FITNESS

At a high level, the health and fitness world a strong portfolio of products with 175m at CES is much the same as last year: lots registered users worldwide. Its Speedform of new vendors of specialist devices; some smart shoes include a feature to measure big providers vying to be the platform to muscle fatigue before you start your work- aggregate all data. out, which it uses to advise you whether to work out or not. Fitbit and Withings (and the absent Ap- ple) are tech companies. Withings showed This year, sleep was a big enough theme its connected hairbrush, released in part- to warrant its own zone on the show floor. nership with L’Oréal, and this product Many of the products went beyond mon- illustrates two trends. It is called the “Hair itoring into intervention — adjusting your Coach”, because its function is to monitor temperature and position, and attempting how you are brushing and then give you actively to cancel the sounds of snoring. advice about your hair care regime. This In the health domain, richer information reflects a broader shift from pure reporting from more continuous monitoring was the of your health and fitness data to turn- name of the game, allied to advice from ing that data into actionable advice. The machines or real doctors. Last year we second trend is the use of machine intelli- highlighted Temptraq’s printed, disposable gence: the sensors in the brush are cheap Bluetooth thermometer that gives you 24 (including the microphone that listens to hours of interference-free monitoring of a the sound of the brush moving through child’s temperature for $20. This year Chi- your hair); they produce useful results be- nese company Protontek showed a similar cause of sophisticated processing. device for $45 that can be recharged and The fourth big platform, Under Armour, used many times, with a $100 version in is an apparel and lifestyle company that, the works that offers EKG as well as tem- through clever partnerships and acquisi- perature. tions (including MyFitnessPal) has built SMART BED 360 BY SLEEP NUMBER Sleep Number 360 showed the firmness in real time, improve it. off the $4,000 Smart Bed, and can raise the bed to Now you’ve delegated con- full of sensors and tech- stop you, or a partner, from trol of your sleeping envi- nologies to monitor and snoring. At the end of each ronment to someone else, improve your sleep. It has a night it calculates a “Sleep- who would you trust? It’s built in foot warmer to help IQ” number — a measure presumably just as capable you fall asleep, senses your of the sleep quality — and of messing up your sleep! movements and adjusts tells you what it has done to

KÉRASTASE HAIR COACH BY WITHINGS ZEEQ SMART PILLOW BY REM-FIT Withings specialises Bluetooth hair brush, The ZEEQ smart pillow, calculates a SleepScore in creating connected launched in partnership with an estimated retail at the end of the night to health and wellness with L’Oréal’s high-end price of $300, gives indicate the overall qual- devices such as bath- Kérastase shampoo uyou 70% of the benefits ity of your rest. Speakers room scales and blood brand. It has an acceler- of the Smart Bed 360 inside the pillow enable pressure monitors. ometer and gyroscope to for less than 10% of the you fall asleep to your They’ve also produced measure brush motion, price. favourite music, while a low-key wearables such a conductivity sensor to motor vibrates to wake It tracks your motion and as analogue watches distinguish wet and dry you up, or nudges you to the volume of your snor- with health tracking. hair and a microphone stop snoring. ing, while you sleep. It to listen to the sound the One of their announce- brush makes as it moves ments this year was a through the hair. SPEEDFORM SMART SHOES BY UNDER ARMOUR Under Armour showed off the the the average air time of a sequence of next generation of its SpeedForm jumps. This lets users track recovery smart shoe, which in addition to and provides guidance on how to al- the standard run tracking, now has ter the intensity of a workout, helping a Jump Test feature that measures you to decide whether you should be muscle fatigue. It works by measuring going on a run at all.

