The Weird Tech We Love and Hate at CES 2015

International Consumer Electronics Show of 2015 was held from 6th to 9th January in Las Vegas of USA. This grand event displayed the release a number of innovative devices, whose functions are really strange but it drew the attention of many people. Some of these devices are discussed here.

Parrot Pot

The Parrot Pot is an extraordinary pot for average sized plants in any house. It links to your mobile device through Bluetooth. There is a bunch of sensors, which checks the plant’s health like the temperature, amount of water in the soil, light levels and also the fertilizer of the soil with conductivity measurements. Parrot Pot is also equipped with a water reservoir, which can hold water of almost 2.2 liters. If the Parrot Pot detects that your plant needs watering, then it will spray some water on the top soil. It can even water those plants for maximum three weeks, basing on the prevailing situations.

Honeywell Lyric Security System

Honeywell came back with its own Lyric thermostat. This home control expert is attempting to build some more impetus with the release of its second Lyric item- a professional grade- security system of home. It comprises cameras, motion in addition to smoke detectors, all regulated by a touch screen controller. This system allows voice commands that can activate events such as turning off an alarm, while at the same time switching on all lights and also turning up the temperature. Honeywell stated that the system will moreover apply your Smartphone location with products as smart lights to give you a wide variety of automated settings.

Dacor dual-range oven

Whether you love to cook or not, Dacor’s latest model of oven will really amaze you. Last year, it fixed an Android tab onto the oven so that you could manage it remotely. But, in 2015, Dacor’s has moved one step further, offering you voice controls with the help of an app. It denotes that you could place a thing into the oven before going anywhere out of the home, and then speak to your mobile on your way home to inform the oven to begin the cooking. Or, when you are in the kitchen, you may only shout instructions to that oven as- Start left oven at 200 deg.

Anova Touch

Anova Touch can allow you to manage and set your food items while you are away. Through an application, you can plan your water temperature, time of cooking, and also monitor this, while you are out for any work. Anova Touch is the foremost WiFi based Sous Vide machine.

If you are not certain what you wish to have, or how Sous Vide can work for the chops, you bought from the market, then Anova Touch app can give you recipes, instructions, and some other step-by-step information on best practices from good cooks, food writers, and so on.

Bosch Smart Fridge

It is a strange smart fridge from Bosch. It takes you a step closer to the desire of having the kitchen devices carry out the shopping. The new fridge is provided with an integrated camera, which takes a picture every time the door is opened and these pictures are uploaded to the Bosch app. When an individual goes to the supermarket, he can see whether he requires vegetables or anything. However, Bosch’s next plan would be software, which identifies missing items and also orders them for the buyer.

Mercedes-Benz Shows Off Self-Driving Car of the Future

Mercedes had taken an innovative and influential step in developing a highly advanced car which might even look too much futuristic. Mercedes has revealed a concept car which boasts of self-driving capabilities at the Consumer Electronics Car in Las Vegas. This innovative and futuristic car has been dubbed as the F015 Luxury in Motion. It features a sleek four-door automobile which brings in a futuristic design and construction dynamics that would feel like a slice of future.

Mercedes Believes in Better and Advanced Future 

Mercedes is upbeat about its product which is turning heads at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Dieter Zetshe is the head of the Mercedes Benz cars and he stated that if you solely focus on the technology then you won’t be able to grasp the advantages of the autonomous driving which could change our society dramatically. He further affirms that this innovative car is beyond its role a mere transport product and it will become more like a mobile living space.

Features Of the Mercedes New Car

The low contour design of the new car is more oriented toward providing comfortable riding than just driving. This car is over 17ft long which is just similar to the length of a Cadillac Escalade SUV. This car provides lounge style char which can swivel 30 degree when the suicide-style door open and it allows the four people to sit facing one another. The two front chairs could easily swivel around to face the windshield if the manual driving is necessary in some case.

