Experience Manifesto

CES 2021, 5G Is Here

Unless you've been on a deserted island (which honestly, might've been a good idea for the past year), you've no doubt heard of 5G. You might even have a 5G phone right now, there are a number of them on the market right now. 3G enabled the phones to start being more than a voice/text device, while 4G brought us the data opportunity that we've been living in for a few years now. Without 4G, much of what we do on our phones on a daily basis would not be possible, including watching content, maps, etc.

5G, as it becomes more widely available, will drive even more opportunities in our mobile/digital worlds. This report by Microsoft Cloud has some great stats for you to dive into! Some other 5G links:

• You can see the Verizon 5G keynote talk here.
• The CES 5G hub is here.
• Forbes Wrap-Up of 5G here.
• c|net panel on how 5G can help with Covid here.

• Location aware services/presence marketing. With the AR cloud and 5G, there will be really exciting opportunities. A few years back, I wrote about how Place & Information Will Change in an AR World to begin asking the questions about what happens when information is truly location aware.

Back in maybe 2012, I was out with a colleague looking for a place to eat. As frequently happens, you can easily get in a food rut, and we were looking for someplace new. We stood on a street corner going through Yelp, etc., looking for a restaurant that was actually across the street. Being able to place information onto the real world will become a very critical part of our futures. Think of the number of times you read an article on the best new restaurants in a certain town and how great it would be if that information could actually be overlayed onto that location the next time you visit. Or being able to see what your friends thought about a specific physical place while you were there.

But, bringing AR into our everyday lives brings up a number of critical questions:

• What's the UX for this new, AR world? Do we really want unfiltered and/or sponsored information overlaid on everything we look at? What's the new input experience for accessing this content? Will we use gestures, voice, eye movement? Take a look at what Alain Thys had to say about the future of UX and see what you think of his ideas.
• What is the backend for all of this content? Ori Inbar believes that it will be the AR Cloud that will drive the massive adoption needed to use AR as part of our every day lives. Information needs to be accessible in a very precise location for it to have value to the audience.
• Who will own this backend and be responsible for the massive amount of data that will need to flow through the system in order for it to be universally used? If I can only access data on one platform or another, that will make it hard for mass adoption to occur. I frequently say if TV had started like tech works today, and you needed a different TV set to watch each channel, there wouldn't have been a TV industry.
• Given how much of social media today has been taken over by trolls and haters, what happens to a society where that hate can live all around us, visually, in the real world? How will we clean up the AR graffiti that we know we cover the world? Who will make the distinction between art and garbage?
• How do we handle the right value exchange for the consumer in this connected, overlaid world? They know when the work we're doing is really only of benefit to us and they don't like it. We will not be able to force them to opt-in to this AR world unless they have a good reason.
• Entertainment. Sony showed off an awesome concert featuring Madison Beer during their keynote and it took me a couple of looks before I realized it was all CGI. With 5G, this kind of virtual experience will be available more widely. In fact, consumers will spend even more time on mobile devices to find the entertainment when and where they want thanks to 5G.

In addition, new forms of entertainment will be unlocked thanks to 5G. A number of years back during the Tribeca Film Festival, there was a demo of a new type of entertainment, where you had to walk around Tribeca to watch specific scenes in the places where they were actually filmed (I tried to find a link to it, but couldn't). The idea that you could walk around a city and have to visit different physical locations to experience a movie would be pretty cool.

A few years back, Sydney & I were at EPCOT Center and experienced the Kim Possible Adventure in the World Showcase. This scavenger brought Kim Possible to life and we traveled through the various countries that made up the World Showcase. Sydney & I had a great time and we saw a lot more of EPCOT than we might have otherwise.

• Sports and eSports. The in-stadium experience was being transformed before and Covid will speed that transformation along in sports like it has in every other field. From fan engagement to athlete training, 5G can impact almost all aspects of the sports experience. The NFL is testing 5G in stadiums, bringing player stats to the fan faster and in more detail than they can with existing infrastructure. Using technologies like AR, the field could come alive with all kinds of information. Inc. wrote about the use of 5G here and we're just at the beginning of where this tech can take us. You can als

VentureBeat gives some great examples here to show how the in-stadium experience will change with the addition of 5G. For example, the Sacramento Kings have built an entire virtual venue for guests to explore and see what their seats will look like. Speaking with ZDnet, Verizon VP of Network Engineering Brian Mecum said:

"We set up this 360-degree camera on the scores table, and what it allowed us to do was have the kids see the game as if they were sitting in a rare spot, and be able to put on the VR goggles ... they would be able to watch the game courtside."

