GLIMPSE INTO THE FUTURE
Consumer Electronic Show 2018 in Las Vegas showcased all the tech set to transform our lives. Life brings you the highlights
How will the world evolve from now on? The Consumer Electronic Show (CES) 2018, which recently wrapped up in Las Vegas last week, is one of the markers. Every year, life-changing technologies created by big and small brands across the world are revealed at this event before entering the global market.
Self-driving cars, augmented reality, virtual reality, health monitoring, biometrics and much more were exhibited at the four-day show.
At CES 2018, there were both established brands and start-ups showing prototypes, new products, applications and services as well as new innovative business models. Innovative technologies from diverse areas like the automotive industry, health and fitness, cybersecurity, drones, smart homes and more also featured.
Here we pick some highlights.
VOICE CONTROL
From now on, the conversational wireless speaker market will not only have Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant smart speakers, as many more voice-controllable devices were ubiquitous at CES 2018, including LG, Samsung, Panasonic, JBL, Harman and Sony, to name only a few.
Wi-Fi speakers from several brands have incorporated voice-controlled digital assistants. New smart speakers introduced at the show include LG, Monster, Riva Audio and more. Monster has developed smart speakers based on Qualcomm’s AllPlay wireless-multiroom platform. LG, meanwhile, built Google’s Assistant into its first smart speakers and will engage in co-marketing with Google.
At CES, both Samsung and LG showed a bunch of voice command or home control capable 4K TVs for 2018. The HiSmart Portable Air Conditioner and HiSmart Dehumidifier from Hisense can be upgraded to be voice-controlled via Alexa.
According to Strategy Analytics, global sales of smart speakers are projected to nearly double to 40-45 million units from a shade under 28 million units last year, which was up from 6 million in 2016 and only 1.1 million in 2015. IDC forecasts there will be more than 200 million smart speakers worldwide by the end of 2022.
This year will also establish voice as an interface for consumer tech and it’s expected to give rise to voice shopping in the future, along with physical, online and mobile.
TVS WITH VOICE-CONTROL SOLUTIONS
Hisense, a Chinese company, has added Android TV to its mix of smart TV operating systems, connecting TVs to virtual digital assistants. Hisense smart TVs have features to find and play content more quickly, including voice search through a microphone-equipped remote, a Hisense smartphone application and Alexa-equipped smart speakers. At the show, Hisense’s Android TVs featured built-in Google Assistant which can be controlled by voice through the TV’s microphone-equipped remote.
LG has embedded Google Assistant in all of its 4K OLED and 4K LCD TVs enabling consumers to use their voice to control Google services and smart home functions, including smart LG major appliances through the TV’s microphone-equipped remote. Samsung, meanwhile, demonstrated its 8K and MicroLED displays including an 85-inch 8K model and a 146-inch MicroLED TV and its first TVs with embedded Bixby voice-controlled virtual assistant.
TCL, another big Chinese brand, sported the voice assistant feature which is built into the remote and delivered voice searching across many leading channels.
ELECTRIC AND AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES
Autonomy and electrification were the themes for the automotive technologies at the show by all leading companies like BMW, Ford, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Honda, Toyota and Hyundai.
Some of them include the Smart Vision EQ from Mercedes-Benz — the automaker’s EV concept that combines mobility, autonomy and connectivity. Nissan’s latest development of autonomous vehicle technology is called “brain-to-vehicle” technology, which uses
brain decoding technology to predict a driver’s actions and detect discomfort.
There were a variety of vehicle assistance technologies, like parking assist, collision avoidance and emergency braking from companies like Qualcomm, Bosch and Sony.
Global sales of smart speakers are projected to nearly double
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, VIRTUAL REALITY, AUGMENTED REALITY AND GAMING
Virtual reality technology played a big role in the space for gaming as innovative tech companies, large and small, paraded their latest products and applications.
Artificial intelligence is being integrated across the ecosystem, making consumer technology smarter and products more affordable, efficient and valuable.
There was immersive multimedia for virtual reality systems and accessories designed for mobiles, PCs and consoles. Plenty of new VR headsets and accessories featured at the show, including HTC’s new Vive headset the Huawei VR2, Xiaomi, Meshroom, NextVR and more.
According to CTA research, more than 5 million VR/AR headsets were sold in 2017, crossing the US$1 billion (32 billion baht) threshold for the first time. In 2018, CTA expects the category to grow to more than $2 billion in sales.