Those of you that know me, or if you have been reading me for some time, know that I am a fan of technology. I do not consider myself an early adopter, but always like to understand what is coming new, how the technology works and its potential impact in society.
I started going to CES, the Consumer Electronics Show, over 10 years ago. At the beginning was work related, but as that changed, I realized that the learning value justified going on my own. CES takes place every year in early January in Las Vegas, Nevada. Not only it is a good opportunity to stay on top of new stuff, but also get to enjoy the city. CES is the largest show in the USA and one of the largest ones in the world.
I started documenting publicly my findings at CES in 2016. I wrote an article about what to expect, and what I call the lonely booth. To me a lonely booth is somebody showing a new product or technology that may not be popular or embraced, but that has the potential to change how we live and do business. At that time I was referring to Pebble, the first wearable device. It launched around 2010 and there was only one company, one booth, displaying a wearable device, a smart watch. Now there is a whole floor devoted to wearables, and all companies have a wearable play.
In 2017 I wrote about more here and now products. There were many things to report, but one of my surprises was how robots have left their cage and were starting to enter our daily lives.
I had been following robotics for many years, and every time it was the same. Cute little expensive toys. Now they are still cute, but are less expensive, and some are behaving in a smarter way.
Part of this push has been thanks to advances in speech, cloud computing and artificial intelligence, driven by the likes of Google and Amazon with Alexa. Chinese companies were showing a whole family of robots with all price points and capabilities, and they told me they were making them and selling them in volume. No more see if the market exists. It does exist, at least somewhere.
I started going to CES, the Consumer Electronics Show, over 10 years ago. At the beginning was work related, but as that changed, I realized that the learning value justified going on my own. CES takes place every year in early January in Las Vegas, Nevada. Not only it is a good opportunity to stay on top of new stuff, but also get to enjoy the city. CES is the largest show in the USA and one of the largest ones in the world.
I started documenting publicly my findings at CES in 2016. I wrote an article about what to expect, and what I call the lonely booth. To me a lonely booth is somebody showing a new product or technology that may not be popular or embraced, but that has the potential to change how we live and do business. At that time I was referring to Pebble, the first wearable device. It launched around 2010 and there was only one company, one booth, displaying a wearable device, a smart watch. Now there is a whole floor devoted to wearables, and all companies have a wearable play.
In 2017 I wrote about more here and now products. There were many things to report, but one of my surprises was how robots have left their cage and were starting to enter our daily lives.
I had been following robotics for many years, and every time it was the same. Cute little expensive toys. Now they are still cute, but are less expensive, and some are behaving in a smarter way.
Part of this push has been thanks to advances in speech, cloud computing and artificial intelligence, driven by the likes of Google and Amazon with Alexa. Chinese companies were showing a whole family of robots with all price points and capabilities, and they told me they were making them and selling them in volume. No more see if the market exists. It does exist, at least somewhere.
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And talking about robots, I am told my favorite robot, Q.bo will be in display at CES. Actually it is Q.bo One, a streamlined version along the lines of an Alexa.
Q.bo has been around for much longer that the smart speakers of today so it is not surprise that it has much more and better features than what you find in the market today. Q.bo will be in display at a number of big name booths so do not miss him this January in Las Vegas.
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