No big show at Las Vegas this year but a completely virtual event for the CES 2021. The tech innovations and big trends are adjusting to our new reality: this 2021 Consumer Electronics Show was already unique before even beginning.
Solutions to new needs
Rubix Pod Sentinel (source: Rubix S&I)
The Covid-19 crisis has, of course, brought up new issues. The CES 2021 innovations are resolving these news issues by focusing on individual and collective daily needs.
The medical innovations shown at the CES 2021 were mostly centered on prevention to create a healthier, more secure and easier environment. We particularly appreciated these innovative products:
- Baracoda‘s everyday connected tools to promote active prevention ;
- The Wave Plus for Business to detect viruses in a room ;
- The smart lamp Jobi which raises an alert when an elderly falls ;
- and of course, the Rubix S&I pod that identifies environmental nuisances (sounds, pollution, etc.) in the work place.
Blanc Tailleur is proud to have participated in their first pod’s design resulting in this undeniable success for prevention and collective health.
Other tech products were aiming for air-disinfection like the disinfecting door handle CleanMotion or the phone charging station offered by Oblio. Not surprisingly, some innovations were also taking great interest in the comfort of the mask use (for example the LG PuriCare Wearable Air Purifier). On a collective level, GateDoc reinvents the reality of telemedecine with a no contact device checking body temperature on public spaces.
Technology to serve home life
LG’s ‘rollable’ screen (source: i-micronews)
Today, consumers are forced to center their life around their home to reduce social interactions and the propagation of coronavirus. They’re, now more than even, ready to invest in comfort and wellbeing for their everyday life. Their home is getting more and more connected while overlapping with their professional environment. With CES 2021, we can clearly see that companies are wanting to capitalize on this dynamic by aiming for convenient and practical experiences at home.
Daily life made easier
IoT is making daily life easier with products like the Lasso, an automatic recycling machine or Chamberlain‘s automatic cat door. Many teleworking tools are also being introduced such as laptops with 3 webcams to make virtual meetings easier or the Olly Day smart lamp which completes the intake in natural light at home and helps with productivity.
The network of the future
The democratization of 5G is still an essential issue. We are seeing new use cases for it: smart cities powering public lighting thanks to Fibocom Wireless‘ modules or Toyota‘s Woven City project.
Entertainment tools
Entertainment tools are bringing in new innovations for more functionalities: transparent screens that are foldable or flexible to be ‘rollable’ (LG‘s transparent television), integration services (cloud gaming like GeForce Now, Google Stadia), processors that are showcasing increasingly better performances, functionalities to stay fit (Samsung‘s Smart Trainer)…
A bright future for the industry 4.0
Caterpillar’s autonomous trucks (source: cat.com)
The way companies operates has evolved. Some organisations managed to transform these evolutions in opportunities to become more agile and efficient.
Companies’ resilience in health crisis times is partly based on information technology (IT). Blaize Inc designed a software suite to develop and optimize the deployment of artificial intelligence.
Technological evolutions allow factories to strengthen their robotization and automation efforts. We particularly noticed these initiatives: Arculus improves the production process of autonomous robots, Caterpillar innovates with their autonomous trucks made to operate in mines and ALLPRIV is developping hardware and software solutions to protect connections.
CES 2021 : innovations focused on the environment
General Motors Flying Taxi Cadillac (Source: General Motors)
Unsurprisingly, the reduction of environmental impacts is an issue that underlies many innovative approaches showcased at the CES 2021.
Home automation to serve the environment
Home automation is helped by artifical intelligence to enter every room of the house. Power management become intelligent with Bosch Smart Home which allows to control light, air quality, temperature or to even adapt power sources (network or self-produced).
Autonomy is increasingly more ecological
The vehicle industry is always seeking for more autonomy with technological advances integrating sustainable innovation. General Motors showcased a fully electric autonomous flying taxi. The cobalt in lithium-ion batteries is progressively replaced to make batteries more environmental friendly. The range of electric vehicles is constantly pushing boudaries: the Mercedes EQS reached a 700km range. And finally, the integration of renewable energies keeps on going with Sono Motors‘ solar electric vehicle.
This edition of the CES 2021 focused on environmental impact reduction by reworking the production processes and and energy consumption. The final user is valued by taking in account the new work needs emerging from this health crisis. This CES 2021 mostly showed the need for innovation to face our sudden and immediate new challenges.
TLDR: This virtual edition of the CES 2021 was focused on health prevention and environmental preservation by confirming some of the trends that were already initated: autonomy, home automation, process capitalization, 5G and mobility.
Source for the banner: Le Mag Ubaldi