DJI drone admirers at CES 2015.                                           Photo by Marcus Siu

Article and photos by Marcus Siu

LAS VEGAS, JANUARY 5, 2016:  The CES show, formerly known as the “Consumer Electronics Show” seems to be running out of space each year.  In the days when CES was all exclusively consumer electronics, the expansive space has been taken away by booths displaying the technology of the companies, such as in cars,  drones and wearable interactive video games that have you running around in all different directions.  These companies need much more space to demo their wares than ever before. It’s no longer just about consumer electronics.

TRW’s autonomous car booth at CES 2015.                         Photo by Marcus Siu

Autonomous cars, which like it or not, will be here very soon.  The top forefront runners of the electric car revolution include Tesla, Google, and Mobileye, who have been developing them early on its inception, but many of the traditional car makers, such as Mercedes, Toyota, Ford, and Kia are quickly adopting this technology, as well, in order to compete.  Toyota has announced at CES 2016 that they are unveiling a new mapping system using GPS and cameras to be used in their self-driving cars. Ford has just announced a breakthrough involving sensors accelerating road testing.

Tesla’s cars, such as the Model X, at CES 2015, currently has live updates toward “auto pilot”for hands free driving.  Photo by Marcus Siu

A demo at Virtuix Omni at CES 2015.                                     Photo by Marcus Siu

This will be the year where VR and Augmented Reality will make it’s major breakthrough with the public. VR booths will increase to 40 at CES 2016.  It is not only used for gaming, like the Oculus Rift, Sony Morpheus, or HTC Vive, that uses the technology, but applications such as business development and training used by Casio and ODG Technology smart glasses that uses augmented reality, that are almost like wearable computers, but without the weight, of course.

Occulus line at CES 2015.                                                           Photo by Marcus Siu

Even with the F.A.A regulations, as well as the hassle of registration, drones will be even bigger business in 2016.  Drone companies will be competing for air space at CES 2016.  The number of booths at CES will increase to 27 this year, with the number one manufacturer in the world, China’s DJI at the forefront of the industry.

Qualcomm demonstrates its Snapdragon technology at CES 2015.          Photo by Marcus Siu

Qualcomm also plans to demo its drone with its latest Snapdragon technology which supports autonomous flight controls, using motion planning sensors to avoid obstacles, motion planning, and integrated 4K video recording camera.

Technology is changing at a rapid pace and so is CES 2016.