This article appeared in Electronic Design and has been published here with permission.
What you’ll learn:
- What’s changing at this year’s show.
- A few things that were announced prior to the show.
As you can see from the image above, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is taking advantage of the new West Hall, but it’s not utilizing the larger South Hall that’s actually two levels. There are also two levels over at the Venetian Expo and Convention Center.
The show was an in-person event last year, but I decided to skip it at the last minute as many others did. Still, the foot traffic was enough to make a lot of the exhibitors happy. Attendance should be more bountiful this year, and it might be as crowded as in the past given the smaller footprint. It also might indicate that the South Hall will be needed next year.
It was quite a while ago when Amazon’s Alexa and other voice-controlled smart speakers took CES by storm. Though support for these platforms has been ongoing, the latest changes at Amazon, Twitter, and Meta will have an effect on the plethora of companies linking their products and services to these platforms (Fig. 1).
Prelaunch is showing off its Gallery of Flops at Eureka Park (Booth 60311). Eureka Park is where smaller, new startup companies show off their products and ideas. Many never make it to production, so the Gallery is on display in the appropriate spot. It’s what makes CES so interesting, since Eureka Park isn’t the only place to see what may eventually turn into a flop. On the other hand, CES also is where you find those wonders that create a new market or take over an existing one.
The metaverse has its own area, though it’s real rather than virtual. Still, augmented-reality (AR) and virtual-reality (VR) products and services are scattered around the show. Take Aegis Rider’s AR motorcycle helmet (Fig. 2). As with many AR applications, it pairs with a smartphone-based app to display personalized information in AR space. The head-up display (HUD) information can be customized in addition to providing navigation information.
A lot of what’s shown at CES has been announced earlier while much more is still under wraps. Our editors spend most of their time in the back rooms checking out demos of new products that will emerge later in 2023.
Curved Automotive Touchscreens
Synaptics gave us a preview of its touch/display integration (TDDI). The video also includes a look at the company’s LED dimming technology designed to provide high-quality images with a lower LED count for rugged, low-cost automotive applications.
Machine Learning for Automotive Distance
Cars have always been a big part of CES, although customization and new cars have given way to electric vehicles and self-driving cars that use artificial intelligence (AI) to navigate the roadways. It will be interesting to see if Elon Musk’s Vegas Loop gets much traffic as the South Hall is not in use this time around.
This year’s show does have its own set of automotive-related announcements. One is Recogni’s new Scorpio machine-learning (ML) peta-op chip. It delivers 1,000 TOPS using three on-chip arrays. It can identify people and objects using cameras at distances up to 300 m in under 10 ms.
Self-Driving Racers
CES will again be host to the Indy Autonomous Challenge (IAC). I talked earlier with Apex.AI’s Joe Speed about the 2022 challenge (see the video below). The latest racing will be at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway at the tail end of CES.
The IAC is interesting in that it consists of head-to-head passing. Two cars take turns passing each other and then increasing their speed. Eventually we will see a conventional race, but for safety’s sake and practical implementation, it makes sense at this time to just have two cars on the track performing a known task.
The idea is to improve the AI quality of all of these cars instead of going for the fastest or having a bumper car contest. The races will be streamed live, so check them out if you can’t make it to CES.
I’m hoping to get there to provide some live coverage of the show. I will not repeat my 2016 CES tour de force if the weather or airlines conspire against me. I gave up due to COVID last year and would really like to make it to the show this year. See you there.