Its steering wheel can easily fold up into the dashboard when you are not using it. It also features six display screens in the instrument panel and side & rear panels which can relay information from the outside world or play movies and other entertainment content from online sources.

How Autonomous System Works In New Mercedes Car? 

This car’s autonomous systems are designed to be guided by the stereo camera, radar and ultrasonic sensors. You can differentiate whether the car is being run autonomously or not by looking the headlights colour beams. If the car is being driven autonomously the headlights and grille would light up in blue colour and white if driven manually.

F 015 is built from the industry based lightweight carbon fibre, high-strength steel and aluminium. This car possesses a rechargeable hydrogen fuel cell technically. This car uses an innovative method to charge up the battery by just parking the car on a charge pad.

This Car Is Just In Conceptual Stage

This car is no where likely to come on the streets before 2030. This car had however allowed the Mercedes to flex its technical and creative abilities and let it test to the utmost limit. Apart from the Mercedes many new cars are offering the self-driving basics which include the radar-based cruise control, autonomous braking system as well as lane keeping assist. It is being expected that by 2017 the brands like Cadillac, Audi, Tesla and Mercedes would allow the high end-models to travel autonomously.

FAA Touts Growing Drone Market at CES 2015

With the latest craze of drones right now, the year 2015 has brought up a shining market for drones this providing satisfaction to the customers who have been waiting for the mainstream return of the drones. This automatic aerial vehicle that has come up is no doubt one of the greatest innovations so far and through certain experiments it has been revealed to be most efficiently working too.

These flying robots now have gained their own section in the Consumer Electronics Show that has been held every year. This section has no doubt gained immense popularity and more and more interested customers are seeping in. More people are attracted towards these machines as these auto- robots can take photos and videos from a dimension that you cannot ever imagine.

Some oil companies have taken up these robots to work for its own business as with the help of these they can be thoroughly updated no matter what. Also the random use of this machine is really helping a lot in the upsurge in profit for these companies. This device helps in the monitoring of the low cost security and disaster management simultaneously at a go.

The device is still getting evolved and soon we will get to see the consumers paying $103 million on drones by the time 2015 is ending and the industry is definitely going to spike up if the work goes on in this pace. The only thing that has been pulling back this market is that this has not produced what we know as the must buy products. The main reason for this being the price which is very costly but there is a bit of hope that as time goes by, these high profile gadgets will be cheaper and more efficient so that it becomes mandatory to use them.

The four drone companies that were brought up this year is ZANO, Parrot, Qualcomm and Nixie, and they had brought about a camera that could be attached to your wrist. Another thing that will stun you is that it adds a definite style to clicking selfies as because you can toss it high up in the air and it will click your selfie before gating back to your hand. Also the device is hardy enough and that is the reason why you will not have to think twice before tossing it up.

Things that these devices need to change 

There are some impractical design problems that needs to be fixed first so that the devices become lighter and easy to handle. Also the prices need to be lowered a bit so that everyone can afford it and it can turn into a necessity for every field. Now each and every company are bent upon making their deign perfect so that more and more consumers are allured to it.

FAA has suggested that with the gradual passage of time the machines will definitely gain the perfection that the consumers have been craving for since the last two to three years.

The Five Most Disruptive Innovations At CES 2015

This year is just at its beginning and already newer innovations have started coming up. Interested enough? Well this year CES has introduced a lot of disruptive innovations that are bound to stun you and today we are going to discuss about all these innovations. As you proceed in reading this article, you will get to see how fast the technology is taking you to greater heights.

