Digital lifestyle expert Mario Armstrong is covering CES from Las Vegas for HLNtv.com and HLN.
Emerging from the thousands of fascinating items on which to feast your eyes and mind at the Consumer Electronics Show are a handful of dominant trends. What's big for 2013 and beyond? By the looks of the showroom floor, expect gadgets and new technology to redefine your home, your health and your ride.
3 Big Trends From CES to watch out for
1. Smart Home
"Smart Home tech" is all about networking the appliances and electronics in our homes to maximize their efficiency, convenience and even entertainment value. Lots of manufacturers, from LG to Philips, envision a not-so-distant future where we'll control our homes, from the heating to the lights, with just a quick swipe on a mobile phone.
LG Smart Refrigerator: Imagine a refrigerator that knows what's inside it, so you never have to wonder whether you have milk again. Then when you're out of something, simply purchase it from your LG Smart Refrigerator app, or the built-in LCD panel in the fridge itself.
GreenWave Lightbulbs: These Wi-Fi LED bulbs can be controlled remotely with your Android or iPhone, so you can easily control them even when you're not at home.
2. Health & Fitness
Wellness apps and devices are a huge category to watch in 2013, as established players and new ones are launching all kinds of tools to help people learn about their own health and fitness.
FitBit Flex: This is a new design from FitBit, a leading activity tracker. The flex is a wristband that automatically tracks all your movements, including your sleep, to determine how many calories you've burned, activity patterns and how well you're sleeping.
HAPIfork: This was a CES Innovation Award winner, and it's definitely not anything I've seen before! This fork is supposed to give you insight into your eating patterns by tracking how quickly you eat. It vibrates if you seem to be eating too fast for your own good.
3. Connected Cars
Audi and Lexus may be showing off cars that drive (and park) themselves, and while they'll probably hit the market eventually, we'll still be driving ourselves for awhile. In the meantime, we can look forward to better integration between our phones and our cars.
Ford Sync: This onboard Ford computing platform that talks to your smartphone has been around for awhile, but it's part of several new apps that have been announced at CES 2013, like Rhapsody, Glympse (a GPS tracking app), and the Wall Street Journal.
Hyundai + Siri: Hyundai drivers will be able to use their new "Eyes Free" mode to control the car's maps and entertainment system without having to take their eyes off the road or hands off the wheel. The voice recognition program will be powered by Siri, Apple's voice assistant, that is incorporated in all their latest devices.
1. Cars to clothes, "anything can now become a screen"
Move over, smartphones and tablets. The future of screens and gadgets appears to be lighter, thinner, flexible, transparent… and, most excitingly, wearable. OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) is being touted as the futuristic screen technology that is going to change everything, mainly due to its lightweight and bendable qualities.
That’s right, these organic cells can bend to create a display that is flexible without cracking. That means anything can now become a screen -- a glass display, your car roof, even the clothes you have on. Speaking of wearable, gadgets like the Nike+ Fuelband and Fitbit, which glean data from our every waking (and sleeping) moment, are ushering in a new future in which wearable gadgets may be the next big tech revolution.
2. It's getting lonely in the breakroom
The future of workspaces “may involve holograms, alone-time, more flexibility, and less loyalty” -- this according to a recent article from The Daily Beast. As workers increasingly demand more flexibility from their places of employment, companies are adapting to cater to these expectations. At the same time, more people are flocking to co-working spaces, where desks and meeting spaces can be rented on a short-term basis, and creatives of all kinds can mingle in shared areas (see: “Co-working spaces called the future of work”).
At Microsoft, Chief People Officer (what a title, right?) Lisa Brummel goes so far as to imagine a future in which an individual’s hologram, rather than the individual, is taking part in meetings. On the downside, hand-in-hand with increasing flexibility, loyalty is also expected to decline for both employers and employees.
3. A bra that can detect cancer?
Talk about a miracle bra -- here’s a bra that actually works wonders, in a very real way. First Warning Systems, Inc. has developed a bra that can potentially detect cancer. A high-tech device inside the bra collects data (e.g., by detecting changes in breast tissue) that is analyzed by computers to determine if abnormal and potentially cancerous cells are forming into a tumor.
The bra could be released in Europe next year, and in the U.S. as early as 2014. With all the advances we’re seeing in wearable computing (also check out: a helmet that can detect concussions), I love the idea that some day the very clothes we wear may become much more than just a fashion statement.
4. Empty boxes, endless possibilities
A fort, a spaceship, a time-travel machine... oh, the possibilities a kid can see in merely an empty cardboard box. Mr. Imagine’s Toy Store, which is part of the Chicago Children’s Museum’s “Unboxed: Adventures in Cardboard” exhibition, is tapping into exactly that imagination. It’s not your typical toy store, filled with talking toys and blinking lights, but rather, it's filled with a variety of cardboard boxes. The rest is simply up to your creativity. I love this idea so much. What would your kid (or the kid inside you) transform these into?
5. DIY moms, closing the hacker gap
5. DIY moms, closing the hacker gap
We’ve been talking a lot about the DIY/maker/hacker movement lately. But if you think that all hackers and tinkers are men, you’d be wrong. As hackerspaces increasingly pop up around the world, Mothership Hackermoms is creating a space for moms and their little hackers. Founded in Berkeley by a group of moms with “a mind for ideas, a ‘make-or-die’ hunger to create and a boredom with the usual moms’ groups,” the space is set up for moms to create, teach and learn alongside their kids. Geek moms of the world, unite! And yes, men are welcome too. Here’s hoping that this moves beyond California to become a larger trend.
No comments:
Post a Comment