ALTHETE RECOVERY SLEEPWEAR BY UNDER ARMOUR Under Armour’s smart pyjamas, en- infrared pattern on the inside of the dorsed by Tom Brady, aim to reduce shirt and pants. The UA Record app inflammation and aid recovery by pro- has also been updated to include a moting the reabsorption of infrared Sleep Recovery System, when paired wavelengths. This is achieved thanks with the UA Band accessory. to the hexagonal TB12 bioceramic

FASHION WEARABLES BY FOSSIL In recent years Fossil has focused on a classic analogue look with discreet marrying high fashion to high tech smart technology. Partnerships with across a range of smart bands and Armani, Skagen, Kate Spade, Die- watches. At CES, it bolstered its line sel and Michael Kors will help Fossil of Q series hybrid watches, with the Q meets its goal of shipping 300 smart Grant and Q Accomplice, combining product variants in 2017.

WHEEZE DETECTOR BY OMRON HEALTHCARE Omron showed a prototype device device can differentiate between that detects abnormal breath sounds wheezes and normal breathing, some- (wheezes) in children that are indic- thing that is difficult to do without ative of an asthma attack, allowing professional experience, providing preventative action to be taken. reassurance to parents and other caregivers. When placed on a child’s chest the

WARM SERIES BY DIGITSOLE Digitsole’s connected footwear, avail- New at CES was the ability to adapt able either as a smart insole insert or the cushioning of a shoe for a user in a complete shoe, can track a range of real time and a shoe with a telescop- exercise activities and keep your feet ic high heel that allows its wearer to warm, with the companion app allow- control the height of the heel via the ing you to set your desired comfort companion app. temperature.

CARE PATCH BY PROTONTEK If you’ve ever had to look after a that sticks under a child’s arm and sick child, you’ll have felt the conflict gives a continuous reading of temper- between keeping an eye on their ature for 24 hours. This year, Proton- temperature and letting them rest. tek showed the $45 Care Patch which Last year Temptraq demonstrated a provides similar functionality but can disposable Bluetooth thermometer be recharged and reused many times.

SMART HOME

Smart homes continue to grow in popular- Seven Dreamer’s Laundroid laundry robot ity. They are getting cheaper to install (es- automatically folds your washing, as does pecially by homeowners themselves) and the the Foldimate. easier to use, though it remains the case If many of these uses strike you as not all that sticking to one ecosystem (eg, Ap- that helpful — how hard is it to turn a fau- ple’s HomeKit or Samsung’s SmartThings) cet on and off to fill a cup? — then you’re makes life a great deal easier. Evidence not alone. It’s a much-repeated pattern of this growth came from Lutron, a major in history: people are happy doing some- provider of professionally installed lighting thing, and say so; then they are told about systems, which showed a consumer-install- some automation and say it isn’t necessary; able product for the first time. then they experience that automation and Swiss automation provider digitalSTROM quickly adjust to a new normal where they showed some good examples of how ma- spend their time on other things. chine intelligence is making smart homes As smart homes become more complex, more capable, particularly with cameras. the key battle is for control. Devices like Its smart sink uses an overhead camera to Sevenhugs’ Smart Remote (which controls identify what is in the sink and deliver wa- whatever you’re pointing it at), Bixi and ter accordingly. For example, it will give a Knocki all help to provide more convenient steady stream of temperate water to wash ways of controlling things than fiddling hands, or will automatically fill a cup with with an app. cold water and stop. The underlying need is to move from ac- Whirlpool again showed appliances that tions (if I press this, turn this on) to policies order their own consumables with Ama- (don’t allow the children to watch more zon’s Dash Replenishment service, and also than an hour of TV a day), where the home showed cookers with “Scan-to-Cook” — figures out how to implement the policies automatically configuring themselves and on its own. Digital assistants (see Voice, the giving advice about what do based on a next section) are starting to fulfil this role, scan of the barcode on food packaging. and are helping to fuel the rise of smart homes. SMART SINK BY DIGITALSTROM At CES digitalSTROM For example, placing your A similar setup was also demonstrated a smart sink. hands under the tap would used to demonstrate a A camera placed above a deliver warm water suitable smart coffee machine. In sink, coupled with Micro- for washing hands, while this instance facial recog- soft’s Cognitive Service a glass would be filled to nition was used to identify APIs, allowed objects to be the correct level with cold individuals and deliver the recognised and appropriate water. appropriate coffee order. action taken.