The innovations that will surprise you:

• Transportation- On the basis of transportation the technology has served a great deal. This we can know because of Toyota’s new discovery, Mirai hydrogen fuel cell vehicle that is sure to lessen the pollution of the environment as it promises to emit nothing except for water. This specific vehicle is going to be launched in this year in California. Another interesting fact is that this vehicle is stylish looking unlike the former Google cars and so you can take it anywhere you want to. Also this vehicle has evolved to be self driving or autonomous which is the reason why driving this has become even easier.
• Health and fitness- Getting back to this field, technology has made it better in multifaceted dimensions. A lot of new applications have come up for the better treatment of the patients. Yes it is true that these innovations are costly enough but that is nothing compared to the heightened level of treatment that the patients will be receiving. The ReSound LiNX is the sort of a hearing aid which is very easy to carry as because it is almost invisible. What’s more! It can be controlled with the Apple and android devices by Bluetooth connection.
• Manufacturing- 3D printing has recently come up to be in craze and almost every object of interest has 3D printing on it. Now a portable 3D printer has come up that is very easy to use and comes just in $300 per piece. This is much better than the heavy machines that were formerly used. Now if you want to make a fashionable item with 3D printing on it, the work is much easier! Graphene Frontiers is the new innovator who has received the funding from the National Science Foundation for its work.
• The Internet- The New Year has come up with the resolution of better connectivity and it has definitely fulfilled that condition in the best possible manner. This year’s innovation includes companies like Intel, Samsung and Bosch using fundamental technology in a variety of new ways. It is like the world has become a smaller place with the help of this better connectivity. With the help of internet now every other gadget can be connected and then the control process becomes a lot easier due to this.
• Display and audio- In this field, technology has gained immense progress- progress that is undeniable. With better display and audio quality the virtual world is bound to seem almost real like with enriched multilayered quality. Oculus Rift, a 3D gaming company that claims to have the gaming quality much better.

Samsung- SmartThings a Roadmap towards Smart Home

Samsung is taking a huge gamble in terms of Smart-Things, which is all about connecting all the devices in the internet of things. Samsung acquired this start-up nearly a year back and taking the assistance of this system to win this bet. During the 2015 CES (Consumer Electronics Show) conducted last week in Las Vegas, co-CEO Boo-Keun Yoon led the company took the promise that the company’s products would be built on this new platform and they will not only be open but also compatible with other products as well.

According to Yoon, 90% of their products (ranging from refrigerators to smartphones) will easily be able to connect to the web or the internet by 2017. According to him, in the next five years, each and every product listed in the company's entire catalogue can be expected to be connected to internet.

The company is getting prepared for the concept of IoT (Internet of Things), this means that anything can be connected into the internet means of sensors and other technologies. According to the prediction made by Analyst firm Gartner, the total number of devices connected to the network will increase to 26 billion units by 2020. The same number was around 900 million in 2009. This technology was all about changing dumb devices into Smart ones, which can communicate with each other. IoT market is expected to hit as high as $3.04 trillion by 2020.

Samsung and Smart-Things

Smart home start-up Smart-Things was acquired by Samsung in the month of August to increase their sales. Smart-Things technology is all about helping the customers to control their appliance with the help of their smart-watches, smartphones and other smart devices. This technology is being considered as the key to Samsung’s IoT and smart home efforts. They have already released their next generation smart home automation hub.

Cost of the service: 

The price is expected to be inexpensive and the idea of this technology is about security. Smart-Things Premium will be able to create an ID of any kind of incident that has occurred in the house.

Samsung TVs preloaded with Smart-Things? 

It might take some time for the company to release the TVs preloaded with the feature as the 2015 market is already filled with the existing TVs in the retail channel. There is no set time frame for the existing TVs to replace the existence of separate hubs but depending on the pace of the change in technology, anything can happen anytime.

Even though the company has been having issues with openness but with making their devices open, the company has open the doors for a future, wherein any devices from any company can interconnected. Even though Apple has their own Home-Kit, Samsung is the only company having access to this platform (Windows Phone app) as if now. The company truly believes that there version of hub will be compatible with Apple’s Home-Kit but this is not the same situations from their side. Samsung has been enjoying a huge company base of iOS and they want their customers to have the best of experience.

