aNewDomain — Can’t wait for CES 2016 in Las Vegas? Me neither. So I attended a CES 2016 preview event here in New York to get a look at what trends the big consumer electronic show has in store.
Unbelievably, conference organizers at CES Unveiled say CES will offer more floor space than ever in January. And it’s added new areas dedicated to such newer segments as augmented reality. Some other market sectors that were especially crowded with exhibitiors last year are getting reorganized and split up. For instance, the Health and Fitness product sector will now exhibit products in two separate areas: “Health and Wellness” and “Fitness Technology.” Even though the show will be bigger, CES 2016 will cap attendance at the event for the first time ever, organizers added explaining that it is trying to give new Vegas hotels some time to get off the ground.
So you’d better register now, if you haven’t already. Here’s what’s going to be hot at the show.
Internet of Things Thingies
Connected devices in the IoT will be big this year, organizers say. Other IoT sectors to watch will include health and fitness, virtual reality, 3-D printing, smart homes, disc burning systems and 4K Ultra HDTVs.
This year, auto exhibits will continue to flourish, with the number of car manufacturers on hand growing to nine in 2016, organizers said. The show will also feature new technologies for making driving safer.
And expect to see plenty of new unmanned systems (aka drones) and robots, they said.
Lily’s ‘Throw and Shoot’ Camera
To illustrate the drones expected to be on hand, officials aired a video of Lily’s new GPS-enabled “throw and shoot” camera, aimed at following you through the air as you move about. Apparently, you can simply hurl the Lily into the air like a frisbee to get a loop of shots. The unit is small, lightweight, supposedly waterproof, and able to shoot both 12 megapixel (mp) stills and 1200 pixel (p) HDTV video.
WowWee’s ‘CHiP’ Dog Robot
At a product mini-expo afterward, WowWee wowed the press with its Robotic Enhanced Vehicles (REV), geared to gamesmanship among junior auto enthusiasts and already on the market for the 2015 holiday season.
But one of the biggest crowd-pleasers turned out to be the world debut of a robotic dog from WowWee named CHiP (Canine Home Intelligent Pet). CHiP can detect your presence in the room through Bluetooth. The dog comes with a band for your wrist, and you can get the robot to sit up or play a game of fetch. If you’re happy with CHiP’s performance, you can reward the dog with a thumbs up from the wristband.
Best of all, maybe, there’s no need to invest in dog food, treats or a pooper scooper. If you want CHiP to be your pet, though, you’ll need to wait for the 2016 holiday season, a spokesperson at the booth told aNewDomain.
For now, the dog is only in the prototype stage, and it is still waiting for its eyes to be completed …
All in all, the CES Unveiled event in New York got us thinking a lot about CES 2016 and the thrills of new technologies ahead. By the way, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), long-time host of the CES International product showcase in Las Vegas, has changed its name to the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). And the group finally got around to officially dropping the word “International” from the show name, which no one ever used anyway.
See you at CES 2016. For aNewDomain, I’m Jacqueline Emigh
Images courtesy of Lily camera: by Lily; WowWee’s CHiP robotic dog image: by Jacqueline Emigh for aNewDomain.
Featured image of CTA logo: Consumer Technology Association
