Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1335241
102 SMT007 MAGAZINE I FEBRUARY 2021 • Vehicle technologies: is may be the sin- gle largest technology shown at CES. Electrifi- cation of vehicles was presented everywhere, and/or refinement of technologies in vehicles from safety, entertainment, to using your vehi- cle as your home office. Autonomy was again presented but this time more information was given on the stages of development that will lead up to the autonomous vehicle. • 5G connectivity: 5G continues to be imple- mented, as well as 6G. Connectivity in the U.S. during 2020 was 10.8% higher over 2019 and 2021 will see even higher rates. • Smart cities: Cities are investing in infra- structure that is not home or industry. ey are looking to provide more services 24/7 while lowering cost of government. is seems espe- cially true for rural broadband availability and the federal government seems to equate this to the early programs of rural electrification. Aer listening to these OEMs for three days, and before I talk about them specifically, these are my overall impressions of CES. e big OEMs spent a lot of time talking about their social responsibilities and their "big pic- ture" concepts and not nearly as much about specific products. is might be because they did not have to bring physical products to Las Vegas, and only one-third as many companies participated. CES painted a fascinating picture of how our future is supposed to look, and hope- fully we can afford it. I have learned that it rarely works out as cleanly and brilliantly as the images appear to be painted. Old science-fiction movies seem to indicate that in 50 years we would have flying cars and other utopian marvels, but when the time comes, we do not have them, but we do have marvels that were never predicted. e most interesting topics and compelling visions seemed to be a bit further off than usual. Again, perhaps this should not be surprising given where we are in the world, but truly little of the coolest stuff is available for purchase. e Samsung robots were cool— "Pour me a glass of wine and then load the dishwasher"—but was highlighted from simple controls to advanced self-learning soware. ey wondered what the public must think of AI when there were so many variations on the concept presented. • Robotics/process automation: Several new robots were introduced along with interesting automation of repetitive tasks like shopping and cooking. • Natural languages: It was apparent that "voice" is the preferred interface to intelligent devices but since travel has been so curtailed, simultaneous translation of languages has been pushed back in importance for now. • Cloud computing: e "cloud" is seen as the "ultimate home for big data" and the reason that "intelligent devices" need not be powerful computers, for now. Finally, six markets at CES stood-out in their opinions: • Digital health: Many wearable devices appeared, from the Bio Button to the Oura Ring (which looks similar to a traditional wedding ring). Most were connected to telecare (medi- cal services on the cloud that allow patients to stay at home) using AI diagnostics to provide "predictable" diagnostics to physicians. • Digital transactions: More services are going online using new AI soware, like accounting services, legal, security, and edu- cation. is is making new services available to suburban and rural-remote regions. ey quoted predictions that only 20% of employ- ees working at home will actually go back to their offices aer the pandemic. • Robotics/drones: Delivery/shopping was a topic that appeared over-and-over. FedEx predicts that by 2023 there will be 100 million parcel deliveries every day. France already has set up small local drug stores with single items, allowing customers to shop electronically and their purchases will be delivered within 90 minutes to their home or office.