From bringing the stadium experience to your home to enhancing the in-stadium experience, 5G will impact all parts of the sports experience. And this is simply building on what we already know to do. I have no doubt that we'll create immersive experiences that haven't even been considered yet as 5G is rolled out everywhere.

You can see my previous #CES 2021 posts here and here.

CES 2021, Day 1

So, the very first, virtual CES has completed day one and, I have to be honest, it wasn't nearly as much fun as actually being there! No doubt, it's really hard to get as excited about things when you can't really see or touch them. The second challenge that I've actually had with CES for a few years is that many times, the show is pretty incremental. In fact, this was was what I said when I reviewed CES in 2019. So we'll see what the breakouts are this year and whether or not it's more incremental than innovative. You can see all of my Tweets about this years CES here and my previous writing about CES here.

You may also want to read this piece, where I talk about some of the things I don't think will be trends, like 8K TV's, drone deliveries and others. It's not that I don't necessarily think these things will have an impact on the world, but I think they will not be big trends in the immediate future.

Now, there's a lot that I don't really cover, like all of the new laptops that were announced, although I personally want one of the new Surface Pro 7 Plus! I don't really talk about connected cars, there are more than enough people already covering them. One thing I'd love to see happen with connected cars is the ability to start planning at home online and then throw my plans to the car. I would also love to see branded drives. Put together some great day drives around key cities and tie it into my GPS. Once we get released from Covid, I'm pretty sure people would even pay for them!

So, what did I see so far today that got me excited?

• Rollable Screens. I'm pretty excited to see a number of companies rolling out (pun intended) rollable screens. For example, TCL has a prototype that can be extended from 6.7-inches to 7.8-inches with a simple tap of the finger, turning it from a smartphone into a tablet. LG also had a rollable screen phone, which might be out sometime this year. Of course, they showed off a rollable TV back in 2019, but for $87,000, it's probably not going to be available at your local Best Buy anytime soon. And here's what I said about it back then:

There's no doubt that this TV was a big hit. And it is both beautiful and cool, no doubt about it! People, myself included, would watch that screen roll up & down over & over again, sort of mesmerized by how it works. The picture quality is obviously excellent and the rolling mechanism worked extremely well. But I wonder how many people really need a TV that rolls away when it's not being watched?

Again, it might be cool in certain retail or OOH environments, I think it ultimately creates limited value for the typical home consumer.

And when LG showed it last year, it was at the end of a bed and the idea was that you would roll it up to watch it and it would be closed when it was down. In my house, that becomes a surface for things and the thought of having to clear it off everytime I wanted to watch TV would make me crazy!

Where I get very excited about this tech, however, is in its use in OOH and retail design. For so many years we've been bound by the rectangular shape of most screens and the fact that the screens are very rigid in that shape. With these new rollable/bendable screens, we'll be able to create all kinds of new environments, like these Illuminariums being done in partnership with Panasonic.

• Touchless Technology. For many years, retailers have been excited about putting lots of touchscreens in the stores/malls and now, thanks to Covid, we don't really want to touch them anymore. Thanks to gesture tracking technologies, we have new ways to engage with a screen. For example, Ultraleap has been doing great work in this area, with both gesture tracking and tactile feedback. We have some demos in the Lab if you want to experience them first-hand.
• Transparent OLED. Yes, these have also been around for a few years, but they do seem to be getting better and more practical today. I am not a fan at all of transparent TV's for the home. Not sure about your house, but I'm not really sure when we last cleaned behind the TV. And I don't really see the utility at home as well, especially for the anticipated price points. But once again, I can see great uses in retail and OOH. As you can see in this demo video, there's a lot that you can do with it in a retail or experiential setting.

I've gotten a few pitches today that certainly come under the "just because you can, should you" category. Like the LiDAR based showerhead, that uses the technology to turn your gestures into temperature control. Yea, I could see lots of challenges when I moving in the shower and those movements translate into temperature changes! I'm also not sure I can be excited about robots that will clean up after me. We just got a robot vacuum and we're starting to get it really set up. But a robot to put my dishes in the dishwasher? Not sure there's a big audience for that. And, sorry for all of the dentists out there, but also not really jammin' on connected tooth brushes, although maybe if I have grandchildren, I'll change my mind.

