Intelligent-tech arms race looming at CES

LAS VEGAS — It was June 1967, the beginning of the summer of love. The Beatles had set the mood with the release of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and a sense of optimism filled New York’s warm air.

This was the backdrop of the world’s first Consumer Electronics Show (CES), a celebration of new technologies that were displayed in glittering hotel lobbies and events rooms across the city, pulling a crowd of 17,500 over four days.

CES would grow to be the largest tech gathering in the world, playing host to major technology debuts, including the first videocassette recorder, CD player and Microsoft Xbox.

Half a century later, the show has relocated to Las Vegas, and is preparing to celebrate its 50th birthday. On the surface the conference does not appear to have changed much: The innovation cycle may have replaced VCRs with virtual reality headsets, but the fundamentals remain.

Hundreds of companies will gather with eagerness to show off their products to buyers and fans. They will be watching one another too, looking for the next innovation in their field for fear of missing out on the next mega-hit.

The frenzy showcased at CES produces has had mixed results. For instance, the proliferation of smart devices — from pet feeders, umbrellas and water bottles to jewellery, clothing and watches — has met muted applause. Transforming regular “dumb” objects into connected ones by fitting them with sensors and wireless chips has not created anything like the excitement of the smartphone boom of the late 2000s.

“Vendors haven’t really figured out how to make wearables interesting enough to make them a must-have item like the smartphone,” said Ms Annette Zimmerman, research vice-president at Gartner.

The same goes for smart gadgets. “Some of them are certainly gimmicky and I don’t see a future for all of the devices,” she added. “But I think the potential is reflected in the growth of the fitness band market.”

The rapid growth of fitness bands, which have doubled sales year on year in the UK and US, makes Ms Zimmerman believe there is a market for smart devices — but only if they have a clear use case. “A lot of people still don’t know what the uses are of a smartwatch, let alone gadgets that have a single use,” she said.

This year a new tech arms race is in the offing at CES that will finally give smart devices meaning and purpose. While the hardware has been established for some time now, what the industry has been waiting for is the intelligent software that can power such gadgets, interpreting the data their sensors collect and translating it into meaningful help for consumers.

“The devices won’t go away, they’ll still be there. But companies will layer intelligence on top of them,” said Mr Ben Wood, chief of research at CCS Insight.

The integration with computer-powered analysis and machine learning that can extract useful information from reams of data will make these devices more interesting. A door that can be remotely unlocked, for example, is not that useful on its own. But couple the lock with a security camera that has facial recognition and machine learning, and it becomes more helpful.

Imagine your parents arrive at the door, and the camera autonomously recognises them and unlocks it so you do not have to leave the cooking unattended. This scenario is not unfeasible: Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg revealed he built such a system in a video released ahead of Christmas.

It is through linking smart devices and enhancing their capabilities with Artificial Intelligence (AI) that companies will be able to differentiate their products at this year’s CES.

We saw tech giants starting the process last year, with Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Apple and Amazon all releasing AI-powered intelligent assistants housed in smartphones, computers and speakers. For them, the driving factor has been to distinguish their products by making them more helpful.

Amazon started the process when it launched the Echo, a voice-activated speaker powered by an AI personal assistant called Alexa.

It was swiftly followed by the release of Google’s Home speaker, which uses the same technology as the assistant in the search giant’s Pixel smartphones and messaging app Allo.

Apple has been rumoured to be making similar moves with Siri, while Facebook has also been working on a smart assistant called M.

But copycatting one another isn’t going to cut it. “There will be an avalanche of smart speakers, but their success will be determined more by the software platform than the hardware itself,” says Mr Wood.

The Daily Telegraph