CES 2015: 11 Peeks Into The Future
Motorized skates, 3D-printed food, e-socks: The future, whether we need it or not, is here.
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After a brief visit to CES 2015 earlier this week, I returned home to San Francisco laden with product flyers and ambivalence. It's difficult to not be awestruck by the scale and spectacle of the event. But it's also hard to ignore the limits of technology, the incremental pace of innovation, and the banal, often cynical, commercialism of the event.
I went to Las Vegas hoping the world has finally risen to the idealism of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek. I left convinced we've gotten lost in Terry Gilliam's Brazil.
Ford CEO Mark Fields addressed the gap between technology and reality in his keynote speech. He asked how many people in the audience found it easy to get around Las Vegas during the show. Few did. He observed that while attendees have to put up with congested roads and crowds for a few days, the 18 million inhabitants of Mumbai, India -- with a population density 17 times greater than Las Vegas -- deal with overcrowding all the time.
"Henry Ford believed that a good business makes excellent products and earns a healthy return," said Fields. "But he proved a great business does all that while creating a better world... We're driving to be both a product and a mobility company and, ultimately, to help change the way the world moves."
Ford aspires to be something more than a car company. Clearly, Fields sees the challenge of trying to sell cars in a city that's standing-room only. That's a rather far-sighted act of corporate reinvention, one well suited to a world that will see the number of megacities -- population 10 million or more -- rise from 28 today to 41 by 2030.
Although many companies declare their benevolence, Ford's mission statement at least aspires to something more specific and measurable than "Don't be evil." Cars not only contribute to pollution and congestion but sometimes kill people when driven poorly. To the extent that Ford and other automakers succeed in automating transportation, making it safer through technology, and making it more sustainable in densely populated areas, we all benefit.
Whether the Internet of Things represents the same sort of pro-social innovation isn't as obvious. Certainly there's something intriguing about the prospect of an automated home, but there's also something sinister, not to mention pathetic. Do we really need our houses to become panopticons that broadcast data to cloud service providers so we can turn off the lights and adjust the heating from afar? Does automation have a cost we underestimate?
Whether or not we need ubiquitous sensors and services to watch over us, they're being developed and offered, and some of us find them compelling. There's something to be said for smartphone-driven home security without a monthly monitoring fee.
In 1984, George Orwell wrote, "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face -- forever." You could also spark your imagination by wandering the exhibition floor at CES. At least you'd see some scenes that inspired hope, while having a few laughs along the way. What follows is a glimpse of what the future will bring.
"Mother Stands for Comfort," or so Kate Bush suggested in her 1985 song by that title. For Sen.se, a company based in Paris, "Mother is a caring, adaptable, and programmable devic that turns objects into smart and understanding things that truly enrich your life." She is a control hub that tracks "motion cookies" -- tracking tags -- that can be used in a variety of applications. Think of Mother as a benevolent Big Brother, alerting you when the kids get home, for example. And try not to think of "Mother" (MU-TH-UR 6000), the mainframe depicted in Ridley Scott's Alien.
Picture men standing beside a grill, beer in hand, doing nothing. That might not be much of a stretch, but it's the vision behind Grillbot, a crab-like robot that will clean a grill automatically. Automation always has a cost -- idle hands make the devil's work, or something like that -- but grill cleaning is one chore no one is likely to miss.
Allow us to present the Calypso Rx, an e-sock that delivers direct current electricity to provide nerve and muscle relief, or so we're told. If only it relieved the mental anguish of knowing that even socks can't escape the "e" prefix.
See these appealing cakes and candies? They were created by a 3D printer. And they're edible. Due in 2016, 3DSystems' ChefJet Pro is a 3D printer for food. The company expects the devices to appeal to the hospitality industry, where big events are held. The sample printed candy that I tried tasted something like meringue, airy and sweet. Not gourmet but not gag-inducing either.
Mercedes showed off its autonomous concept car, the F 015, at CES. It's an odd looking vehicle. It's not unlike a well groomed two-headed dog. It's sleek and simultaneously wrong. Its interior foretells a time when human drivers will be able to safely ignore the road -- its front seats can be turned to face the rear of the car. It will be decades before such vehicles become commonplace, and even then they're likely to be confined to controlled environments. What company is going to want to be legally liable for the nearly inevitable bugs in its navigation code?
Personal privacy got trampled underfoot at CES -- literally, at least in this instance. The irony isn't lost. CES's dedicated exhibition area of privacy products notwithstanding, this is a world in which privacy policies explain how your personal data will not be private.
At some point, you've probably handled an iPad or other tablet that needed a bath. Several studies have noted that germs abound on mobile devices. Whoosh! sells products to keep devices clean. If only there were a cure for the impulse to adopt a name with a Yahoo!-style exclamation point!
Combine high-tech, powered skates with a smartphone app, and what do you get? Tracking data for your injury lawsuit. Or maybe not. Maybe you'll be able to zip about on your RocketSkates easily and without incident. Keep your fingers crossed and your knees bent.
Swash, from Whirlpool and Procter & Gamble, is a clothing care system that's intended to be used between actual cleanings. It removes some wrinkles, so you don't have to iron as often. It removes some odor, so you don't have to wash or dry clean as often. And it extends the life of clothes, because you're not cleaning or ironing them as frequently. It's just the sort of $499 appliance you need if your idea of cleaning is putting it off until later and you have space to house an 80-pound, 51-inch-tall tower devoted to odor suppression and wrinkle removal.
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