Tomorrow, I'll review some other categories, like senior tech and 5G, both of which I am pretty excited about. And I'll keep tweeting tomorrow with any announcements that happen!

Some additional CES reading:

• Digitaltrends
• Engadget
• c|net
• Wired

Some (Potentially) Unpopular CES Opinions

I've been giving tours of #CES for 10 years now, this is the first year that I'm not checking into a Vegas hotel today! One of the reasons I was brought in to give tours was to help separate things that would be trends from things I didn't think would be trends. While I've had a few misses over the years, I haven't done that badly. So, while most people are currently posting CES trends, I thought I would talk about some things that won't be trends, at least any time soon.

• 8K TV's. Truth be told, no one needs an 8K TV. The average consumer can see the difference be 1080 & 4K, but unless you're seeing the TV's side by side, you can't see difference between 4K and 8K. Secondly, while they certainly will come down in price, 8K TV's are still ridiculously expensive and without a compelling amount of content to watch on it, there's no consumer need. In fact, there's actually not much 4K content out there now. There's no reason to go beyond 4K. Thirdly, after spending billions in capex to upgrade all broadcast facilities to 4K, they're not spending the money to go to 8K. Especially being given that there's not a lot of 8K TV's to pump the content to. 8K and beyond is great for #OOH, but it will be the next consumer 3D.
• Self-driving cars. I have a teenager & believe me, I would love to have self driving cars, but we're at least a decade away from it happening. First, in order for it to really work, all cars need to be connected on same system. So, simple math: There are approximately 284.5 million vehicles registered in the US and we sell about 17 million a year. So it would take about 17 years to replace them all. Then, there's the entire ecosystem around cars today. For example, who does the insurance liability fall to? The consumer in the car? The car company that manufacturers the car? The self-driving AI software? It will take years just to answer that one question and there's are many others like that.
• Drone deliveries. If you follow me on Twitter, you know I'm not a big fan of drone deliveries. Sure, there are remote areas where delivery by drones might make sense, but it certainly doesn't make sense in suburban/urban areas. It's only real advantage is that it's cheaper than human delivery people.
• Slight improvements being touted as big deals. I've been giving tours for 10 years and year after year, we saw slight improvements. I even titled my 2019 review The Year of Being Incremental. Everything got slightly faster & smaller, more things got connected. Maybe missing this year will make next year feel like a real improvement.
• More Data, Less Help. There are lots of health & fitness tools out there helping me quantify, but not quantify. Sure, it can tell me I've met my step goal, but when will it help me adjust my goal because it's raining today? And how many ways do I need to track my sleep? I don't need more data, I need actionable plans!

I'm sure I'll add more throughout the week. So follow me to see what will be the real trends will be and what things everyone will talk about but will never really become a trend. LMK what you think!

Parallel Reality at CES

Over two years ago, Paul Dietz, an old friend who used to run the Mitsubishi Electronics Research Lab, reached out about a new company who was developing with some technology that he said would blow me away. He showed me some videos and they were pretty damn cool, I had to admit, but I'm not sure I knew what they were showing me.

So Jim Ackerman and I went to visit their space in Redmond and we were just blown away. Parallel Reality was one of those technologies that was really just magic to me. This technology innovation allows a hundred or more viewers to simultaneously share a digital display, sign, or light and each see something different. From their website:

PARALLEL REALITY™ Displays are enabled by
a new pixel that has unprecedented capabilities.

These pixels can simultaneously project up to millions of light rays of different colors and brightness. Each ray can then be software-directed to a specific person.

CONVENTIONAL PIXEL               PARALLEL REALITY™ PIXEL

Outputs only a single color        Can simultaneously output up to millions
at any moment.                        of controllable rays of different colors and brightness.

 

I was really excited to see them at CES this year, showing off their tech with Delta Airlines. I took one of my tour groups there and we scheduled a time to see them. Wasn't sure they were looking forward to coming back but once they had a chance to see it, they were blown away too. In fact, a great deal of the CES press called this either the best tech or one of the best techs of the show.

