CES 2023 and the State of Experiential Technologies | metAVerse
Joe Way, PhD, CTS
It’s CES 2023, the Consumer Electronics Show, put on by the Consumer Technology Association, the Mecca of the emerging tech world. It came, it went, and like every year, once the Vegas experience wears off, we are left standing here wondering what it all means. What are the main takeaways?
I have always said that you don’t go to CES thinking you’re going to run down to Best Buy on Monday to pick up one of the “whatever thingy’s.” You go to CES to see what will be standard in the next three years. Modern technology has a way sneaking up on us. Think about the current functionality of your iPhone. Now, think back to Gen 1 of it? At the time we bought each one, we thought it was the best thing ever, and yet, we now couldn’t live without the added features and functions that have crept into use. This is no different than our post-COVID classroom set-up. Now that we have introduced the “recording-streaming-Zooming” feature set, it’s here to stay. In some form or another, we have to provide the service when requested.
I call day one of CES my “fast pass” day where I don’t stop anywhere, I just walk the whole thing to “get a feel.” I then go more strategic on the following days. After that first day, I tweeted out my thoughts, my main takeaways. Even after walking the show floors (yes, multiple floors and venues across the city), I would say that my initial reaction was correct. Let me break it down:
Haptics: I want to separate haptics from wearables. While, yes, most of the haptics are in a wearable form, it’s the tech that’s interesting. Currently, most of the VR and AR tech is what I call “tap-and-grab.” It’s more “video-gamy.” But some of the tech coming could actually make you “feel” like you were lifting a 10-pound weight or smell or hear or “feel” as if the environment were “real.” And, not all the tech was big gloves or padded vests. Some of the tech coming is in form factors that we already wear on a daily basis. And it’ll get better. So, the takeaway, our environments are going to become more truly experiential, and not simply immersive, fooling us into the sensation. The integration of this was very promising.
Wearables: Really, wearables could be #1 on this list, and should be because of the large number of offerings from all the major companies, and to all the start-ups in Eureka Park. (I only moved it down because I think haptics was an actual use-case that built upon wearables.) I know the argument is that “no one will wear goggles in a classroom.” I heard it over and over, but the form factors are changing and changing fast! One start-up had glasses that looked no different than the ones I wear everyday. And they synced to an app that would make the lens-screens become AR-enabled or fulling VR for entering the metaverse. Speaking of metaverse, that’s here to stay too. No doubt being able to use our daily tech, from our phones, TVs, refrigerators, watches, and glasses/goggles, to have a true experience in the virtual word was a large focus of the show. This applies everywhere from banking to health care to gaming to education.
Sustainability: Huge round of applause to Panasonic, SK, LG, and others for their spotlight on sustainability. We already know that blockchain technology has taken huge leaps and bounds over the past year in power consumption (i.e., Ethereum 2, using 99% less energy per transaction). But now, we are seeing the major brands focus on more sustainable materials, smarter tech that uses “smart engird saving,” and better production practices. Even the start-ups were focused on integrating with other products and environments instead of having to build everything themselves. This “layering” of features and products is good for consumers, because now we can more easily choose what we like without being stuck in an ecosystem, but also because there’s no redundancy in unneeded components. I liked the focus here, and looking forward to seeing this become more mainstream.
AI, Automotive, and Robotic Automation: I know, these don’t necessarily go together, but in a way they do. AI and machine learning continued to grow. I could almost argue that AI was considered an “of course there’s AI in it.” The world may be getting excited about Chat GPT, but for CES, that was so three years ago. (Remember what I said, about how this show is a look into what’ll be standard later.) So AI was everywhere, but not treated like anything special. The automotive and robotic tech was amazing. I loved the Sony car (Afeela) and the DeLorean. Every car was electric (or even solar), and self-driving. So yeah, self-driving is coming, and in fact, it’s here. We just need humans to get with the program and accept and computers can drive cars better than we can. I really liked the public transportation options, and think there’s huge opportunities there. Robotics continued to be shown, but also in the same way as AI, as an “of course there’s robotics.”
So, putting all this together, what does this mean for education and the metaverse? It’s simple. It’s just a matter of time. If you’re still one of the people saying it’ll never happen or that it is just a fad, you’ll be in it, but you just won’t know it and you’ll be late to the game. CES is rarely wrong from a 30,000-foot view. And when you see over 75% of the companies in attendance focusing on one of the four areas listed above, there is no doubt that will be the future of tech… in the very very near future.
And my final, final thought… Why does this matter? Because at some point, we will be asked to support or install it by our users, in our classroom environments. The sooner we know what’s coming, the easier it is to prepare. For me, I’m bleeding edge campus and will probably integrate these technologies early (even grabbing some business card to start collars now). But, wherever you fall on the adoption scale, it is only a matter of time.
For bonus coverage of CES and what it means for blockchain and crypto, check out my latest Poodlcast episode: here.
