I went to the consumer electronics show (CES 2018) from January 8th to January 11th. Here are some interesting products I've seen.

1. Holographic Vision

Hypervsn is quite smart about how to present the "3D video content with holographic effect". It uniquely combines a smart Hypervsn management platform and a Hypervsn projection unit. Each projection unit is like a fan with LEDs on its 4 fan leaves. When the fan spins, the LEDs on the fan leaves will show videos. With very thin fan leaves, the 3D video looks like displaying in the air.

The amazing part of the product is shown in the video. The projection matrix is composed of several projection units. With the same rotation speed and proper distance, a seamless large video can be shown with holographic effect. It is hard to imagine how to design the algorithm to keep all units in sync.

2. Self-driving Luggage

Loomo "self-driving luggage" looks funny. When I calm down to think about it, I feel astonished thinking how can a luggage keep balance moving forward only by two wheels. Self-driving luggage is definitely a good idea for multiple use cases: travel, last mile delivery, warehouse cargo handling, etc. It can be developed both 2B and 2C. I will definitely buy a self-driving luggage to free myself from carrying heavy luggage everywhere.

3. Raven R

Baidu Raven R focuses on motion and emotion. The Chinese tech giant Baidu acquired Raven, which was famous for its special lid-removable smart speaker design. Baidu intends to push the smart speaker to the next level from two aspects. First, integrating sentimental recognition helps customers feel natural to interact with the smart speaker. Second, Raven R is revealed as a robot instead of a smart speaker. It's like a transitional product from Raven H to Raven Q, another home robot using SLAM at the concept stage.

Raven R is a half smart speaker and half home robot. It blurred the boundary between the smart speaker and the home robot. In the near future, will we need two smart devices speaker + robot or just one Raven R?

4. Coffee Drip

The bubble lab Drip makes coffee in their booth. I visited their booth two times. For the first visit, I thought it is only a company making water-tap attracting people by making coffee onsite. But after enjoying the coffee, my friend and I decided to go back for another visit because the coffee was pretty good. This time, we finally know that the company sells water-tap at a high price not only for the good looking and manufacturing but more for the dripping curve designed by coffee masters. You can choose different dripping curves to get dripping coffee with different flavors.

It is a good idea to create product premium by adding the intelligent property (IP).

5. Kids Coding Robots

Many companies noticed the great potential in kids education market and they are using robots to teach kids coding.

6. Honda Robots

Honda Robots is thinking about building a physical "platform" for mobility needs. One of its product, 3E-B18 is to be used as seated personal mobility, and with replacement upper attachments, it can be used in a variety of situations such as carrying infants or baggage.

Another interesting finding is that Honda also thinks about how to create friendly robots interaction experience. They use soft material and touch reaction. They noticed human's habits and migrate them to robots. For example, 3E-A18 will turn its eyes a little earlier before it turns the body, exactly like human do.

7. Self-driving Pizza Delivery

Domino's delivers pizza with Ford's self-driving car. The new season of Black Mirror S04 E03 Crocodile may learn from Domino's delivery process. They are quite much the same. :D

8. Psychasec

Psychasec is the most attractive booth at CES 2018. Two "human beings" were sealed in glass boxes. Psychasec billed itself vaguely as technology that morphs human bodies and promises a way to keep people alive. The premise is to encourage attendees to sign up for a “sleeve” into which they can transfer their consciousness and upgrade their body. There are also body bags with people inside them.

This is very much like what Netflix's "Black Mirror" focuses on. Actually, it is. Psychasec is a fake company made up by Netflix as a promotion for their upcoming sci-fi show Altered Carbon, which begins streaming in February 2nd.

But this is not the end. The next day, on our way to exihibition hall. We see the protests:

People protested Psychasec and eternity. I believe it is not a marketing strategy as few news reported about it. The protest made me think a lot. Though it sounds ridiculous, protests enhance asymmetric information. Protests represent huge difference between people's minds. This difference prevents large scale commercialization of cutting-edge technologies. Thus the leading techs' first small batch of users are those who have more knowledge of new techs. This asymmetric information enhances the people with more knowledge. The strong becomes stronger, yet the weak keeps weak. The only way to break the asymmetric situation is technology decentralization.