SMART REMOTE BY SEVENHUGS INIRV REACT BY INIRV LABS Sevenhugs’ Smart Re- On-wall sensors and the By combining a sensor A combination of sen- mote is a $300 univer- remote’s 9-axis motion unit and a smart actu- sors enables the early sal “magic wand” for sensors combine to ator that fits over an detection warning signs, the smart home that is allow the exact position existing cooker control, such as high levels of activated by pointing at and orientation to be Inirv React, lets you not smoke, natural gas, and the device you want to tracked, thus enabling only control your stove lack of motion. The actu- control. For each device the device to know what from your smartphone, ator unit is used to turn an intuitive set of con- it’s pointing at. It already but also helps prevent off your stove and keep trols is displayed on the supports more than house fires, 45% of which you safe. touchscreen, instantly 25,000 devices and can are caused by cooking adapting as you point at communicate commands equipment. devices around a room. via Bluetooth, WiFi, or infrared. SCAN-TO-COOK BY WHIRLPOOL Scan-to-Cook, a new feature of Whirl- sends, via a WiFi connection, the pool’s companion app for its smart appropriate temperature and timing ovens and microwaves, helps ensure settings to the selected appliance. It’s consumers get the perfect result particularly useful for food that re- when preparing a hot meal. Scanning quires multiple steps or temperature the barcode identifies the food and changes during the cooking process.

ZERA FOOD RECYCLER BY WHIRLPOOL The Zera Food Recycler, retailing for It turns the waste into fertiliser in $1,200 later this year, helps to deal 24 hours by chopping it up using a with the food waste — more than 400 plant-based additive pack to speed pounds — that the average US family up the breakdown process. A com- throws away each year. panion app lets you control the device remotely and monitor progress.

42TEA BY 42TEA 42tea’s connected cube helps tea steeping time. 42tea has support for drinkers make the perfect beverage. 1,500 different varieties of tea and, When placed in the kettle, the cube based on consumption patterns, can is to able to notify the user about recommend new tea varieties to its the perfect temperature, the correct users. amount of water to use, and the ideal

OOMBRELLA BY WEZZOO Oombrella is a smart umbrella that stantly collecting information about sends an alert to your smartphone temperature, pressure, humidity and when it is about to rain, reminding light. This data is uploaded to the you to take it with you when you leave cloud and used as a resource to deliv- the house. It will also notify you if you er hyper-local alerts and forecasts to leave it behind in a public place. As a rest of the Oombrella community. portable weather station it is con-

WOOHOO SMART HOME HUB BY SMARTBEINGS Looking like an Amazon Echo with a touchscreen, speaker, far-field micro- screen, California-based SmartBeing’s phones, and wide-angle camera lets Woohoo, which is currently raising it act as a control centre for the smart funds on Kickstarter, looks to com- home, a home security centre, video bine multiple smart home products calling appliance, and a voice-based into a single device. A combination of personal assistant.

PETCUBE BY PETCUBE Petcube is a $150 interactive Wi- smartphone. The latest version adds Fi pet camera that helps you stay the option to remotely reward your connected to your pets when you are pet by dispensing a treat. Petcube has not at home. Petcube lets you watch, placed a number of devices in shel- talk, and play laser games with your ters, with open access, so anyone can pet from wherever you are, using your try out the technology.

