This is the second of my posts looking at CES 2011 from afar, ie: not from Las Vegas, but sitting in my office in the UK .
As mentioned it’s easy to follow the acitvity at CES, what with social media and the web, even though you don’t get the same buzz and excitement as actually being there.
In addition to the expected rush of tablet announcements, today’s news releases at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas seem to also have been dominated by numerous wireless and internet-connected announcements – from both the wireless operators as well as the hardware and network equipment providers. This made me think: is this Mobile World Congress or is it CES? It almost puts the two conferences on par, but with CES focused on hardware side of the mobile technologies and MWC focused on the software side. I know this might be very simplistic but that’s how it could look to some.
Last month I made some presentations on smart cities and smart grid. Today’s CES announcements from LG, Verizon Wireless, Netgear, RCA and many others would go a long way towards making the concepts that I and others talked about reality.
LG smart home
Although LG already tried the connected fridge some years ago, this time the company has come out with a range of products which may ‘improve’ on that experience. Its range of smart appliances allows users to adapt their home appliances to their personal preference and control and monitor them via their smartphones or tablet PCs. For example, LG’s washing machine can automatically select the most cost-effective time to do the laundry and can also send detailed diagnoses of technical problems direct to a service centre, doing away with the need for service calls or in-home visits.
LG’s smart ovens can download a wide range of up-to-date recipes while the smart refrigerator makes it easy to keep track of what’s in the fridge, where it is and when it expires. What’s more, LG’s HOM-BOT robotic vacuum cleaner can not only tidy up the house, it can even keep watch over it while the owners are away.
Verizon and Marvell manage the home
Continuing on the smart and connected theme, a number of announcements today from Verizon Wireless include one which is a collaboration between Marvell and Verizon Wireless demonstrating how a mobile home server the size of a power plug combined with the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE mobile broadband network can manage home security features, lights, heat and air conditioning and integrate all the connected intelligent furnishings at home using a smartphone.
The ‘Control Point’ product announced acts as a mini Wi-Fi hotspot for connecting a multitude of devices throughout the home. Marvell’s chips in this product give consumers seamless continuity across connected devices, and with Verizon Wireless delivers always on, always connected capabilities for consumers to manage all aspects of their lives.
Embedded connectivity innovations
Embedded connectivity was also in full force: Novatel Wireless announced its embedded 4G LTE module had been integrated with a wide variety of mobile computing, mobile Internet and media platforms with six OEM partners, including Cisco, Consert, Dell, HP, SerComm and TouchTunes, to work on Verizon Wireless’ 4G LTE network. The Verizon Wireless LTE Innovation Centre at CES showcased the following examples from Novatel Wireless in mobile gaming, interactive media, standalone LTE-enabled cameras, intelligent utility energy distribution and management, and an enterprise tablet.
Connected internet through the home – powerline
Keeping everything connected to the Internet throughout the home through the power plug sockets is another aspect of the smart home, and RCA announced its Powerlink Internet Media Kit today – this turns an electrical power outlet into a high-speed Ethernet connection. This enables streaming HD movies, video games and more from the web to an internet-capable TV or electronic device.
This is not a new concept, but it gives the ability to easily put a high-speed Internet connection wherever you need it: behind your TV, next to your Blu-ray player, anywhere you’ve got an electrical power outlet.
There were many more examples of mobile, connected products announced today, including the ability to broadcast mobile TV to any Wi-Fi connected device, smartphone or tablet.
With this trend at CES today, it’s clear that the ‘internet of things’, and ‘connected everywhere’ is a concept that is coming to fruition in many aspects of our daily lives – and will do so sooner than we think. The question is – how far will we as consumers want to go with this level of connectivity, particularly when being on the connected network opens up a whole host of potential security challenges.
