David J. Danto

 

Business travel thoughts in my own, personal opinion

 

             

 

eMail: ddanto@IMCCA.org      Follow Industry News: @NJDavidD

 

CES 2022 Part 2

 

 As I detailed in my last blog I’m just back from the annual technology conference known as CES.  In part one here I covered some of my travel logistics and some of my impressions of the controversies surrounding the event.  In this – part two – I’ll detail some of the actual themes and tech discoveries I made.

Understanding the trends and themes of CES is probably the most important reason to attend this event, and this year certainly had plenty of them.  The pandemic we’ve been living through acted as an accelerant to speed-up both enterprise and consumer use of technology and the development of new solutions.  Here are just a few to consider:

·    Transportation – Including the expected huge growth of electric vehicles and autonomous vehicles – both for personal use and for shipping goods.

·    Space Technology – Not just the well-publicized space tourists flying in billionaire’s rockets, but an entirely new class of reusable space vehicles, including the new Sierra Space Dream Chaser shown at this year’s conference.

·     Sustainable Technology – including ecologically friendly fuels for air-transportation, alternative meats, and a smarter world where cities and the offices in them are more productive and less wasteful.

·    Digital Health – with the explosion of telehealth and personal monitoring solutions that grew out of pandemic needs.

And then, in a category unto itself, we have the up-leveling of the home experience – also accelerated by the pandemic.  Any professional that is not upgrading their home office right now is likely missing the boat, but home offices are only a fraction of the upgrading that is taking place.  People are willing to spend more for premium at-home experiences, across entertainment, information devices, and smart-home devices to make daily life easier and more automated. 

These trends were evident all over the CES expo floor, with a large amount of them dedicated to helping improve health at home – especially during a pandemic.  Devices and technologies touted as “Virus-Busters” or “Virus-Detectors” were all around, from a new Targus UV disinfection light for keyboards to a whole series of “Vira-Warn” products meant to instantly detect COVID (and it can core-a-apple oh chef of the future.)

Just like at all the CESs I’ve attended in the past, I chose some slightly more obscure systems and devices for my pick-hits list.  Here they are in no particular order:

·    Canon has developed a collaboration system called AMLOS (short for activate my line of sight.) They don’t actually have the collaboration platform or engine, instead relying on Microsoft Teams for now  and potentially others in the CES 2022: Canon AMLOS Attempts to Capture the Creative Chaos Missing from  Video Conferences - Serious Insightsfuture, but what they do is take multiple streams from a single camera, allow the people in the room to use hand gestures to identify what things in the room are important (demo object, whiteboard, etc.) and present a choice of those streams to anyone watching on the far end.  They also process the video so that it always looks best – including such tricks as adjusting the keystone on a side-wall-mounted whiteboard, and making anyone standing in the way of that whiteboard disappear so the far end sees only the board.  This is the first public display of their system which has a lot of potential to enhance remote collaboration.  Here’s a short video I tweeted of them describing it at CES

·    One of the smartest technologies I saw at the show this year was from Holo Industries.  They have a holographic touch interface that allows people to make selections in the air without Holo Industries Develops Contactless-Touch Holographic Products for  Germ-Free Interaction | Business Wirehaving to actually touch anything.  Here is the video I shot of them.

·    Another new product I was impressed by was the Noveto Systems N1 personal smart speaker.  This is This $800 Device Offers Private Listening Without Headphones | Digital  Trendskind of like the personal listening ‘sound-domes’ that we used to use in AV, but without the dome.  It detects the listener and focuses ultrasound at his or her ears.  It is so directional that someone standing next to you can’t hear it.  Here is the video I shot of their CEO explaining it.  It’s not much of a demo as my microphone was not detected to be a human listener’s ear so it didn’t get the sound – but trust me, it worked amazingly well.

·     A new company called Resonado Labs has developed a new type of speaker driver that doesn’t use a standard circular cone.  Their technology uses “a linear motor structure that provides an even force distribution which improves performance while maintaining flexible packaging, regardless of the shape.”

It seems to be an interesting technology that could help with the development of many non-traditional speakers.

·    ImageA company called Pozio has developed a wraparound device for your smartphone and smart digital assistants that blocks them from listening to everything in your house and sending it over the internet until you actually want them to do something.  Because smart devices are such a great convenience, but we don’t know what privacy we’re giving up, this new device could definitely fill a nice short-term niche.  Here is their team discussing and demonstrating it. 

 

 

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To wrap-up this blog, CES was definitely a smaller, weirder event than in years past, but it was more than worthwhile making the effort to be there.  I have nothing against streaming video and virtual conferences to be sure, but that’s not what CES is all about.  CES is the opportunity for small firms to show breakthroughs, for large firms to expand people’s imagination, and for technologists like me to get a sense of what’s going on in the industry.  One can only do that in person.  Business conferences within one’s one industry sector are generally best for socialization – something I do really enjoy and something that is just not safely possible today.  CES 2022 was the same – it had almost no (safe) socialization, so that was never what it was all about – a point that many tech journalists who stayed-away apparently just didn’t understand.  If all journalists do is cover news events that are “fun” then there wouldn’t be much actual news.  Imagine a world where real reporters didn’t cover events that had risks and you’ll understand my utter disdain for the tech media and their stance this year.  These media firms essentially boycotted the event, but then disingenuously claimed to provide coverage of it, trying to get the best of both worlds and showing the slimier side of what they do – claim to cover “news” but instead merely act as paid promoters of their sponsors.  

If you’d really like to get a sense of what it was like to be there, feel free to watch my AVNationTV CES Wrap-up show here.

For now, just like last week ICYMI, I’ll leave you with my video log of what it’s like to ride in Teslas in the new Boring Company tunnels between the Las Vegas Convention Center Central Hall and the new West Hall.  I’m sharing it again for a reason.  I’m not sure if this is what our future is meant to be, but it sure is different.  That essentially makes it a perfect metaphor for CES 2022.

 

 

 

 

This article was written by David Danto and contains solely his own, personal opinions.

All image and links provided above as reference under prevailing fair use statutes.

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As always, feel free to write and comment, question or disagree.  Hearing from the traveling community is always a highlight for me.  Thanks!