VOICE

#VoiceFirst is a recent buzzword, and was to issue a new command. This is one of the dominant at CES. Amazon’s Echo device reasons why the digital assistant platforms — the hardware that gives ambient ac- integrate home automation (“turn on the cess to its voice-powered digital assistant, bedroom lights”) into their basic function- Alexa — was absent from the show floor, ality — and in part why smart home prod- but Alexa felt almost omnipresent be- ucts are on the rise. cause of the number of devices “powered Voice and automation create a new envi- by Alexa”. Alexa connectivity turned up in ronment at home. The interaction is ambi- intercoms (Nucleus), watches (Martian), ent: we may check our phones 150 times fridges (Whirlpool, LG), DVRs (DISH), rout- a day; ambient voice eliminates the barrier ers (Linksys), air purifiers (Coway), speak- of taking out the phone. Last year Google ers (Lenovo, Peel, Monster, Jam Audio), revealed that 20% of mobile searches are lamps (GE), clocks (Vobot), smartphones through voice. Sridhar Ramaswamy, Goog- (Huawei) and, in Tech East, in Ford and le’s SVP of Ads said that “one thing that we Volkswagen cars. And since all of these are all clear about is the days of three top are connecting to the easy-to-use Amazon text ads followed by ten organic results is a Alexa API, they don’t operate as discrete thing of the past in the voice first world.” devices; rather, they extend the reach of your Amazon world. Widespread voice interaction that is ambient, imperative and reliable creates more Voice today is all about action: research opportunities for delegation to occur — if shows that consumers strongly prefer to your assistant satisfies you, your demands issue a command and have something will naturally increase — while changing the happen than be forced into a conversa- notion of engagement with brands. At the tion. If you tell your Echo to “play music”, very least, brands will need to do as good it will play something it thinks you will like a job of making themselves attractive to rather than bombard you with questions. these assistants as they are to consumers. If you don’t like it, you’ll be happy enough NUCLEUS BY NUCLEUS Nucleus is a family video display of home cards, the com), room-to-mobile, and communication device, graphical interface found in home-to-home, is made as which also acts as a music the Alexa companion app simple as possible thanks controller and Alexa-pow- that describes or enhances to an intuitive user interface ered smart speaker with the voice interaction. and optional auto-answer voice control. It is one of feature. Video and voice calling, the first Alexa devices to in- from room-to-room (inter- clude direct support for the

WHIRLPOOL SKILL BY WHIRLPOOL MVOICE SMARTWATCH BY MARTIAN Whirlpool announced mode on their dryers, Martian showed off the lets you issue commands that its home smart adjust the cooking mode addition of Amazon’s and ask questions in the appliances will be open in ovens and start/stop Alexa functionality to its same way as you do with to voice control via the timers, check refriger- range of mVoice smart- Amazon’s Echo smart Whirlpool skill for the ator temperature and watches. Double-tapping speaker. Alternatively, Amazon Echo. Consum- filter status, and much a button on the side of voice commands can be ers will be able to ask more. the watch, and speaking sent to an Apple iPhone Alexa to turn on quiet into a small microphone, and answered by Siri. ARISTOTLE BY NABI (MATTEL) At CES Mattel demoed an early and night light, before morphing version of Aristotle, an AI-powered into a story-teller for toddlers, then speaker-companion for children. becoming a homework helper and Combining an Amazon-Echo-like entertainment tool for older children. smart speaker and a connected It also integrates with other smart camera, the product evolves over devices and can be used to order time. It starts as a baby monitor items from retail partners.

OLLY BY EMOTECH Olly is a donut-shaped smart speaker, enjoyable. Unlike most smart speak- with a personality that evolves based ers, it can also recognize different on the conversations you have with it. people by their voices and will adjust The aim? To make sure your daily con- its personality accordingly, versations will always be special and

VOBOT CLOCK BY OMNINOVA The Vobot is a smart alarm clock that to you and act as a smart home con- can play white noise or relaxing music trol point. Notably, there isn’t a single to help you fall asleep, or wake you button on its surface. Rather, you can up. Thanks to support for Amazon’s talk to it, cover it, or flip it in order to Alexa virtual assistant, it is able to talk perform various functions.

