The Best of #CES2014 – Top Trends Give us a Glimpse of our Digital Future

2014 marks my fourth consecutive year attending the Consumer Electronics Show and, needless to say, I’m now resting my feet and catching up on lost sleep after an eventful (and exciting) week.

The glitz and glamour of the Las Vegas venue remains a fitting place for CES, as companies demonstrate their best and brightest products for the world to test, thump with and, yes, even try on. This week’s show turned out to be a blockbuster – attracting an international crowd of those who thrive in the business of consumer technologies. Even despite the record-breaking cold spell spanning nearly half of the country this week, the conference was well-attended and packed with exhibitors and attendees from all across the globe. In fact, the rumor is that attendee numbers will surpass or match last year’s record of 150,000.

The past few days have showcased thousands of must-see breakthrough technologies and the latest gizmos and gadgets. Each year at CES, the expected products are launched – those that are about to become mainstream and everyone in the industry anticipates. The unexpected also surfaced with innovations that continue to astound us at first sight.

So what was hot at CES this year? The Internet of Everything was everywhere! The connected car and the connected home were trends that popped up just about everywhere you looked – but bigger and more elaborate than ever. Developments in curved displays, digital health, the growth of personal robotics, 3D printing and wearable tech were also trending technology giving us a glimpse into our digital future.

Top tech trends that caught my eye this week include:

Automotive Tech/Connected Car: With nine of the world’s largest automakers and over 125 automotive technology companies present at the show, the rise in autonomous driving, electric vehicles (with cost-efficient home charging stations) and connected cars came to the fore with interactive displays to show off the future of the automotive industry.

Connected Home: The adoption of Internet of Things is quickly advancing with devices connecting to each other for seamless sharing of information in connected homes. We’ll see kitchen appliances, slow cookers, thermostats and even security alarms connected for us to control seamlessly with a touch of a button from another location. We will also see integration between the connected car and the connected home. For example, in such a connected world, you could turn off the car and walk into your home and have the same song or radio show playing in your home. We could also unlock the doors automatically to our home from our cars.

Curved & Hybrid Displays: TV manufacturers are continuing to produce exciting and new technology that will be so cool and compelling that consumers are eager to have an in-home theater experience. In addition to 3D TV, curvy, smart and 4K features were added to several TVs this year. While the focus is still on touch-screen tablets, hybrid displays were a big hit with a PC using a removable tablet to act as a mobile device with significant computing power.

Personal Robotics & 3D Printing: Robotics had a larger presence this year, but in the form of smart toys that are meant purely for play or education. With around 30 exhibitors in 3D printing at the show, the industry has kicked off and is now available to consumers so we can quickly create objects, such as plastic cups, that we may need in our homes.

Digital Health: The fitness-tech market was a high point in the last year with several companies announcing gadgets, especially general fitness trackers. The trends that consumers will begin to notice in the future of the fitness technology space include integration between products, a focus on hearth health and concepts that cross the line between consumer grade devices and medical devices.

Wearable Tech: From smart glasses, watches, headphones and even earbuds, wearables continue to be the next big thing and many companies announced voice command and recognition features for these devices that will set the stage for the next step beyond wearables – hands-free computing. This year, will we come to the awareness that we no longer wear technology, rather that technology wears us?

Never mind that I couldn’t find a decent Wi-Fi connection for nearly 12 hours my first day at the show – technology reigns, and CES delivered quite the lineup of innovations that will keep our imaginations and thirst for the next big thing going…well, for at least another 12 months.