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January 7, 2018

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Home » Sunday » Technology

Gadgets getting brains

Source: Shanghai Daily | 00:05 UTC+8 January 7, 2018 | Print Edition

GIVING gadgets brains will be a hot theme at the Consumer Electronics Show set to open in Las Vegas, with device makers big and small touting hardware with “smarts.”

Whether it’s a doorbell or refrigerator, a TV set or a toothbrush, chances are it will be connected to digital assistants powered by artificial intelligence aiming to anticipate needs or desires.

“I think you’re going to see the year of smart,” said Jack Gold, a technology analyst with J. Gold Associates.

One of the largest trade shows in the world, the January 9-12 CES will attract about 170,000 visitors and 3,900 exhibitors from 150 countries and will showcase innovations in computers, gaming, robotics, vehicle technology, virtual and augmented reality and more.

Gold said gadgets will be increasingly tuned to glean insights about the people using them: “Your device will learn about you and will know your preferences, and it’ll then try to get smarter about how to interact with you.”

As consumer electronics evolve, an overriding theme has become voice-assisted digital assistants being integrated into more devices, said Stephen Baker of research firm NPD.

“What happened is all the appliance and device guys gave up (on making their own isolated smart home systems) and instead are building an ecosystem in which pretty much everybody’s devices will talk to Google or Amazon, or eventually Siri,” Baker said.

Still, said Gartner analyst Brian Blau, large and small tech firms are locked in battle to be at the heart of smart homes and devices. 

“To some degree there is still a war on for the connected home platform,” Blau said. “Communication standards are being worked out, but the other thing is whose allegiance you will commit your home to — will it be Samsung, LG, Amazon, Google?”

Bob O’Donnell, an analyst with Technalysis Research said of the coming CES: “It’s a place to make a statement about technologies that will have resonance.”

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