HUB ROBOT BY LG An Alexa-powered voice assistant The screen displays information in with a screen that interacts with fami- response to queries and shows facial ly members and acts as a control hub expressions in response to com- for the smart home, including LG’s mands. Optionally, mini Hub Robots, SmartThinQ range of home applianc- offering auxiliary microphones and es. speakers, can be placed around the home.

MI BUNNY STORYTELLER BY XIAOMI This $29, voice-controlled, WiFi- easy access to Xiaomi’s own smart connected device is billed as a assistant. storyteller for children, capable of Best of all, it has light-up ears. It is, reading from a catalogue of 10,000 currently, only available in Xiaomi’s books. It can also send and receive home market of China. WeChat voice messages, and offers

HOMEPAL BY HOMEPAL Clearly inspired by Amazon Echo, HomeKit smart home ecosystem. the HomePal is a voice-activated It also doubles as an access point and controlled speaker that ties in repeater, extending home WiFi with Apple’s Siri virtual assistant and coverage.

EMOTION

The biggest new wave at CES was emo- In Tech East, Toyota’s Concept-愛i was tion. The same research that has allowed arguably the strongest vision of how ma- companies like Affectiva to give marketers chine intelligence can be applied to emo- real-time analysis of people’s gut respons- tion. Show visitors could experience a sim- es to their content has appeared in a raft of ulated drive through California, at the end companion robots, like Blue Frog’s Buddy of which they could see how happy they and Tanscorp’s UU Robot. were at each point, where they were hap- piest, and where they were most surprised. The main function of these robots is to This is an early practical step. be present in relationships with people. Yumii’s Cutii robot is aimed both at helping Their future vision film showed the car the elderly and at alleviating symptoms growing to become a member of the fam- of loneliness. Kikoo and Woobo are com- ily: having dropped off his teenage daugh- panion robots aimed at children, provid- ter, the father drove off talking to the car ing them with attention at any time. Kikoo about his daughter. When the car went recognises different family members using on its own to pick up the daughter later, it face recognition, reads emotional state talked to her about her father. and adjusts its responses accordingly. The The traditional creative craft of emotional makers of Woobo went to great lengths to storytelling — in a short space and time — make their companion soft and cuddly (not has remained at the core of digital mar- like hugging a bag of Rubik’s Cubes). Cere- keting, even as channels have proliferated vo’s LSTNR extends that target audience and targeting improved. A world where all the way to newborn babies, reporting machines are long-term individual actors emotional state to parents. in people’s social lives creates a genuinely new canvas. BUDDY BY BLUE FROG ROBOTICS Buddy is a motorised com- intelligence. It has a built in ing in a family home. Buddy panion robot, built on open tablet-face, and the abili- can act as a personal assis- source technology, with an ty to follow you round the tant, provide home security expressive and engaging home. Its goal is to offer monitoring, play back audio personality, thanks to its assistance, protection, and and video on demand, and emotion-sensing artificial friendship to everyone liv- play games with children.

WOOBO BY WOOBO FEEL BY SENTIO SOLUTIONS A soft, squishy, and cud- a range of interactions FEEL is a $150 bracelet into emotions using a dly companion robot for and facial expressions, that tracks your proprietary algorithm. children, Woobo aims to displaying emotions and emotions throughout The companion app build a genuine friend- personality, it’s intended the day and provides offers an emotion ship with a child that to be more like a puppy personalised coaching journal, the ability to continues to evolve and that can talk than a toy to meet well-being set well-being goals grow through shared robot. goals. It operates by and earn badges, and experiences. Offering translating biosignals — notifications around electrodermal activity, real-time advice and blood volume pulse, recommendations. and skin temperature — UU ROBOT BY TANSCORP UU is a robot designed to provide A combination of object and audio shoppers and service users with the recognition, plus face and gesture information they need. It stands 1.2m detection, enables one-on-one tall, weighs 70kg, has a humanoid like interactions with humans, which are appearance and was charming the made more engaging by the emotion CES show floor crowd by showing off expressed through its LCD-screen its dance moves. eyes.

