Best of CES 2018: Part 1
With 184K visitors from January 8–12, it is a once a year meeting of a significant segment of the global nerd population. Formerly known officially as the Consumer Electronics Show, CES has rebranded to reflect the ongoing shift to serving as an ever more diverse showcase for innovation, brands, products, services, and suppliers. The change also reflects the transition from traditional durable goods industries such as auto and appliance manufacturers. These companies appear to have undergone a shift in their internal identities towards digital technology companies, and are using CES to increase brand credibility through their latest innovations in sensor integrations, user interfaces and autonomous systems.
In my third year attending, I felt well oriented, and content with knowing that I can never hope to see more than half of what is on display. This acceptance of the fear of missing out allows for better focus to spend time with what ideas hold the most promise. As a technologist with a made up title of Urban Futurist, I am interested in many fields. In my experience, the real innovation and disruptive companies are found on the startup floor called Eureka Park. The variety of offerings and solutions on display is overwhelming. Five out of the six companies I am highlighting were in Eureka Park. The sixth; Epic Technologies could justify four booths next year including Eureka Park, just to cover enough ground to further validate early adoption opportunities.
The following three products and technologies are my own selections for my Best of CES. This task is inherently subjective, and my excitement regarding these ideas comes from their potential, not their immediate exploitability. Each product is capable of addressing real needs and delivering value that transcends what we currently expect from consumer products.
Metasonics — Sussex, UK
Our ears constantly suffer from a world of poorly designed acoustic ergonomics. Metasonics can help change that.
Two PhD physicists were displaying prototypes of various initial applications of their ‘metamaterial bricks and quantization of meta-surface’ technology.
Metasonics could be a key piece to something I have been waiting for: a contending technology to replace the ridiculously heavy and archaic magnetic drive speaker. Speakers haven’t evolved much in the last 100 years. Metasonics is an enabling technology that can bring low profile, lightweight, and efficient directional sound into the mainstream. This application shapes the energy from ultrasonic transducers into predictable, consistent areas of focus.
Directional sound has been on my radar for over a decade. Three years ago, at my first CES, I finally had the chance to experience it, yet I cannot recall of having heard of any applications of the technology in the real world since. The relevance of this technology, is that we will now be able to transmit sound with more precision than ever, with minimal loss in fidelity. This can lead to positive externalities in reducing long term hearing loss and eliminating some of the costly stressors of modern life.
The first demonstration I was given was using directional focusing to build a multi-zone speaker system for cars, in which the driver and passenger would be able to hear different channels without any bleed from the other zone. This also occurs without interfering with conversation between people in the car.
As the ultrasonic arrays that make directional speakers have not undergone miniaturization, these metasonics filters provide an immediate path to start field testing with relatively abundant off the shelf components.
Imagine opening a window in an apartment in the city, close to a busy road, and hearing the sound of birds, but barely being able to hear the cars. This is exactly what I was shown as a second application: A window that acted as a physical band pass filter. This concept is so ingenious, I expect to see it integrated across all scales of our spaces, buildings and cityscapes.
Using generative design, a 3D shape is formed as a stack of laser cut layers of acrylic. The sample on display was a bulky, early prototype. It was impossible to properly test its effectiveness. The promise of a screen as thin as in the video, feels like something that additive manufacturing can soon make possible at scale.
Veripad — NYC
Affordable, portable, easy to use chemical analysis for counterfeit drugs.
Veripad is one of those ideas that I understood within a couple of seconds of laying my eyes on it. I was so impressed with the solution, and so thankful that it has been developed, I gave a hug to the co-founder I spoke to, with full sincerity and heartfelt appreciation.
A paper sheet with some kind of chemical treatment, channels, and a QR code… humans are not usually great with reading these kind of blotches, but we are good at asking computers to help. The simplicity of making their solution applicable to 1 billion people was to piggyback on the innovation behind and ubiquity of the smartphone and the ancient trade of sending messages on flattened plant pulp.
At $3/sheet, this solution can scale fast, and has the potential to save countless lives. Aside from the impact of disincentivizing tampering and fraudulent supply, positive externalities of this system will amount to billions in healthcare costs saved.
I recently acquired a Consumer Physics SCiO hyper spectral sensor, which will someday be able to scan and identify pretty much anything, including pharmaceutical composition. At a $300 USD price point, SCiO is a great achievement in commercializing advanced scientific instruments. Therefore it does not feel too bold to say that Veripad’s solution, at another 100X cheaper, is possibly as significant an achievement in science. Either way, we are getting close to having no excuse to say “I didn’t know exactly what was in it.”
Robbox — Vancouver, BC
Revolutionary New Generation of Robotic Tools
I have never been excited about or impressed by power tools, until now. This is Industry 4.0 for the augmented artisan.
As an entrepreneur in hardware and advocate of all things industry 4.0, I was thrilled to find out that a robotic tool platform has been developed in my local region. Robbox is not just an incremental improvement on the drills or multi tools you can buy at a big box store today. This is a great example of what going from Zero to One looks like.
Currently, a drill might offer a few features, speeds and choice of drill bits for various materials. With Robbox, anyone using the tool has the potential to drill, cut and grind better than anyone not using Robbox. How? The creators understand the promise of smart as it relates to connected products. Robbox has a user interface that makes it easy to set the proper rotation speed by selecting the relevant material and properties, such as thickness. The digital nature of Robbox, means that it can do for hand tools, what digital twinning has done for industrial machinery and jet engines. The ability to record the data trail produced by a fleet of Robbox’s across an assembly line, could increase the effectiveness, value, and productivity of human workers in industrial settings. When combined with industrial Augmented Reality (AR,) Robbox would reach a new level of potential, allowing for full visual step by step walkthroughs of complex processes.
A good tool augments the individual, preferably in more than one way.
This is an early generation robot that assembly lines and individual workers will be able to use to optimize workflows and develop skills faster. In other words, Robbox has the potential to make any new user with a Robbox and roper training, as good or better than a 10 year assembly line worker was only a few decades ago. Artists, sculptors, hackers are likely to lead the way in adoption, as this is one of those obvious leaps that may take a while for many to make.
Thanks for reading and check out Best of CES 2018: Blog Part 2, my second post where I cover a pedestrian centric AR phone app, a third party personal data storage locker, and something that seems too good to be true.