The possibilities for this technology are endless. With Parallel Reality, we can create personalized experiences at retail (Jim & I saw a demo of this already) and better connect with the shoppers in a store. Or while at a sporting event in a stadium, we can all see tailored content on the Jumbotrons. Later this year, they'll be testing the tech at the Detroit airport, delivering personalized boarding information to travelers. The possibilities are endless.

Check out the video I took below and reach out to find out more about what they're doing. We hope to be able to showcase them at the Lab in the future!

CES 2019, The Year of Being Incremental

Back from another year at CES and the word of the show is incremental. Everyone I spoke to at CES mainly said the same thing. Nothing really blew them away, in a good way at any rate, and everything was just a little better than last year. I still always see some great technology that I think is better out of the home, but

TV

Let me start with this heresy, I'm not a fan of 8K for the house. Sure, it's awesomely pretty and the colors are amazing, but I don't see it being a big winner for the home market for a long time. A few years back when talking about the rise of 4K TV's, we talked about the ripple effect that 4K TV's were driving. You can't have 4K TV's, without also making sure that every content creator had 4K cameras. And the pipes to the house had to be able to deliver 4K. Even make-up and wardrobe might need to be adjusted. For large studios, that capex could be pretty significant. Many of them are probably just finishing the upgrade to 4K, I don't think they're going to jump into 8K all that quickly.

If you think about a standard TV show, 8K also doesn't drive any new value. Would have I liked Sex Education, Bodyguard or Manifest be any better in 8K? Not at all. Live sporting events could be a reason for 8K, but I think it becomes just like 3D at that point. Sure, it'll look good, but there just won't be enough compelling content to justify the upgrade.

For out of home, I think it's a different story. I think 8K in movie theaters or being used for OOH (out of home) advertising could be really interesting and a point of differentiation for those industries. But I just don't see mass consumer adoption for quite a few years.

4K is now pretty ubiquitous, but honestly, what can you do to make a 4K TV better? Thankfully, there weren't many curved screens this year, so maybe that trend has faded a little. We saw a lot of pretty screensavers this year. Afterall, why have such a large thing in your living room that's just black when it's not in use. There were a couple of companies showing transparent TV's, which again, I think are awesome for OOH and events. I don't know about your house, but the space behind the TV at my house rarely gets the cleaning it deserves -- I'm not sure I'd want people to be able to see behind it! The two coolest innovations for me:

• LG's roll-up TV. There's no doubt that this TV was a big hit. And it is both beautiful and cool, no doubt about it! People, myself included, would watch that screen roll up & down over & over again, sort of mesmerized by how it works. The picture quality is obviously excellent and the rolling mechanism worked extremely well. But I wonder how many people really need a TV the rolls away when it's not being watched. Again, it might be cool in certain retail or OOH environments, I think it ultimately creates limited value for the typical home consumer.

LG press picture

• Samsung's Wall system is also a beautiful, interesting take on what a TV is. Using MicroLED tiles, Samsung has created a tool that allows the user to build the TV in different sizes and shapes. Again, truly beautiful and for OOH, as some real practical applications. I think that the ability to create to a specified size, rather then having to build around the set sizes of traditional has value to both home and OOH uses.

Samsung press picture

Connected Cars

As with TV's, this was again a year for incremental growth for the connected car industry. We're still a ways off from everyone being able to use self driving cars, so again, we're still seeing lots of concepts, not actual cars. There's so much that needs to change before self-driving cars are a thing, and the car technology is only a piece of it. During the show, we talked about how the entire eco-system that needs to changed, from car dealerships to insurance companies. For example, for sake of discussion, there are some 150 million or so potential customers for insurance companies today. But, if the car is driving itself, then who needs to have the insurance? It could possibly mean that their potential audience goes from 150 million to maybe less than 100, as only the companies building or delivering self-driving cars would need to be insured. That's just one example of an item that would be a huge change to the insurance industry and all of that needs to be resolved before we see a ubiquitous roll-out of self-driving cars.

One thing that got a lot of attention was the announcement by Audi of holoride, their new experience that turns the car into a mobile gaming platform using VR.

Audi press picture

As they describe:

Audi is demonstrating the immersive futuristic technology with “Marvel’s Avengers: Rocket’s Rescue Run,” an in-car VR experience for backseat passengers being brought to life by Disney Games and Interactive Experiences. Wearing VR glasses, the passenger in an Audi e-tron is transported into a fantastical depiction of outer space: The Audi e-tron now functions as the ship manned by the Guardians of the Galaxy, as the passenger makes their way through an asteroid field together with Rocket, a character that will appear in Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Endgame in spring 2019. Every movement of the car is reflected in the experience in real time. If the car turns a tight corner, the player curves around an opposing spaceship in virtual reality. If the Audi e-tron accelerates, the ship in the experience does the same.

