I am fortunate that my job takes me away to sometimes warm locations in the dead of the Canadian winter. This week, I attended the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas and the weather was unseasonably warm at about 22 C while Toronto plunged to a deep freeze.

I thought I would give you a view of some of the latest gadgets and technologies that may be coming to the mainstream in the 2015-2016 timeframe. I'll place some pics that I took along with descriptions below but for a quick skim, you can just review the bullet highlights:

• Of course, more models of cell phones but nothing ground-breaking at this point, only increments on previous capabilities

• Bluetooth speaker systems in all shapes and sizes for your mobile music listening

• Phone apps for almost everything
• Solar powered back-packs that charge your phone/devices while you hike
• Moving towards the driverless or autopilot automobiles
• Wearable computing devices for active lifestyle, child monitoring and assisted health
• Quad-copper drones from $50 and 5cm to over $50,000 ones a meter across able to carry a professional camera or other mid-sized payload
• More 3-D printers manufactures and models than you would ever have dreamed of
• 8K TV screens at 16 times the resolution of a full 1080p HD monitor (we've barely rolled out 4K screens and they're already behind the times)
• Robots and telepresence units that allow you to almost physically be in another place thousands of miles away 
• Home automation and home security systems and devices.

I must admit that I did come away from the show with an feeling of 'overwhelming techness' asking myself how many of these things are really going to have a net-benefit on our lives. Having said that, some innovations did seem focused on assisting us with expanding or improving our lifestyle in positive and wholesome ways.

Mobile smartphones are obviously driving a huge segment of business as we do more surfing a less talking on these highly powerful multifunctional devices. However, as well as surfing, smartphones are also turning into our primary audio music listening devices. As such, Bluetooth and other audio companion devices are taking up significant space in the consumer electronics business. One of the COOLEST devices at the show, also winning an innovation award, was the levitating Bluetooth speaker/amplifier.

This very cool device has a floating speaker which is supported about a centimeter above the base and the sound quality was top-notch. A really cool gizmo to stick in your backpack for the next impromptu party you end up at.

In the area of wearable computing and sensors, there were literally loads of step and activity trackers with associate phone or cloud applications but these weren't the most interesting to me. Pictured on the right is a wearable camera, ala Gopro, but from another vendor.

Much more interesting were some of the newer headset innovations. One "movie theatre on your head" projected HD quality video into your eyes while the movie's audio was delivered through high quality headphones. This was somewhat cool but maybe a little too 'geeky' to become mainstream.

Most interesting to me were two other headsets that measured brainwaves. One demonstration allowed volunteers to move toy cars only by thinking. As this technology gets built out, there are obvious benefits for physically challenged persons and maybe for the general public.

 
The other application of brain monitoring headsets had accompanying analysis and music. This application was a system that coached the wearer to settle their mind like an automated therapist with direct feedback from known stress emitters in the brain. This technology too could have profound applications in the future.

 
The area of robots and quad-copter droids was very interesting and I'm certain, these applications will continue to enter our homes, skies and lives over the next few years. Here's a shot of a small consumer version but the really cool ones were more than 1 meter and were very 'bad-ass' military looking but also forbidden from photos ;-(

Also quite interesting was the area of telepresence robotics whereby a remote person can operate a free moving robot-like vehicle that carries your talking face in an integrated tablet screen. It seems that this could have good commercial application in security and monitoring but I wonder about the consumer and business applications. It seems a bit too complex and foreign to be taken seriously by those on the remote side when a video or Skype call can achieve most of the function. I guess the mobility is key so maybe we may see applications grow in this area, but I'm not convinced yet.
The display of 3D printing machines, feed-wire and 3D rendering software exploded this year. Vendors gave the impression that everyone should have one of these but again, mass market application for consumers eludes me and I'm a mechanical engineer. They definitely have a big cool factor but  outside of prototype and design shops the market is not clear; I believe we will see a lot of vendor consolidation in this area.

 
There was a lot more information and demonstration around connected cars assisted driving and driverless vehicles. Ford's CEO, Mark Fields, predicted in an interview at the opening of the show, that we see driverless and full autopilot vehicles on our roads in moderate numbers within the next 5 years.

This area is clearly a game-changer that will have significant impact on regulations and society in general. I hope the traffic improvement and life and accident savings will outweigh the potential drawbacks of unmanned vehicle addition to our roads and cities. The Mercedes F-015 concept car was the hit of the show in this area showing what a self-driven car could look like.

All in all, it was another great show but again, I did come away with a question as to whether all of this technology drives real net benefits or whether it further clutters and complicates our already busy lives. While things seem to be advancing at quite a rate, its already 2015 and I'm still waiting for my jet car that I saw in Popular Mechanics in 1967 :-)