LSTNR BY CEREVO Voice recognition for babies. A smart four different categories of sound microphone collects sound and — crying, growling, laughing and uploads it to the cloud for instant babbling — from just five seconds of analysis. Coupled with an infant voice listening. The companion app allows recognition engine, co-developed this to be tracked, while the LEDs on with Panasonic, the Listnr IoT device the device show these emotions as is able to distinguish between colours.

PARIHUG BY PARIHUG Parihug is a connected teddy bear, hugged, a suite of soft, fabric-based which lets loved ones hug each other sensors detects the hug and transmits from a distance. Two people can be a message to the other bear. on different sides of the world, each with their own bear. When one is

KIKOO BY KIKOO Kikoo is a $600 robot that is designed built-in display to project expression to be a companion to children when and personality. It is able to talk, sing, their parents are working. It uses dance, and take photos and video in facial recognition to identify the user response to voice or app commands. and sense emotion, while using the

CUTII BY YUMII Cutii is a companion robot for the encourage enrichment activities by elderly, which responds to verbal making it easy to interact with family cues and offers a catalogue of members and caregivers via voice services, encompassing both medical and video calls. assistance and activities. It aims to

CONCEPT-愛I BY TOYOTA Toyota’s concept car incorporates and becoming part of the family. It an artificial intelligence, Yui, enabling makes use of multiple technologies it to learn about its occupants, to measure emotion, mapped against with the ultimate aim of building when and where the driver travels in up a relationship with its owners the world.

VR AND AR

Virtual reality (VR) is enjoying increasing to create, among other things, a convincing popularity, although not without its illusion of eye contact. difficulties. Better headsets (notably Augmented reality (AR) was less evident the recently-launched Sony PlayStation than we expected. There were a couple VR) and better content are promising; of Microsoft HoloLens devices running problems with performance and motion typical demo applications. Osterhout sickness in a proportion of users remain. Design Group (ODG), from which Very few people have yet experienced Microsoft licenses some of the technology a multi-person virtual world, where you for HoloLens, was showing its R-9 and your friends are in it together. These Smartglasses — smaller, lighter and faster, experiences are a big step up, and are and due out in Q2. what Facebook is counting on to make VR Auto makers had more refined AR head-up the most social channel of all. displays. Panasonic showed a projection On the show floor the most obvious technology to allow large, bright overlays developments were various ways to on windows — augmented reality without enhance the virtual experience, such as a personal device — which they illustrated creating the sensation of flying (Icaros), with infographics over a window looking simulating the force of handling virtual out onto a soccer field. There were objects (Nidec Sankyo) or the feel of prototypes from other manufacturers, different surfaces under your feet (Cerevo mostly slated for industrial use. We look Taclim). FOVE’s headset tracks your gaze forward to next year for the beginnings of a consumer boom in AR. TACLIM HAPTIC SHOES BY CEREVO Cerevo’s Taclim VR shoes, work by placing motors stair climbing, first present- which will cost around around your foot to give ed at CHI 2015 by the Has- $1,250 when launched, let haptic feedback. Fitting into so-Plattner Institute, and you feel different ground a similar category are the VRTouch, a wearable haptic textures as you walk around Level-Ups, motorised plat- ring that creates the illusion in a VR environment. The form boots for simulating of touching virtual objects.

ICAROS FLYING RIG BY ICAROS PLATOON VR BY NINED Icaros is a recumbent flight path or movement Platoon VR is a platform The key technology is VR accessory that lets in any compatible VR and gaming installation, the ability accurately to you simulate flying, environment. Primarily which enables multiplay- track and synchronise effectively combining aimed at gamers, it can er virtual reality experi- the activity of multiple a VR controller and a also be used to give a ences. It is primarily in- players, before translat- fitness device. With Superman-eye-view of tended for use in arcades ing them into a shared your movements on the any place in the world. and other public spaces. virtual space. Icaros, you control the MAGICLENS BY MAGICLENS Magiclens is one of a number The MagicLens was notable for of stand-alone virtual reality weighing in at just 230g, half the head-mounted displays being shown weight of its closest mainstream at CES. competitor.