Right now, the system is designed for use by passengers in the back seat and it got good reviews and it will be interesting to see where this technology can go in the future. They clearly made a smart move by partnering with Disney and bringing Marvel characters into the experience.

We had an interesting conversation on the show floor about the future of content in cars and how they would drive car buying decisions in the future. For example, if you had children and you were thinking about buying a luxury car, would knowing that Audi had exclusive Disney game content, would that sway your purchase decision. It also means that our history of content distribution could be very challenged by auto manufactures. Could Ford win the distribution of the Super Bowl broadcast in the future and you could only watch it in a Ford vehicle?

Bell Air Taxi

One of the newest exhibitors in the connected car area was Bell Helicopter, showcasing their Nexus products at CES for the first time. Designed as an air taxi, think Uber in the air. It was certainly very cool and I can see executives using this in crowded environments like NY & LA. It is designed to be flown autonomously, taking guests easily over crowded highway drives. It was designed to be flown without a pilot, but I when I asked how people felt about getting into a helicopter without a pilot, they admitted that the test runs all included one until people's comfort level had increased.

David Polinchock

Connected Home

As with the above items, we're seeing everything getting better with connected home tech, but not really a lot new, at least for me. The biggest press in this category was for connected toilets, so that says something. Homestly, does my toilet need to be Alexa enabled? Is it really that difficult to lift or put down the toilet that I need Alexa to do that for me? Admittedly, I did really enjoy the smart toilet I got to use in my hotel in Seoul. I mean, it's going to be in the single digits here this week, that heated seat would be awesome! But beyond that, I'm not sure the value here for most people. But look at how Kohler describes the "experience" in their press release:

The lighting features on Kohler’s flagship intelligent toilet have been upgraded from static colors to dynamic and interactive multi-colored ambient and surround lighting. Paired with the new speakers in the Numi toilet, these lighting and audio enhancements create a fully-immersive experience for homeowners.

Kohler media kit

They took a lot of grief in social media for talking about the toilet being a fully immersive experience, which they honestly deserved.

There were a few things that I liked, including the Bitdefender Box. With some many connected devices coming into the home, security is becoming a very critical issue. Tools like this protect everything in the house and Bitdefender adds things like parental controls and even cyberbullying protection. As everything becomes connected, expect to see more products like this on the market.

I also really liked the idea behind Walabot Home product. A sensor system designed for the home, it will detect falls and automatically calls for help when detected. With so many seniors living longer and alone, again, I think we'll see a lot more of this kind of tech in the future. What I liked about it was that it was very non-intrusive and seemed pretty easy to set up. I also know many seniors who wouldn't wear one of those "I've fallen and I can't get up" bracelets and this is a good alternative.

Lastly, I was a fan on the Nanoleaf lighting system. This personalized and interactive lighting system seems to have more value to me than the traditional connected lights usually seen. I love it for OOH and industrial uses, although there would certainly be people who would use it for their homes as well. With my daughter heading off to college in the fall, we might start a new trend in dorm room design!

David Polinchock

VR/AR

Again the story of VR/AR this year was that everything was getting better. As you may remember from my Google Glass days, one of the biggest complaints was that they really didn't look that good. While I thought they were fine, I can tell you that Sydney always felt uncomfortable wearing them!

Companies like Nreal are working on mixed reality glasses that can deliver both an outstanding mixed reality experience and good looking glasses. So, once again, HMD's got a little better and there were more stand-alone headsets that are expected this year, but honestly, there just wasn't the excitement that there was on the past.

You can see by this list of articles, VR/AR was there, but it didn't generate the hype it was in the past:

• At CES 2019, VR and AR took small but meaningful steps forward
• At CES 2019, VR feels like a dream gathering dust
• Remember virtual reality? Its buzz has faded at CES 2019

Now, that doesn't mean that VR/AR is over or disappearing anytime soon, so don't fret. One of the things that I did like was seeing VR used throughout the floor to demo other products. For example, it was everywhere in the connected car section, so it is being used to tell stories and drive engagement. Expect to see more of that at future CES events.