Self-Driving Concept Cars Impress at CES

During the International CES 2015 in Las Vegas, CEO Mark fields announced that Ford Motor is constantly focusing on the concept of bringing out the autonomous automobiles to the masses. According to the CEO, even though Ford might not be the first company who is producing a self-driving car, but still it can certainly be the first company who is delivering a car which falls totally out of the concept of luxury cars. He also suggested that fully autonomous cars might hit the streets (if not the highways, by end of 2020 but one thing to notice is that it might not be from Ford as expected.

According to Michael Rogers of the Practical Futurist, Fields is not suggesting that the autonomous cars will be completely adopted by people by 2020 but he meant to say that it will be commercially available at certain price. At the CES show this week, automobile converged with computerized technology has been generating a lot of attention. According to Tania Yuki, CEO of Shareable, self driving car has been able to generate the most required buzz like never before. The biggest potential of this technology lies with the ride-sharing. The biggest question remains if the technology will be able to change the means of transportation in future.

Driverless concept: 

While Ford was able to put forth their concept of driver less cars, luxury automakers like Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz actually was the front runner at CES. The demo of F015 Luxury in Motion concept car by Mercedes-Benz took everyone by surprise. This car is fully autonomous and powered by a fuel cell and battery that produces no carbon emissions. The front seat in the car can swivel 180 degrees and make all the four passengers can easily face each another. This car is only about concept and most likely won’t be on the public roads, at least till 2030.

Still a long road ahead

The jack in Audi was able to pilot their car nearly 550 miles to Las Vegas and used an amalgamation of a laser scanner dubbed "LIDAR," five radar systems, and numerous 3D cameras. When the car gets into a heavy traffic area it directs the driver to take over the manual control. This feature is being promoted as comfort feature as it will be able to reduce the stress to the driver in many situations.

As far as the future of this technology is concerned, it is not guaranteed whether it will help the people with their driving; it will certainly help in making the roads safe all around. BMW came forward with the demonstration of their i3 electric car, which features its Active-Assist technology. This system will give a 360 degree around the car and serve as the foundation of the automated valet system BMW.

Safety is the main concern for every company in the automobile. This concept is all about providing assistance in safety of the driver and it will ensure that more automobiles are on the road.

The New Panasonic 4K UHD Blu-Ray Player Prototype Packs a Punch

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2015 displayed some fantastic innovations that promise to light up the gadget market in the coming time. Among many, the Panasonic 4K Blu-Ray player prototype has managed to grab some attention of many visitors in CES 2015.

The electronic manufacturing company Panasonic has launched its generation next Blu-Ray player at CES this year, which was held in Las Vegas. The new launch is one of the series of Flagship televisions, called CX850U 4K TV. This prototype player is able to offer a resolution of 3,480 * 2,160 and a bit rate of 100 Mb per second. Its ability of displaying 4K resolution images at the rate of 60 frames per second makes it a special one. Its specific design is exclusive for supporting video processing technology which is presently on the way of inclusion in the current standards of Ultra HD Blu-Ray. It’s High dynamic Range (HDR) and immersive audio technologies are also expected to be included under the UHD standards.

Colour Features

Similar to other renowned TV manufacturing companies, Panasonic flaunts a modified LED version with phosphor coating that delivers the colour brightness never seen before. It has a much broader range of colours which fills up to 98 per cent of DCI colour space. The fresh new Panasonic CX850U stands out for its picture processor engine called Studio Master Drive that enhances richness of colours and emphasizes on the accuracy of the colours in vivid images giving a much superior quality of pictures. Going through the prototype player one can undoubtedly say that the CX850U 4K Panasonic TV is just the perfect alternative to the kind of colour features displayed on cinema theatres.

Operating System

The Panasonic CX850U runs on the Linux based Firefox Operating System along with an exclusive Graphical User Interface of Panasonic. It has got a versatile combination of web-based Operating System along with a clear and convenient interface for the user benefits. The Linux based Firefox OS has a voice assistant associated with it called Xumo Guide that has got a touch of smartness in it for content discovery and some more added functions.