FOVE BY FOVE FOVE adds eye tracking to a standard sense of presence. Performance can VR headset to offer a more immersive be improved as game engines are experience, including the ability to able to render highest quality graph- make eye-contact with in-game char- ics only in the area in which the user is acters. It also enables simulated light looking. Currently available as a devel- field rendering based on a person’s oper preview for $600. real-time field of view, giving a greater

MOTIONVEST AND GUN BY BLUATOMVR BluAtomVR’s vest and gun accessory into in-game character motion. The bundle aims to provide a more gun provides greater accuracy than immersive experience for first-party- traditional wrist controllers. Other shooter virtual reality games. Lean, controls can be personalised via or turn around, while wearing the swappable RFID tags. vest, and the movement is translated

MAGNEO BY NEOBEAR MagNeo is an augmented-reality bring AR interaction to a range of viewer in the shape of a magnifying educational activities, including glass, a design that makes it easier colouring books that come to life, for children to hold and operate stories that animate, and flash cards the device. An extensive range of that present rich media. accessories and AR content cards

WINDOW AUGMENTED REALITY PROJECTION BY PANASONIC Panasonic’s eye-catching AR demo A demo showed how the technology showed how a special transparent could be used in stadiums to enhance film could be added to an existing the fan experience by overlaying window, allowing it to used as a player stats and high-impact video projection surface, without obscuring footage, such as instant replays, on the live view. the window of suite boxes.

HUDWAY GLASS BY HUDWAY At the low end of the AR market, It works by reflecting images from the Hudway Glass is a universal car ac- phone’s display onto a transparent, cessory that turns any smartphone curved, plastic screen and works with into a head-up display (HUD), able any app with a HUD mode (reversed to project useful information, such image). as turn-by-turn instructions, into a driver’s eye line.

AND FINALLY...

And then there’s everything else. CES is a assistance. OrCam showed MyEye, a device show that’s impossible to boil down com- that can read text or describe products plete. Many themes that we’ve picked out that the wearer points at, using the image in previous years continue to be present, from a small clip-on camera, giving great with evolution continuing across nearly independence to the partially sighted. every product area. It wouldn’t be CES without mentioning Star of the show for 3D printing was the the TVs (not on the tour as they were in Ability3D 888, able to print pure metal Tech East). Predictably: bigger, brighter, parts, using MIG welding wire, at a cost of thinner. LG’s Signature OLED W TV stood just $3,000. Also notable was Divergent out for being just 2.57mm thick. Samsung’s 3D’s Blade car, exemplifying the potential new QLED range broke new ground for for small-scale, local, short-lifecycle brightness and vibrancy of colours, and manufacturing heralded by 3D printing. Sony impressed with an ultra-short-throw projector capable of a bright, detailed Drones continue to proliferate with ex- 120-inch image when placed six inches amples in the air (UVify Draco HD racing from the wall — at around $25,000, much drone, Alarm.com home security drones), cheaper than an equivalent TV. underwater (PowerRay Fishing Drone, Seawolf Ocean Master), and on the ground Last year we were impressed by (TwinwHeels and Starship delivery drones). Samsung’s 170-inch TV made from display They are also gaining greater autonomy as tiles seamlessly joined together. This was demonstrated by AirSelfie and Hover Cam- not yet a product, but pointed the way, we era. The EHANG 184 personal transporter, said, to TVs that could be built in homes to a favourite from last year, has started trials any size or shape required. This year Sony in Nevada, but still has some way to go be- showed its Cledis modular display: similar fore the Jetsons’ lifestyle can be assured. in concept, with a breathtaking 1,000- inch screen made from 144 modules on There were some impressive assistive the stand. Apparently planned for release technologies. Hyundai showed its HUMA soon, at a price point of “pretty expensive”. exoskeletons that provide mobility SGNL BY SGNL If wired headphones are headset embedded in a The upshot is that you can inconvenient and Bluetooth wrist band that can also act answer a call by sticking headsets showy, what could as a strap for your watch. your finger in your ear. We be better than a headset tried it: it’s a little quiet, and It works by bone that you wear discreetly the band has to be a snug conduction, transmitting on your wrist? This is the fit, but it works. Due in 2017 audio through the bones in promise of Sgnl, a start- for $149 on pre-order. your wrist and hand. up producing a Bluetooth

