Rebounding from CES 2014

Here is the video we filmed from CES 2014.

It's been two days back to normalcy at home in New York, after my four dizzying days of CES in Las Vegas. I walked through floors of heaven, sometimes hell and mostly purgatory exploring an endless array of electronic products from companies all around the world. Overall, most of what I saw were iterations from last year's show, with no new clear technology, but you could definitely see the evolution and improvement in products in terms of data connectivity, form/design and end user benefits.

Whereas last year the wearable tech category - especially fitness trackers, was more of an emerging category, this year it was full blown with numerous trackers shown by all major tech brands like LG, Sony  and pure plays like Fit Bit, Jaybird, and Netatmo. The differentiators appeared to be sensor types (heart monitor, pedometer, altimeter, UV sensor), the software systems/program personalization, and the design aesthetics (such as Fitbit partnership with Tory Burch)The emphasis on Wearable tech is now - technology that people want to look good wearing. Fitness trackers and the smart watch category will likely merge into one (already happening with Razer Nabu), because I don't think people want to wear multiple wrist devices. Will be interesting to see next year at CES if the wearable tech evolves beyond watches and glasses, where it seems to be focused now.Other active areas at CES this year were robotics for entertainment purposes as well as cleaning, caring, and health, crossing over with sensor triggered, internet connected appliances and devices (otherwise know as the 'Internet of things') that enable people to live in 'smarter homes'. The data connectivity across all these devices and platforms was most visibly being enabled at CES by Intel, Cisco, Qualcomm.Within home entertainment, the emphasis continued to be be on 4k resolution, but software and sound surfaced more this year in their ability to deliver truly personalized, interactive (voice, motion sensor activated and facial recognition) content and experiences - that can be accessed across multi screens and devices (mobile/pc/tv/console). The 'curved' screen for TV and mobile was also shown, however there were quite a number of people I spoke to at the show who were skeptical about the need for a curved format.Automotive continued to evolve this year featuring connected cars for enhanced driving experiences (and the convergence of auto with tech - i.e. Volvo exhibited their car with Ericsson who is providing the cloud and back-end communications platform), and driverless cars (Audi and BMW). There was a relatively smaller section for 3-D printing with a focus on mass customization and use of multiple materials (3-d printed food, drawings, skin, etc).Overall, during my few days at the show I walked so much that I must have burned off the massive number of calories I drank during those few days.  Unfortunately my Nike fuel band is yet to be connected to my wine glass, so I can only assume.