2012 International CES: Fun Finds at CES Unveiled

by Limor Schafman

Several themes are already starting to emerge as topics we will be hearing a lot about over the next few days:

1. CEA analysts project over 100m tablets to be purchased worldwide in 2012.  But the tablet market is maxing out with purchase rate increments starting to flatten.  
2. The largest buying upsurge in smartphones is going from Africa and the Middle East; and the same with tablets and all forms of mobile devices.  This is attributed largely to the lack of infrastructure in these countries which is forcing people to immediate go mobile.  China also shows the same trends.
3. Ultrabooks are grabbing the market of mobile PCs.
4. Desktop purchases are down. 
5. TV market penetration is maxed out. The belief is that most households that want TVs now own them. 
6. TV tech is going to LCDs which are shifting quickly to LED and will OLED slowly but steadily as prices continue to drop.
7. 3D TV is said to be on the rise.

The pre-conference press expo called CES Unveiled showcased several companies (Picture left show Gary Shapiro, CEO of CEA and Steven Smith Editor in Chief of Twice).  

 

I highlight here below some of the fun and interesting finds:    

House of Marley - (LVCC Central #15237) This company, started in the name of Bob Marley, always have music oriented product (headphones, radios) have fantastic design.  The product materials are strictly conservation and natural in focus- wood is FSC compliant (Forest Stewardship Council – chop one/plant one); plastics, cardboard boxing are all from recycled product; and any cloth is hemp or recycled cotton.  Visit this booth to see a good example of aesthetic, planet conscious consumer electronics.

My PowerBag - Won an Innovation Award – a bag that has a battery charger in it that can recharge multiple devices as well.  Takes 3 hours to charge the bag, and then you are good to go with plenty of power for the road.  Allegedly the bag isn’t heavy but didn’t have a chance to test that myself.

MyCharge - This is a small device – about the size of a smartphone, just a bit thicker – that can be charge through electrical outlet or USB and then used as a portable charge for up to 5 devices simultaneously.  Nice compact charger with all the cord attachments built into it. 

Kivic - This is a streaming multimedia device that takes media from the iPhone and streams it through itself to a car system.  One way to take your personal media on the road.

Eers - by Sonomax, this gadget produces custom fitted earphones within 5 minutes.  You put the SonoFit™ Custom Fitting System over your ears and adjust.  They do not go too far in so no damage to eardrums.  The silicon forms to your ears unique shape.  After 5 minutes, you remove the earpieces and place them on your own headset and you are ready to go. 

Bikn - (LVCC Central Plaza 8) Produced by Tree House Labs, this is a sensor platform for anything you want to track, find and measure.  They are developing multiple products based on the platform – one of the first is a lost and found application.  You have the sensor attached to whatever it is you want to keep track of (phone – has a special casing with the sensor built in); a pet; a child; etc. The iPhone application (Android OS is under development) shows on the phone where the item is.  You can activate the application to show location, to show how close you are to what you are searching for (in case it is not immediately visible) and you can set geographic boundaries so that if an item is suddenly outside the set zone, an alarm goes off.   Another product places sensors in a football helmet so that if a player hits his head, you can know the level of impact sustained.  They are also offering the platform to companies for license or as part of services for the production of privately developed products. 

Invoxia - (LVCC North #6406) This product produces VOIP over iPhone through an elegant handset.  The system is unique in its interface [you interact through the iPhone]; it can manage 8 mikes simultaneously so it acts like a Polycom office system; it auto-configures with existing PBX systems as well; they are beginning to offer their own telecom services (France currently, and coming to the US).  They too won an Innovation Award.

Sculpteo - This was one of the most interesting technologies I saw.  It allows for 3D sculpting based on designs that you can do yourself.  It is a cloud based system in which you can design products; they handle the production of the item in plastic or ceramic.  You can use the application for free, and then just pay for production.  The company is partnering with manufacturers to produce large orders.

3M - (LVCC South 4 #35806)was showing a multi-touch screen which offers a steady base with a min of 20 simultaneous touchpoints.  Works with a Windows 7 computer. It’s being used by the military as a flight simulator- Lockheed Martin has taken 18 screen monitors to create a cockpit and then can train soldiers on multiple aeronautic interfaces by simply choosing another flight sim software application rather than building another actual simulator.   The financial sector is using the screens in brokerage rooms, and they can be found in the retail space as well. (Yep, those are my creative doodles testing 20 points with the sales person.)

 Parrot - (LVCC South #31424 and LVCC Central Plaza CP9) This company was showcasing its flyingrcraft technology which can be used for remote controlled video capture.  Tablets (and presumably smartphones and touch screen laptops) control the drone.  What is shown here is the AR.Drone, the first quadricopter piloted by wi-fi and using augmented reality.  

Comments

[boxing machine]

its really nice to see all this beautiful things happening in the year 2012. thanks for the great post.