This year MistyWest was pleased to send a team of seven Westies to our third Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. While the harsh desert climate offered up torrential rain, flash floods and power outagesāour team successfully battled trials of a different variety: formidable crowds, sensory overload and theĀ Nerd Flu.
While the #CESsomale hashtag trended and the Consumer Technology Association were shaded for the lack of female representation in their keynote slate, our team (43% comprised of kickass women) checked out the exhibits, attended panels and co-hosted a special gathering for a few friends at the Nobu hotel. Thanks to the teams at MIT Media Lab, TZOA and ASTRSK PR who were instrumental in executing what proved to be a very popular event!
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Among the trade show highlights reported by our team this year were advances made in the textiles/wearables space, with conductive threads and fabrics making big strides. Westie engineer Phil Tsao liked StretchSense ā inventors of a new stretchable sensor with applications ranging from Smart Garments to healthcare to VR.
Even with relatively few new cameras on show, this yearās trade show hinted at big things to come in the camera & imaging space. Westie Kevin Robbie was impressed by a new sub-one lux zero light camera, produced using the AR0331, a 3 MP 1/3ā³ CMOS Image Sensor by On Semiconductor. It captures amazingly detailed and beautiful colour in next to no light.
On Semi also debuted the AR0430, an imaging sensor which is able to extract detailed depth data out of any RGB camera device. According to On Semi, AR0430 will enable ācustomers to capture a color image and simultaneous depth map from a single deviceā. Our team was impressed by this product, which went on to win a CES 2018 Innovation Award.
Visitors to the trade show were greeted by Horizon Roboticsās new embedded AI face tracking tech, utilizing the Sunrise 1.0 processor, which allows for the real-time recognition and tracking of up to 200 faces, all at extremely high speed & density. Potential uses include AV, smart city and smart business applications.
5G was touted as the next big wave in network connectivity ā allowing data transfer so fast (and soon, so affordable) that streaming VR through 5G direct-to-headset could be the new normal. If the promise holds true, 5G could make WIFI obsolete by the 2020ās! 5Gās lower latency also potentially resolves some of the safety concerns surrounding autonomous vehicle networks.
The main takeaway from CES for MW was reaffirming the value in attending events that put us in front of the newest and most exciting hardware technologies. We aim to always be learning, and CES enabled us to do just that, as well as connecting with interesting and relevant projects that, while exciting to us ā often donāt get mentioned in the tech news highlights. In addition to sourcing for projects, CES connected us with inspirational peers across a spectrum of different specialties, experience and skill sets. We canāt recommend it enough!
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