DELIVERY DRONE BY STARSHIP ULTRAHAPTICS UI BY ULTRAHAPTICS The Starship Created by two of the The brainchild of Sriram (swipe), a car dashboard autonomous robot founders of Skype, Subramanian, and spun (turn volume knob), trundles along sidewalks Starship is currently out from the Creative and a home appliance to make “last mile” on trial in 16 countries Technology lab at the (warning of presence deliveries at very low and 59 cities. It has University of Sussex in of a hot surface). A cost. Most of the time completed 16,000 miles the UK, Ultrahaptics uses combined hardware and it is fully autonomous, of driving, encountering ultrasound to project software development but if it encounters 3.1 million people. To sensations onto the kit, for the evaluation an obstacle it does date Starship has yet to hand creating the feel and prototyping of mid- not understand, it will lose a robot or delivery of objects that aren’t air haptics in touchless contact an operator to theft or malicious really there. Examples gesture controls, is now who can steer it out of action. shown at CES included available direct from the trouble controls for an elevator company. HOVER CAMERA BY ZERO ZERO ROBOTICS With its carbon fibre shell, enclosed Simply take it out of your bag, open propellers, and compact book-like it, switch it on, and leave it hanging in dimensions, the Hover Camera shows the air; It will follow you automatically, how the drone market is maturing. capturing video and images as it It is tuned for a specific purpose — goes. dronies, or selfies captured by drone.

LAUNROID BY SEVEN DREAMERS While we all wish our laundry would into the appropriate position in the just magically do itself, this looks to collection drawer. From there it’s get us past the most painful part. still up to you to return them to your Laundroid is an appliance that takes wardrobe, but at least the hard part your clothes, analyses what they are, is over. and returns them, perfectly folded,

HYPERSVN BY KINO-MO Kino-mo uses LEDs embedded on fans can be combined, giving a fan blades to create the illusion of 3D bigger canvas to display images, and images that float in mid-air. It creates allowing for the appearance of motion the illusion of a hologram, using a across the array. much simpler approach. Multiple

MYEYE BY ORCAM The OrCam MyEye is a portable branded products and identify artificial vision device that allows people. For people who are blind, the visually impaired to understand visually impaired, or have dyslexia, text and identify objects. Through a aphasia or other conditions it gives glasses-mounted camera and bone independence and improved quality conduction speaker it is able to read of life. out text from any surface, recognise

ATMO TUBE BY ATMO TUBE The Atmo Tube is a portable air quality. A companion app records the pollution monitor that is able to data over time and provides alerts measure levels of volatile organic based on air quality levels. Data is compounds (VOCs), carbon also shared to the wider community monoxide, moisture and temperature, in order to generate a crowd-sourced, giving its users greater awareness global air quality map. about both indoor and outdoor air

BLADE BY DIVERGENT 3D Making cars has much more environ- smaller scale with $50m of printing mental impact than their use. Diver- and assembly gear. This means local gent 3D is tackling this by changing production, better product-market fit, the way cars can be made. Its demon- shorter cycle times and the prospect stration car, the Blade, is a high-per- of much greater recycling of compo- formance car that is largely 3D print- nents and materials. ed. Cars can now be made at a much For more information contact:

Rafe Blandford Lorenzo Wood [email protected] [email protected] +44 7882 836334 +44 7831 665110 @rafeblandford @lorenzowood