Author profile picture

Eric Biermann (Design & Development Director at VanBerlo) and Bram Hendriks (Sr UX Designer at VanBerlo) are visiting the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. In a daily diary, they share their vision and their experiences at the world’s biggest gathering place for innovative products. Today part 1, by Bram Hendriks.

By Bram Hendriks, Sr. UX Designer at VanBerlo

Today – after a long trip, thanks to extreme weather conditions – is our first day at CES 2018 in Las Vegas. We’re sufficiently caffeinated and ready to go!

Read all our CES 2018 stories here

LG Smart Fridge

Smart fridges, ovens and vacuum cleaners
Many brands still push smart home technology. Is it new? Not really. Do we need it? Not sure. Nevertheless, at CES 2018 you’ll find many fridges that keep track of what’s inside. They can suggest recipes based on the current contents and have multiple smart compartments that allow you to quickly grab a drink or control the climate per food type. The ovens have large displays, are connected to the fridge and tell you when and how to prepare the suggested recipes. And let’s not forget the robot vacuum cleaner. Smarter algorithms and better vision tech than in previous years, but still not so great at cleaning hard-to-reach places. And all of this is integrated within one single system and controllable by voice or your home companion/robot.

More data, more power
Companies such as Intel, NVIDIA and Qualcomm use CES to showcase their latest innovations and reveal how their tech allows us to consume and process more data than ever before. For autonomous driving, cars need to be able to process the massive amounts of data collected by many sensors. Intel’s booth shows this by projecting an immersive, futuristic self-driving experience and a fancy car model where they explain these sensors (cameras and lidar) and the brains of the car. Intel also shows how 5G and other mobile innovations allow users to experience events in completely new ways, think of viewing the upcoming Olympic Winter Games in VR.

Segway’s take on personal, urban transportation; the Ninebot

Personal mobility
Big on the list of tech to see this year are two-wheeled personal mobility concepts by Segway and other brands. Segway now focuses more on personal, urban transportation. On view: an electric foldable scooter for kids, several self-balancing vehicles and a robotic suitcase with an integrated speaker – hey, why not? Yes, the downside of the speaker is that it leaves you with less space for your luggage. The self-balancing products look promising; they can follow you around, have optional cameras on board and are smaller and cheaper than ever. In the coming days, we’ll focus more on (self-driving) cars. Keep you posted!

CES 2018 – Day 1 from VanBerlo on Vimeo.