Berlin.
The leading technology trade fair CES in Las Vegas begins. Metaverse worlds, autonomous driving and smart home: what will soon be important for consumers.
What is in the bathroom, glows brightly in the dark and answers clever questions? That’s right, a smart toilet. Four years ago, manufacturer Kohler presented at the Technology fair CES with the Numi 2.0 this curious innovation for all those who don’t always want to have it quiet in the little room and who want to integrate their toilet into the smart home themselves.
The smart bowl with seat heating and Alexa voice control has recently actually been on the market – for a mere $11,500. In other words, it sometimes takes years for a product to make it from CES to retail – numerous prototypes are scrapped beforehand.
CES 2023: These are the trends at the technology fair
Until Sunday meet in Las Vegas (Nevada) invited over 3100 participating companies to the leading technology trade fair CES to offer a foretaste of what innovations can be expected in 2023 and beyond. The organizers finally want to go back to pre-Corona times: “We are expecting around 100,000 visitors,” organizer boss Gary Shapiro had set as a goal in advance. After a purely digital event in 2021 due to corona and only 40,000 trade visitors in the previous year, this would be closer to the more than 170,000 trade visitors in 2020.
Among the manufacturers, including German companies and many start-ups from Europe, there are also heavyweights such as Microsoft, Google and Amazon. Apple is missing again, they continue to rely on their own events. We give an overview of the most important ones trends the US technology fair:
VR and AR: New glasses for the Metaverse
From the collective term metaverse experts say when they mean a digital living and working space in which technologies such as virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR) are used. For the time being, the prerequisite for entering the virtual worlds will be special high-tech glasses with which users can wander through 3D spaces and meet other users.
Several manufacturers have announced new generations of these headset models for CES, including HTC. Metaverse pioneer Mark Zuckerberg and his group Meta is said to be selected guests for its latest model MetaQuest 3 (Market launch not before autumn) can try. Critics see the Metaverse as still in its infancy.
Sony has Thursday night German time a preview of the mid-February release PSVR2 given: VR glasses including a motion controller, with which owners of a Playstation 5 can experience games with a virtual all-round view (around 600 euros).
TV: QD-OLED is the future
In addition to well-known PC manufacturers such as Lenovo, Asus, Dell or HP and large suppliers such as Intel, AMD or Nvidia, the large TV and screen manufacturers are also traditionally represented in Las Vegas. Samsung, LG, Sony or Panasonic present their latest televisions.
For an even crisper picture, some manufacturers will be using so-called QD OLED technology – a mixture of the currently superior OLED technology (rich black values, high contrasts, intensive colors) and the Quantum Dot (QD) technology. The future screens should deliver all OLED advantages and be brighter and soon even more energy-efficient. In addition to inventor Samsung, Sony and Philips are also expected to add the high-priced models to their range in 2023.
Talking to the self-driving e-car
The former pure technology fair CES has increasingly blossomed into a car fair with its own hall for years.
Sony has teamed up with Honda to create a futuristic-looking prototype of a connected electric cars named Afeela. There is an LED bar on the front that can display information such as the battery charge level. One looks in vain for classic side mirrors. Instead, 45 cameras and sensors should provide an overview and partly autonomous driving. The dashboard consists entirely of screens and is also used for entertainment. The Afeela should not appear until spring 2026.
Practically all major German car brands also drive up to Las Vegas. Mercedes-Benz presents new plans for electric cars. In addition to VW, BMW is also showing a digitally upgraded one electric car. The car manufacturer from Bavaria, together with the game developer Epic Games, has designed a mixture of real driving and a virtual environment thanks to VR glasses on the head with “Mixed Reality”. With VR glasses on their heads, drivers should be able to avoid obstacles and collect coins at the real wheel.
Around the exhibition halls, some companies are also showing how mature and safe they are self-driving cars should be in the meantime.
In addition to more powerful e-car batteries and entertainment in the vehicle, voice control is also becoming increasingly important, as reported by the Bitkom industry association. “Car manufacturers have massively expanded voice control in vehicles in recent years,” says Sebastian Klöß, Bitkom expert for consumer technology. Almost half (47 percent) give their own car voice commands, according to a Bitkom survey – for example, to guide the navigation device, play music or have news read out; an increase of 17 percent over the previous year.
Household appliances with screen in smart home
If the manufacturers of household appliances have their way, consumers will become their new refrigerator Connect and oven to the Internet as a matter of course, use it to order groceries and share pictures from the cooking chamber on Instagram and Co. Samsung is showing the Bespoke Refrigerator Family Hub Plus with a 32-inch screen at CES. Owners can use it to watch cooking videos, place family photos or control their roller shutters and jukeboxes in the smart home with the touch of a finger.
Smartphones, tablets and smartwatches traditionally only play a marginal role at CES. This year, too, the setting for this is the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, which opens its doors on February 27th.
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