It’s that time again. The International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas starts on January 10th. It is the world’s most exciting showcase of the latest and greatest in new electronics! With an estimated 49,000 exhibitors in attendance, plus all of the attendees who will be listening to their sales pitches and demos, it should once again be an incredible year despite Apple’s announcement that this is their last CES appearance. There’s just so much happening this year with rumors and promises of the unveiling of everything one will need to make their neighbors jealous.
While I find the whole event somewhat intimidating, I am still really excited to see what the clever minds have developed for this year. I want to know where they get their inspiration, I have my suspicions.
From paper thin TVs to Ultrabooks to 3D and every other gadget imaginable, it feels like we live in a Jetsons and Star Trek world. Seriously! Think about it, back in the 60s Captain Kirk and his shipmates communicated with devices that enable voice and data, I give you the SmartPhone. The Jetsons’ Rosie the Robot maid went about her business cleaning the house whether anyone was home or not, is that not what the Roomba, iRobot and Mint do?
Star Trek brought us the HoloDeck experience for recreation. Well, here we are with Kinect and Wii. Reminds me also of that famous quote from the movie, ‘Field of Dreams’. “If you build it they will come.” If we play our cards right, we won’t have to ever move from our entertainment centers. Use your Xbox Kinect to exercise (sort of), stream your content right to your TV so you can see email, books, movies really big on your 60” Smart TV and scan all of the bar codes of the food into your fridge so it can notify you when you need to place your online order to the local grocery store. Still not sure I want to SKYPE on demand. Say I’m lounging in my Forever Lazy in private and somebody turns on my camera. Yikes.
I am totally on board and ready for the day we can all access our transporters and have Scottie beam us up. Until then, I will do my best to use my imagination and my streaming content to visit all of those places I want to visit in person someday. So go CES, keep the ideas coming, the imagination fresh and the new, incredibly exciting devices ‘Coming Soon’ to a store or website near me.