Appearance

It was quite surprising to see that Panasonic did not prepare a centre stage for them on the occasion of announcing their new launch of 4K UHD Blu-Ray player prototypes. It deserved much bigger limelight than what it received having such fantastic features of its kind. The small black box Blu-Ray player will be developed in collaboration with UHD alliance which includes partners like Samsung, Panasonic and many more from the Hollywood industry such as 20TH Century Fox, Technicolor and Warner Brothers.

Prospect

The fact that there is a rapid increase in availability and affordability of the 4K TVs point towards the mere future where there will be hardly any homes left having 4K UHD Blu-Ray technology get installed in the drawing rooms, starting from the year 2015 itself. But before that there is a long distance to cover up starting from the point of being a prototype till ending up enjoying the success.

LG Defends OLED TVs Future

OLED, which stands for Organic Light- Emitting Diode, is in itself a film of organic compound with a layer of emissive electroluminescent, which responds to electric current with an electric current.

The Creation of Organic Light- Emitting Diode (OLED) 

LG, the famous Korean Electronics giant is the only major company which manufactures these OLED televisions. In the absence of any strong and solid competitor, this company has managed to reach the top and rule the market by itself. It has cornered the market in the absence of any cut throat competition. LG presented themselves as the promoters of the amalgamation of the OLED with the modern technology high definition television screens. They also focused their attention on the WebOS 2.0 TVs on the latest "wellness platform", which has a much simpler and uncomplicated user interface which operates with a much faster speed.

The Introduction of Organic Light- Emitting Diode (OLED) 

The company expressed its interest in continuing the production of OLED tv, better and improvised and more advanced versions. In the press conference conducted by company of LG at the CES 2015, they introduced some of the latest models. The center stage was taken up by the OLED.

The Evolution from Cathode- Ray Tube Sets to Organic Light- Emitting Diode (OLED) 

The company's spokesperson who happens to be the director of new products development, introduced the matter of the evolution of television to the spectators, which were majorly consisting of journalists. In his speech he placed emphasis on the fact that change and evolution keeps happening by the seconds. Prior to the LCD screen televisions, the cathode-ray tube sets were in vogue and most efficient. After the emergence of the LCD's, they slowly went out of vogue and at present, the OLED televisions have been evolved from the LCD screens. Currently, the OLED are better as they are known to produce nearly, perfect blacks, which are important for rich and brightly contrasted colors.

The Upcoming Year

LG has released a notice which states that the upcoming year will launch five latest designs. These designs will deal with a variety of changes, ranging from 55 inches to 65 inches, from flat screened to curved and slim bodied ones. They also plan on launching a 77 inch flexible television, which can be manipulated to be flat screened and form a curved conformation. Plus, it would have the added benefits of the amazing OLED picture quality and webOs interface as the smart features.

New Kids in the Block! 

In 2015 LG has lined up a plethora of new advanced gadgets. The reception of the OLED will determine the future course of this technology. The OLED is a complete class all by itself. Quantum Dot is another technology launched by LG, which is known for providing the rich- color technology. Though all these advancements don't come cheap, they are worth every dime that is spent on this latest updated version.

CES 2015: Toyota Opens Patents on Hydrogen Fuel Cell Technology

In a strong hope of a developed future of Hydrogen fuel cell technology being an alternative fuel source, the Japanese car maker Toyota has promised to offer around six thousand patents (related to the technology), which is owned by them, as royalty-free. Last Tuesday, the Japanese car maker Toyota made the much awaited announcement at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2015, which was held in Las Vegas.

Summary 

The pledge made by Toyota includes 5,680 Hydrogen fuel cell related patents, including the technologies that have been used in developing the company’s latest innovation Toyota Mirai. Approximately, 1,970 patents are related to fuel cell stacks, 290 patents are related to high-pressure hydrogen tanks, 3,350 patents are associated with the software used to control fuel cell system and rest of the 70 patents are related to hydrogen production.

