Back in 2015, Dial a Nerd went to CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in America. We did a blog post back then and thought it would be great to reflect on it now in 2021.
Wearables were big. The majority of the floor was dedicated to them, and rightfully so. However, in 2020 with the COVID-19 pandemic, wearables did not do as well as the years prior. Not surprising seeing as the idea behind wearables is to use them when we are out. Whilst in 2015, the big thing with wearables was mood monitoring, in 2021 it shifted to healthcare and tech designed to be used in the workplace.
Our highlight in the wearables section was Dash – a completely wireless in-ear device that plays music and monitors all sorts. Think of it as a fitness tracker and earphones all in one. Now, pretty much any big tech brand has wireless in-ear earphones, albeit minus the fitness tracking. From some research, it appears the creators of Dash, Bragi, have moved out of the consumer business and more into AI (artificial intelligence).
The next best thing that we saw was Rollkers, battery-powered wheeled soles for your shoes. It seems they haven’t done much since 2016 and we can’t seem to find anywhere to buy them. Seems as if people weren’t ready to have their shoes roll them to work.
Local tech that caught our eye back in 2015 was the Geco Cam, a tiny HD camera that clips onto your glasses. Although their website states that they are sold out, a simple google gives an array of places to purchase them from. As of 2020, the wearable camera market is valued at $1,62 billion and is expected to grow by 155%, so there might be a chance for Geco Cam to bounce back!
Naturally, self-driving cars were big talk at CES 2015 with Audi having had a car drive there on its own. BMW mentioned they were 2 years away from selling self-parking cars with dashboards controlled by hand gestures, and in 2018, they launched it. Now, self-driving cars are consumer-ready with Tesla being the market leader.
3D printing was still growing back in 2015 with food printing being the next big thing to 3D print. In 2021, we are moving into the 4th decade of technology and trends predict that this decade is the time for the radical renewal of 3D printing. Since 2015, almost everything has been 3D printed from food to organs to the controversial 3D printed guns.
With the increased FTTH (fibre to the home) market, smart homes were big in 2015. The tech that caught our eye back then was SNAP, an Indoor/Outdoor LED PAR lamp with an integrated 720p HD IP Camera, microphone, and speaker. The product is still available and improved with other players in the market creating similar devices. Think Arlo, Phillips and Samsung.
The TV that stole the show back in 2015 was the Samsun 105 inch Smart Ultra HD TV, and it was bendable. Interestingly, 4K seems to be the highest available consumer TV you can buy. Though technically there are some differences in the exact amount of pixels, 4K and Ultra High Definition (UHD) are typically used interchangeably. The next best thing coming into 2021 is 8k TVs.
And finally, the last highlight for us at CES 2015 was smartdroplet.com with a very clever tagline of “cloud power on the end of a garden hose”. Whilst the Internet of Things (IoT) was probably a term coined back then, it was not trending as much as it started to after 2015. Now, in 2021, nearly everything has a “smart” counterpart, and even if it doesn’t you can tag with smart tech to make it so.
