International CES 2014
International CES (Consumer Electronics Show) took place in Las Vegas last week, Jan 7-10, 2014. With over 3200 exhibits and over 150,000 attendees, it is one of the largest events of its kind anywhere. All of the big tech companies were there, as well as the auto companies and many others.
I had the opportunity to attend it for two days, and thought I’d write about some of the highlights.
Drones, flying and wheeled
Four propeller flying mini-drone with camera
2-wheeled rolling drone with camera
Consumer-marketed drones were present. 4- and 6-propeller flying drones as well as some ground-based wheeled drones were active and on display. All typically had cameras and were operated with joysticks.
Mini robots
There were a variety of small wireless robots (many as toys). The example above could be commanded by phone app, or hand motion in front of their “eye”, or voice command.
Virtual presense devices
Virtual presence devices have two or more wheels. They have a display with speakers, microphone, and camera attached at about eye-level to a shaft, mounted to the wheel base. The user operates it remotely, perhaps from their office, their bed, or even the beach. They allow the user to see and be seen, and communicate and move around, at a remote location.
Virtual presence device, on a tour
In the above video, the woman in the white top was giving a tour of the International CES show to the woman operating the virtual presence device. If you look carefully, you can see the woman on the screen enjoying a cup of coffee, without having to fight the crowd.
A handmade example was used by Sheldon Cooper in the TV series The Big Bang Theory.
Recharging products
International CES attracted a large number of recharging products to be used with the growing number of battery-powered portable devices people are carrying. They came in all shapes, sizes, and capacities.
Portable car battery jump starter
I saw several hand-sized car-battery jumpstarter devices (rechargeable battery powered). They came complete with a kit with jumper cables, and the capacity to perform 15 or 20 jumpstarts between charges.