Plan

The infrastructure required to support the electric cars has started to rise across many countries, even though the re-fuelling stations for hydrogen fuel cell powered cars are hard to find. Therefore the step taken by the Japanese car maker makes it all the more significant, by opening their patents for other companies to own and in the process boost up the places that the hydrogen fuel cell cars are starting to fill.

The announcement made by the company reflects their positive approach in supporting the development of infrastructure of the Hydrogen powered society.

Previously on many occasions, the Japanese Automaker has tried their hand with this initiative of developing hydrogen powered society. One such example is the developmental set up in California. Toyota made huge investments in improving the facilities of Hydrogen fuel cell technology in California and in the North Eastern states of America. Last year, the company extended their support towards First Element Fuels with a loan grant of $7.3 million covering around 19 different hydrogen fuelling stations of California.

The Japanese car making company welcomes the interested companies over negotiable individual contracts for the usage of related patents. However it must be notified that the pledge made by the company on Tuesday covers only the patents related to the fuel cell vehicles which will remain available until 2020 ends, whereas the patents that are related to the production of hydrogen and its supply are kept open over indefinite period of time.

There is a small catch in this pledge although, which is that the Japanese car making company expects the interested companies to share similar technology related information and make their patents related to fuel cell as open. But make no mistake thinking it to be a pre-requisite condition to be filled before approaching for patent negotiations.

Future of this technology: 

The company strongly believes that the first generation of Hydrogen powered vehicles, that are going to get unveiled in coming few years, requires good amount of collaboration between automakers/ car makers, state authorities, power generating firms and the family of researchers. The Consumer Electronics Show 2015 was probably the best platform to be had for such an effort to get initiated and for a whistle to be blown for the start of its on-field implementation.

Wireless Smart Bulbs Could Scare Away Burglars

Light bulbs developed with the Wi-fi technology are becoming popular in the market now. It is effective in reducing the electricity bill as well as in scaring away the burglars. These smart bulbs can change its lightning according to its adaptability to appearance, mood and location. A study led by Qualcomm has reported that these smart bulbs are built in such a way that they will be able to talk to cars and other electronic appliances, could easily turn on and off automatically and change into different shades of colours.

The technology with innovative design

Qualcomm has developed this smart bulb on the basis of a reference design called LIFX. This reference design can glow into 16different million colours. These smart bulbs have the ability to connect with the mobile devices and appliances. This helps the bulbs to lighten in situations or events like gaming, security, healthcare and other applications.

AllSeen Alliance, a group of IoT technology originated by Qualcomm group has developed this base technology of these smart bulbs. These bulbs are helping the world in building up of smart and home automation. It has become very popular in the market and some of the vendors have already booked for this product. The famous security company ADT have already planned to link these smart bulbs with the security systems. When the alarm goes off then the bulb will flash red and blue lights which will alert the people of the house and will scare away the burglars. This could be highly useful in the security system of a house.

Benefits which could be enhance more

The lightning technology of these bulbs could be enhanced more with the machine technology as it will be highly efficient to use at home. The president of Qualcomm, Derek Aberle during a press conference at International CES in Las Vegas said that the technology of these bulbs can also be helpful to cut off the electricity bills as well.

This technology will also help in identifying automatically those bulbs which need replacing. These systems are developed with such technology that will have a smart hub which will show which bulb is not working and need a replacement and will notify it to the right person. This could be very helpful especially in the data centres and in large offices.

Added advantage and the key roles

These bulbs are rising in the market with the certification of “Designed for AllSeen”. These lights have been designed to communicate with the AllSeen certified TVs, washing machines and other appliances which are already popular in the market. An All-Joyn compatible smart car could easily instruct the smart bulb to turn on or off as the car approaches the driveway.

These bulbs come with the Qualcomm Wi-fi chips. Qualcomm has always been famous for its Snapdragon chips which are been inserted into a mobile device. The Iot technology on which this bulb is designed can communicate with appliances, smart bulbs, wearables and mobile devices.