CES 2018 was, perhaps unsurprisingly, a very successful event for all attendees and exhibitors, including us. It’s too early to publicly get into specifics in terms of our meetings, but trust that great things are in the works! Even though we were busy engaging visitors at our booth, we still found time to check out the other booths. We were of course blown away by the many startups that were in the visual space in some way shape and form, and we went on to explore the other arenas as well. Wow. Between the various innovations in VR, AI, and even retrofuturism (more on that later) we were shocked to see what’s in store in each respective arena.
AI assistants have been a front-runner ever since they were introduced to the market and continue to be so. This year, the CES venue was overwhelmed with Amazon’s Alexa devices. However refusing to be surpassed, Google announced that Lenovo, LG, and Sony will be producing Google assistant speakers with a new addition unlike many others which are screens. Samsung also displayed an improved version of their own assistant called Bixby. Bixby will not only be part of Samsung phones but also will be incorporated into other Samsung products like their televisions and refrigerator. We’re certain these products will be their best sellers once they hit the shelves.
One unforeseen trend we saw at CES this year were retrofuturistic robots. “Retrofuturism” is the tendency in creative arts (comic books, movies, tv shows, etc.) of showing how the future would look like in earlier eras. LG introduced a new robot smart home manager named CLOi that is a built in voice manager to help make daily tasks like folding laundry and finding recipes on other LG products easier and more efficient.
Virtual reality, of course, made a comeback at this years CES. HTC unveiled their new headset with a high resolution display and integrated audio. Apart from headsets, an Irish company named Design Partners revealed a new device called the smart glove that combines touch and physical perception into the VR experience. We are eager to see how the world responds to these new products this year and will absolutely stay tuned to see how these technologies continue to evolve.
Have you been keeping track on news from CES? What fascinated you most? Let us know!