CES 2016 Result & CES 2017 Prospect
The ‘Consumer Electronics Show(hereinafter referred to as ’CES’) 2017’ to be held in Las Vegas on January 5 next year will show the world-best level of skills in the midst of general mobilization of the businesses specializing in the area of IT and home appliances in the world. Notably, last year, global car makers made a big contribution to the external extension of CES by showing their autonomous vehicles and concept cars.
The big increase in robot businesses’ participation in CES is also one of the important changes in CES in recent some years. It’s the phenomenon appearing through the acceleration of combination between robots and IT technologies. In ‘CES 2016’, especially in case of the robot area, there was an important flow, such as △Spread of connected robots △Increase in submission of artificial intelligence & social robots △ Chinese businesses’ rapid progress, and △Rapid increase in participating businesses in drones, etc.
Connected robots means of the emergence of phenomena, such as interconnecting and convergence spread, etc. between robots and Smart devices, IoT, and Cloud for the purpose of creating the new added value.
Interoperability with Smart devices(Smart phone, Tablet PC, etc.), and with diverse products for Smart home/IoT, and cloud-based interoperability service, etc. have gotten established as an important flow of the connected robots.
Also, the trend of Smart home hub, in which the object devices for smart home are connected through robots is markedly emerging. Mobile robots for family use which was jointly developed by Segway and Intel, and French Blue Frog Robotics’ ‘Buddy’, etc. are representative robots.
In addition, there has been an increase in submission of artificial intelligence & social robots. IBM and Toyota are hitting their stride in doing research on artificial intelligence robots, and submission of social robots ,which make it possible to do interaction while communing with a human based on AI, has increased. Its representative AI robot is ‘Tyche’ developed by AIBrain in Korea.
The horizontal connection and vertical combination between global corporations, and Chinese businesses’ rapid progress are also the phenomena that cannot be left out. Its typical case is the partnership between Intel and Xiaomi. Drone businesses are submitting their products in force, and its representative cases are French Parrot, Ehang and DJI in China. In the last CES, a Chinese drone business, Ehang got intense attention by showing a drone which a person can board.
Then, what innovative robot technologies will be shown in the CES 2017? It’s as much important to look at the general flow as concrete technologies.
In the CES 2017, it is expected that ▲ Voice control as a new interface ▲Rise in Artificial Intelligence technology ▲Rise in alternative reality ▲ Rise in autonomous vehicle technology, such as hi-tech operational support system, etc., and ▲Autonomous living technology , etc. will appear as an important flow. Also, it is expected that voice computing, instead of graphic user interface(GUI)in a traditional sense, will get a limelight as a new interface, and artificial intelligence will be also extensively adopted for information access and communication, etc. Also, autonomic function will be largely expanded to various consumer products, home appliances, etc. In addition, alternative reality technologies like virtual reality and augmented reality, etc. are expected to get established as an important flow. Robot technologies don’t go much beyond the important flow like this.
In the CES 2017, marketplaces are operated in the diverse areas of robot, drone, 3D Printing, and VR, etc. Robots and related businesses ,which are in possession of the world’s best technical skills, will participate in each marketplace. Looking at the businesses participating in the robot marketplace area, Chinese businesses’ rapid progress is remarkable even this time; UBTECH Robotics, Ninebot, Shenzhen BONA Robot Technology, ECOVACS Robotics, etc. are representative. UB Tech is the business, which is raising its global awareness, by showing a humanoid robot ‘Alpha 2.’ ECOVACS is getting attention as it regularizes its market invasion into the US market in the area of clean-up robot.
In case of Japan, Harmonic Drive, which is famous for its reducer technology, and Sever Dreamers Labs, etc. are to participate in the upcoming CES 2017. Seven Dreamers is scheduled to exhibit ‘Laundroid’ together with Panasonic. This robot looking like furniture has the function of sorting out and folding them for easy keeping after washing and drying laundries in various shapes like shirts, pants, underwears and towels, etc. The drone marketplace in which drone-related businesses will participate, has been seized by Chinsese businesses like DJI, Ehang, and YUNEEC, etc. Thus, it is expected that Chinese businesses’ stronghold will be more consolidated in the area of drone.
The area of autonomous vehicles is also an important subject of the CES 2017. The CEO of Nissan, Carlos Ghosn, in his kenote speech, will make a presentation about in what shape Nissan’s future vision will be realized with the subject ‘Nissan Intelligent Mobility.” Also, the CEO OF NVIDIA, Jenson Hwang will also make a presentation about the recent Artificial Intelligence and autonomous vehicles technologies.
Delphi and Mobileye will show a new autonomous driving technology titled ‘ Centralized Sensing Localization and Planning’ in relation to an autonomous vehicle. Quanergy Systems, which developed diffusion-type Lidar in solid state drive(SSD) form, is getting attention by winning the CES Innovation Award while ‘Almotive’ which is a Hungarian autonomous vehicle SW business, and has entered the US market recently, is planning to show their SW-centered AI SW-based autonomous vehicle technology in the upcoming CES 2017.
Also, robot-related conference will be arranged in the upcoming CES 2017. The main subjects in the conference is classified as Delivery robots, Al and Deep Learning, and Real-world robots, etc. The key presenter includes the representative of Starship Technology, Ahti Heinla, the founder of Sci-Fi Works, Helen Drainer, the representative of Savioke Robotics, Steve Cousins, and the representative of Hanson Robotics, David Hanson, etc. The presentations are attracting attention in that each presentation will be done by the specialists in business circles which are taking the lead in the flow of new technologies in the areas, such as Delivery robots, Intelligent drones, Service robots, and Android robots, etc.
