I just spent last week at CES in Las Vegas and had an absolutely amazing time. This years trip to CES was a little different as I had access to Publicis Groupe events and private parties. Needless to say, I’m just now recovering from the parties!
Here are some of the highlights from CES for me.
- Qualcomm’s Gimbal Platform – This is a context awareness platform using beacon technology as well as mobile app to create pretty much any awareness situation you can think of.
- Cisco Retail Solutions – Cisco had some amazing concepts showing how they could connect the entire retail experience with beacon’s, tracking camera’s, and some pretty amazing store level and executive analytic’s (user foot track patterns, inventory, transactions, etc.). They had partnered with Aero Scout for the beacon technology.
- Street Line – Pretty cool stuff when it comes to parking and other data for urban areas. Saw I nice demo with them and Cisco.
- Google Fiber – I was lucky enough to attend a private meeting with Google to learn more about new products in the market. Outside of getting a nice pair of Google glasses, one of the best road maps I saw was for Google Fiber. Alot of us are familiar with Google Fiber, so I won’t bore you with the details, checkout the site. What’s amazing is the approach Google is taking to dominate the Fiber network not only in the US, but in other countries that have poor infrastructure or countries that have a monopoly (higher prices as a result). If you don’t own Google stock, you should, this one division will dominate the world in 5 years and give Google a diversified portfolio outside of just search. Some interesting terminologies I learned from Google; they call neighborhoods “Fiber Hoods”, their retail stores are called “Fiber Space”. The Google VP in-charge (Milo Medin) of the division was telling me that he has seen credit ratings for cities increase because of Google Fiber (installed city), he also told me that if a house in a Fiber Hood signs up for Google Fiber (free internet), that account stays with the house, so if you sell the house the new owner gets Google Fiber as well, this helps home values and rental values. Not to mention, a city that helps bring in Google Fiber (make it easy for Google in install) gets free fiber to schools, libraries, etc. Milo was clear to point out that he only goes to cities that make it easy for him, it doesn’t matter about the size of the city. Amazing stuff from Google, including how they roll out and install a Fiber Hood.
- Smart-Flows – This was a French startup I found in CES Eureka Park (start-up companies only). Pretty cool way of analyzing customer paths in retail stores using the WiFi signal of a customers cell phone. No app is needed and you don’t have to connect to the WiFi, they can also track if you are a return customer. If you do have their app, or a store app, they can present offers, suggestions, etc. based on you’ve flowed through the retail store or other stores you might have visited.
- AwoX Stream Light – OK, this is pretty cool. Anywhere you have a light bulb, you can replace it with one of these blubs that’s also a speaker. Stream music to the light-bulb/speaker. Nice.
- Sen.se Mother – If you want to be able to track anything, this is a great new product to track almost anything in your life. Not sure I want ti track everything, but I can think of some things to track in my house, personal items, kids, and pets.
- WigWag – I found this company in CES Eureka Park as well. If you are like me, you have a number of smart home devices that you control through an app. e.g. Nest, Philips Hue, DropCam, August, etc. WigWag helps you control these all and automates things for you.
- Blumoo – Home entertainment control system. Pretty nice and possible contender to the established Harmony remotes.
Other nice eye candy I saw.
Samsung 105″ curved TV. Nice!
Some crazy Toyota concept with a digital skin. Also see Fun Vii.
This Toyota is going into production, it’s called the i-Road,
They had this massive 3D wall last year as well, but it’s still pretty cool.
This is just a cool motorized Skateboard called E-Go. Really fun to ride.
Thanks to the folks at Publicis Groupe and Moxie for the opportunity to attend CES 2014. I met some incredible folks from the Publicis Groupe family as well as vendors that are critical to Moxie’s success. Until next year!
Raj Choudhury - Atlanta 
My Friend Jeff Hilimire had some issues posting on my wordpress site. Not sure if I have something setup incorrectly. Anyway, here is his question.
“Wow, lots of tracking stuff there. Two questions. When is Google Fiber coming to Atlanta? And what do you think of the whole curved glass movement for tvs and phones? Bonus question, how much did you win? 🙂 ”
1. I think we have a very low chance of getting Google Fiber in Atlanta in the next few years. I actually asked Milo about this, he said that Georgia and especially Atlanta don’t make things easy to install the network. He wants Cities that go out of there way to make it easy for his team to come in, provide dedicated inspectors to Google so they can get a network installed as efficiently as possible. Atlanta has a lot of hoops you have to go through to get anything done in the city. Jeff, I do think we can all pressure the Major to make this happen, it’s good for the city and for us. Milo and his team care about cities that embrace Google Fiber (city and community), not about how big the city is. He also said it’s unlikely they’ll go to New York anytime soon.
2. I actually like the curved glass phones and TV’s. The TV’s are pretty amazing, viewing angles are great. For the phones, some practical elements that help with the curve are; a. it’s shaped like your hand and face, b. because the phone is curved sitting on a table, the air in-between helps create really good speakers. Not sure if folks are ready for the form factor however, still looks odd.
3. From a gabling stand-point, I was only a few hundred up this trip, but from a prize stand-point I won a Xbox One and a pair of google glasses. So I came home a big tech winner.
Thanks for the questions Jeff.
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