Review I CES 2014


Wearable electronics take centre-stage at this year’s CES


Neil Tyler takes a look at this year’s show in Las Vegas


Last month thousands of visitors to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas got the chance to catch a glimpse of some of the products that they may, or may not, be using in the months and years ahead, whether 3D food printers, driverless cars or bendable TVs. However, it was wearable electronics - whether smart watches or head-mounted cameras - that appeared to take centre stage at this year’s show with hundreds of companies using the event to demonstrate the latest in wearable technology


and a significant number of these kinds of devices were on display.


Sony launched "life logging" software that has been designed to chart a person's activities on an interactive timeline. The Android app receives data from a small piece of wearable hardware called the Core that acts as an activity tracker. The software then uses this information to determine if the user was walking, resting or in a vehicle.


Privacy issues were raised but Sony sort to play them down.


3D food printers which make chocolate and sugar-based confectionery shaped in ways that would be extremely difficult to produce using more traditional methods, were also being shown off at CES. While the Chefjet is limited to monochrome creations, a larger Chefjet Pro was able to create multicoloured objects. However, the machine’s US manufacturer, 3D Systems, conceded that the cost of the products would mean that sales


including: CSR’s Bluetooth necklace, LG's Heart Rate Earphones, the Vuzix M100 and the Sony SmartBand and Core. This year a broad range of smart watches including Samsung’s Galaxy Gear and the Pebble; the Wellograph, a smartwatch with a heart monitor that also tracks your movements; and the Runphone, which uses a sweatband to track your performance when running, were on display. According to CCS Insight more than $100m has been invested in wearables through crowd-funding sites alone, and they believe this provides real evidence that there is huge potential for these products. However, some analysts and industry watchers are concerned that despite the broad range of wearable electronics now available there has yet to be a significant take-up in the market.


Analysts argue that health and wellbeing will be important factors in driving the take-up of wearable devices


www.cieonline.co.uk were likely be limited.


Alongside wearable technology ultra- high-definition (UHD) televisions also took centre stage - again.


After past years focusing on 3D TV, Google TV, and "smart" TV this year’s CES was focused on 4K TV, which promises to offer four times the resolution of HDTV. Unlikely to be available to mainstream


broadcasters - the focus, at least over the next five years will be on internet based TV services - 4K TV is set to be used to stream new programmes and even the World Cup final, although the number of broadcasters able to transmit it is still unclear. As Netflix’s boss, Reed Hastings, explained the problem for 4K TV will be finding sufficient content.


TV makers, LG and Samsung, showed


off the biggest – and smallest – curved screens. Samsung demonstrated an 85in LCD set which starts off flat but with the touch of a button curves in from the shorter sides.


While critics of curved screens argue that they are impractical and likely to be very expensive, Samsung and LG believe that these types of products will offer users an “unrivalled immersive picture" experience.


None of the products on show will ship


be able to "text the fridge to find out what you need to buy". Washing machines will also be able to answer texts too, according to VanderWall. "For the first time you'll be able to text your washing machine 'What are you doing?' and it'll let you know how it's getting on."


The motor industry was also showing off with a host of self drive cars on display - a modified 2-Series Coupe and 6-Series Gran Coupe from BMW were driven round a racetrack without any driver intervention by using 360- degree radar, ultrasonic sensors and cameras. The cars were able to sense and adapt to their surroundings. Japan's Toyota also


demonstrated an autonomous car and Bosch showed off its


in high-enough volume in 2014 to rescue the traditional consumer electronics (CE) device from a decline in revenue this year, according to market analysts IHS. They believe that CE manufacturing


revenue will fall to $250.0 billion in 2014, down 2 percent from $255.7 billion in 2013, marking the fourth consecutive year of decline for the CE market.


“While exciting new technologies such as UHD and wearable devices are being shown at CES, it will take a few years until these products attain enough of a volume to drive the growth of the overall CE market,” said Jordan Selburn, senior principal analyst, consumer devices, for IHS. “Until these products enter the mainstream, traditional CE revenue will continue to dwindle.”


Global market shipments of wearable devices for infotainment applications will grow to 130.7 million units in 2018, up from 51.2 million in 2013. The infotainment segment consists of products including Bluetooth headsets, head-up displays, imaging products, smart glasses and smart watches. Another returning theme at CES was the "connected home". LG demonstrated its "internet fridge" with its US head of appliance brand marketing, David VanderWall, announcing that you would


smartphone-controlled self-parking technology. Ford unveiled plans for a prototype


solar-powered hybrid car. The C-Max Solar Energi Concept has a solar panel system on the roof which tracks the position of the sun and is able to draw power equal to a four-hour battery charge. Fully charged, the car could travel for up to 21 miles powered just on electricity.


Google also announced that it was teaming up with leading car manufacturers including Audi, Honda and Hyundai to integrate its Android operating system into their dashboards in a move that would allow apps and music on Android smartphones and tablets to work more effectively with onboard car systems. Convergence continues apace. ■


Components in Electronics February 2014 13


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