Future of Retail

One of the challenges with doing these things for a long time, is that you start to see things coming back for a second time. That was the case with a couple of the items at CES this year, but the good news is that they are being done well and that there's usually more acceptance of these technologies today.

For example, JD showed off several technologies at their booth, their first time exhibiting at CES. These technologies, while they've been around before, show off where retail could be heading in the future. One allowed guests to "try" on different outfits by standing in-front of a screen, as seen below.

They also showcased their smart vending machine, something that several exhibitors showed at CES this year.

Yi Tunnel showed off some great image recognition tech, both for checkout and vending machines. I have to admit, the demo of the image recognition check out was pretty impressive. It could recognize things like fruit very effectively. Without a doubt, we'll see a lot more of this kind of tech in the future.

One of my favorite things at the show was Robo-shark, the shark shaped, underwater drone. First of all, it looks damn cool! And the three screen, control system, who wouldn't work use that! Here's how they describe it:

ROBO-SHARK is positioned as a high-speed, low-noise ocean-like bionic underwater robot platform. This product can perform tasks such as fast approach, high-mobility patrol, and high-speed tracking of underwater targets. ROBO-SHARK uses shark as a biomimetic prototype and replaces the propeller propeller with a three-joint bionic tail fin, which can effectively reduce the running noise of the product and save energy consumption. In addition, the outer casing of the product is made of sound absorbing material, which is concealed. The product can be propelled at high speed through the caudal fin and has a speed of up to 10 knots.

I mean, don't you want one right now?? Unfortunately, it's a custom product, so I couldn't get a good price, but I did want one!

There was a lot more there and I may do some additional writing, but I think you get the idea. Lots of good things, just a little better than last year. It's still a fun show to attend and 2020 might still have some surprises in store!

CES 2017

Back from a whirlwind week in Vegas for CES 2017 and getting a chance to look a the big trends from the show. As you may know, I give tours to media execs of the show floor, helping them to better understand the tech and, more importantly, what it could mean. Given that the show is over 2 million square feet, it can be pretty overwhelming even for the hardiest of souls! I usually walk 20,000 steps/day during the show, so at least I get a lot of exercise during the week. So, what were the trends that we talked about at CES? Here's my starting take on them.

Alexa Everywhere

As many have said, one of the big stories of the show was how many companies are now integrating Alexa into what they're doing. Just look at this list from the Verge and you'll get a sense of the scope of how people are thinking about Alexa and voice in general. One person on one of my tours has seven Alexa's in their house and they've found many ways to integrate it into their lives. My in-laws have also gotten Alexa and use it quite frequently as well, showing how easily voice works for a wide range of demographics.

Some of the integrations are certainly less compelling than others and that's to be expected with the early experimentation. Some had Alexa just built in and others use the standard Alexa system. It's showing up in cars, appliances, TV's and all manner of electronics. As with VR/AR, using voice interface will require some new UX ideas, so that they really become a better way to get something done.

VR/AR

The second big story for me was the amount of VR/AR at the show. Just a few years ago, there was no VR section at all and any VR that was at CES was in far flung halls or being shown in meeting rooms. Now, it's a good hunk of the south hall and spread throughout the halls with many companies using VR to show off or explain their technology.

Qualcomm announced the new Snapdragon 835 chip, designed

To deliver significant improvements designed to drive tomorrow’s mobile experiences: ultra-fast charging and multi-day battery life, jaw-dropping AR/VR immersion, the most advanced camera capabilities, gigabit LTE and multi-gigabit Wi-Fi connectivity, and inside-out security — all of it complemented by machine-learning solutions designed to make our devices stunningly intelligent.

ODG launched the first AR headset based on the new chips and will be launching a consumer headset this year. Still pricey for the average consumer at $1,799, but a big step in the right direction. And while I like HoloLens, these glasses look a whole lot better. In a few years, AR glasses will really be just a pair of glasses or contact lenses.

One of my favorites was the Structure sensor from Occipital. With the Structure Sensor, the future is in your hands. Rapid 3D scanning of objects and people, 3D maps of interior spaces, and mixed reality experiences where fantasy becomes impossible to tell from reality. The Bridge Engine also lets you create pretty cool AR experiences using your actual space. Inside-out positional tracking lets you roam freely through any virtual environment, while obstacle avoidance helps you avoid objects or walls around you and Bridge is optimized for the iPhone.

