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Feature The Week In News
JANUARY 25, 2018 | The Jewish Home
Consumer Electronics Show 2018: Artificial Intelligence Takes Off Aaron Feigenbaum
Each year, the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas highlights the most cutting-edge, revolutionary tech out there, and this year was no exception. From a rollable TV to truly wireless charging to major advancements in virtual reailty, CES 2018’s whirlwind of incredible gadgets represents not only science fiction come to life, but also the increasingly competitive and rapidly shifting nature of the tech industry. Case in point is the heated AI rivalry between Amazon’s Alexa, Google Assistant, and the new challenger in the game: Samsung’s Bixby. These voice-controlled technologies are used to do everything from give you reminders to controlling your smart devices to answering questions. However, until CES 2018, they’ve mostly
been confined to the iconic tabletop speakers. Now, Google and Amazon plan to expand far beyond that by integrating their AI platforms into cars, earbuds, office meeting rooms, and even unusual places like the Kohler smart toilet. Meanwhile, Samsung has big plans of its own for its Bixby assistant. Rather than merely showing off new phones, TVs, and refrigerators as has been the tradition at CES, the Korean tech giant also emphasized new ways for users to interact with these devices via the Bixby ecosystem. For example, beginning this year, Samsung TVs will have Bixby integration to allow you to do things like search for shows and movies, view photos from the cloud, and serve as a hub for all your smart devices. Samsung also upgraded their smart Fami-
ly Hub refrigerator to recommend what you should cook based on the ingredients in your fridge and your family’s food preferences and allergies.
In the TV arena, Samsung was the clear winner at this year’s CES. In a show-stopping moment, Samsung unveiled a massive 146” TV that it simply calls “The Wall.” However, the size isn’t the only impressive thing about it. Using advanced MicroLED technology, this TV is modular, meaning that users can add or remove pieces of the TV without affecting performance. Samsung also unveiled its Q9S 8K smart TV, which uses AI to upscale low-resolution video.
Not to be outdone, LG showcased a rollable 65-inch 4K OLED TV – a first of its kind. The TV rolls out like a poster from a rectangular box, and its height can be adjusted depending on the type of content. In another breakthrough, the relatively unknown Chinese smartphone manufacturer Vivo made a huge splash by unveiling the world’s first phone with a fingerprint sensor embedded into the screen, beating Apple and Samsung at a game that everyone expected one of them to win. In the world of virtual reality, Google stunned the crowd by announcing the Lenovo Mirage Solo,
the world’s first standalone VR headset. This means that no extra hardware such as a smartphone, gaming console, or PC is required. All the technology is baked right into the headset itself. Google also announced a companion camera that allows users to shoot 4K video and images and stream the content to the headset to view them in VR. Robotics also made a strong showing at CES with offerings such as the cleaning bot Aeolus and the A1 robot from Amy Robotics, which provides a mobile video conference and can follow you around. A particularly impressive demonstration came from the Robomart team, which makes a very futuristic-looking, self-driving that delivers fruits and vegetables to your home. Forwardx seems to have solved the annoyance of lugging around heavy suitcases at the airport with its autonomous suitcase robot that even recognizes gesture commands. Their rival Travelmate Robotics made a version that can lie either flat or vertical and integrate with the user’s smartphone. Finally, Toyota showed off its e-Palette self-driving vehicle that can potentially be used as a taxi, food truck, retail delivery vehicle, or even a place to sleep.