I'm a big fan of AR and think it's something we'll use every day once the price is right. VR is something that we'll use to do something specific, like gaming, education, training, etc. AR will be a part of our every day life, like our phones are today. Our world will be augmented, creating the need for an entirely new UX.

Connected Cars

Sometimes it seems like there are more car announcements at CES than there are at the auto shows. The north hall seems to get more cars every year. Last year, Faraday showed a very strange prototype that looked a lot like the Batmobile and sat one person. This year, Farady showed off their new car, the FF 91. They're making some great claims about their cars, it'll be interesting to see if they can deliver on them all.

One of the more interesting ideas was the new Mercedes Me app. Going beyond connecting your car, this new app is meant to connect your entire life. It's what they describe as the car being the central health hub. It's an interesting play on their part, connecting the car to the rest of your life. Here's how they describe it:

Imagine a vehicle that knows whether you’re stressed and nudges you to take a breath before the next scheduled appointment. Because it can read your pulse and see your upcoming schedule. A vehicle that can adjust ambient lighting, sounds and even scents to soothe the driver and passengers. A vehicle that becomes a key component of an active yet balanced lifestyle, working in unison with smart devices in the home and with wearables to generate a more holistic picture of one’s vital data.

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out and whether or not people will be interested in it. But, as we move to autonomous cars and a time where people don't own their own cars, Mercedes seems to be looking for ways to always have value in your life.

Chrysler introduced the Portal concept car. They say it's designed for millennials, but honestly, it looks like a car that's being designed for autonomous driving. After all, if we don't have to do the driving, the interior needs to be completely different. Some of the things in the car I'm not as crazy about, like directional speakers that allow everyone in the car to listen to different music. They're pitching it as a "third place," but I think that's a little ambitious of a description for a car.

So Much Else

There were so many things there, it's really hard to categorize everything. There were a number of companies showing robots, from assembly lines to companions, they were all there. A few companies specialized in making robots that can help in retail and, while I think they're cool, I'd still rather speak to a person if I'm in the store. I do like some of what I call companion robots that were being shown. There were several for children that might read or incorporate Alexa like technology into them. Since they're mobile, they would be able to "follow" children throughout the house, so there could be some cool safety opportunities with them. While I didn't see any, I'm also interested in using robotics technology for senior care. As a member of the sandwich generation, I could probably use robots on both ends.

I really liked Whirlpool's Zera Food Recycler, which takes your food scraps and turns them into fertilizer without much effort on your part.

When I first saw SGNL, I thought it was interesting, but not compelling. But when I gave it a try I thought it was pretty cool! Sgnl is the smart strap that enables you to answer phone calls through your fingertip. Simply place your fingertip to your ear while speak through the embedded microphone. Replace your existing watch strap with Sgnl and you’re done, whether you wear a classic watch or an Apple Watch, Samsung Gear, or Pebble Time.

Sydney & I have talked about building a drone that will take our dogs for a walk and I saw one drone on the floor that could possibly do that.

Samsung brought their VR to live with a full, motion, VR experience. I didn't get a chance to try it myself, but people sure seemed to be enjoying it!

Some of the crazier items

There are always a few things on the show floor that make me shake my head and ask why. One was the fake TV light. Apparently, you set it up in your home and pretend there's a TV on so you won't get robbed. Yea, I don't know why you wouldn't just set a time on your TV either.

Or maybe you'd like a pair of shoes with built in vacuums? Densu showed off these prototypes this year. Of course, having 2 dogs who seem to shed enough hair to make a new dog every week, this may not be a bad idea.

Some people really loved Foldimate, but it doesn't seem to be that big of a deal for me to fold my own clothes right now. But, maybe if I had one of these, I'd really like it!

Lastly, maybe you've been worried about all of the radiation you might be getting when you put you're phone in you pants pocket. Well, worry no more, Spartan undies will protect your privates! Sometimes I'm not aware of what needs protection.

All in all, it was an interesting show and I saw some things that were ready to go and others that were in early stages. As we've seen for the past few years, everything is and will continue to be connected. It opens up challenges for UX, security and privacy. With everything connected, our data trails are also growing larger and we'll need to figure out what that means pretty quickly. If it's not already too late.

Here are some various pictures from the floor and Vegas!