IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - July 2015 - 100

that a smartphone has the sensors, GPS,
camera, etc., to be a drone-it just needs
propellers-and therefore, the company
argued that their chip sets were ideally
positioned to be the heart of that exploding market.

MORE DISPLAY OPTIONS
CES is always a display technology
showcase. This year, the news was in the
divergent paths companies are taking to
enhance their best consumer displays.
Companies highlighted 4K ultra-highdefinition (UHD) displays enhanced by
quantum dot backlighting, 4K UHD displays enhanced by organic light-emitting
diodes (OLED), and-in Sharp's case-
4K UHD enhanced by an additional color
per pixel. Sharp had previously offered
displays with yellow as the fourth color
element. This year the company was able
to talk about video processing that does
more than replace "old school" yellow.
Sharp's new systems use video processing
to upscale the color gamut. Companies
weren't shy about other resolutions,
showing off 5K, 6K, and 8K displays
alongside 4K UHD (Figure 2).

FIGURE 2. Quantum dot backlighting, OLED
displays, 4K/5K/6K/8K resolution, more colors
per pixel, and HDR are some of the innovations companies are using to attract consumers this year.

FIGURE 3. Brain wave monitors by Muse
highlighted a trend for companies to distinguish themselves into more specific categories of wearable devices.

100 IEEE ConsumEr ElECtronICs magazInE

july 2015

Display companies were also touting
high dynamic range (HDR). This technology allows for far more contrast between
the brightest and darkest details in an
image and more nuances in between those
extremes. With a wider range of lightness
shades for all colors, displays can show the
bad guy hiding in the shadows next to a
bright window or the beauty of a sunset
with the detail of the picturesque town
beneath. HDR demonstrations generated
more "wow" moments than any other
technology or category at the show.
Also in the video world, H.265/highefficiency video coding (HEVC) showed
significant signs of maturity. This nextgeneration video codec is the successor
to H.264/advanced video coding (AVC),
the most advanced codec in common
use before HEVC. HEVC was initially

Whether it was the upward
economic trajectory, the
stellar job CEA did of
producing the show this
year, or just a perfect storm
of exciting trends and
technologies ready for
prime time, the show floor
had tremendous energy
and excitement.
completed in 2013, but-similar to all
new standards-it has taken some time
for the ecosystem to mature, work out
the early kinks, and get to true interoperability. The 2015 CES saw many optimized hardware and software
implementations of HEVC, and the
technology is beginning to move into the
background as one of those things that
"just work." For example, Qualcomm
showed the power of the Snapdragon
810 with an HEVC 4K UHD demonstration at just 3.8 Mb/s, side by side
with the H.264/AVC equivalent.

WEARABLES FOCUS ON
USABLE CATEGORIES
In wearables, the trend moved away from
"wearables" as a pure category. Rather,
companies highlighted their specific

usable niche. The fact that a product was
wearable became less its category statement and more a feature within the categories. Large categories, as defined by
CEA and populated by more than 120
companies, include: Lifelong Tech, Fitness and Tech, Family and Tech, Kids
and Tech, and Health and Wellness.
For Fitness and Tech products, the
direction was clearly more features.
Where last year's products tracked steps
and heartbeats, this year's added voice
links to the phone, GPS for navigation
and route tracking, vertical jump, and
body mass index measurements.
Family and Tech was about using
technology to connect with family members in new and innovative ways. Edwin
the Duck is a yellow rubber-ducky-style
bath toy that can talk, sing, and read stories to children, making bath time more
fun, at least in theory. Integration with a
tablet app allows the toy to carry over to
bedtime stories (or stories for any time).
Health and Wellness showed off a
breathtaking span of applications. On display in this category were gadgets to help
new parents trade off caring for a waking
baby, brain wave monitors to help manage stress, insertable ovulation sensors
for women managing their fertility, and
more. Look for advances in sensors to
continue this trend, as innovators come
up with new ways to measure physiological factors (Figure 3).
Within these wearable categories, fashion was a clear differentiator. Guess, Burg,
and Aristocrat were some of the brands
making smartwatches more attractive, elegant, and eye-catching. LG, Timex, and
Martian were some of the technology
companies powering these efforts.

CONCLUSION
A final trend from the show floor was
energy. Whether it was the upward economic trajectory, the stellar job CEA did
of producing the show this year, or just a
perfect storm of exciting trends and technologies ready for prime time, the show
floor had tremendous energy and excitement. One cannot help but feel positive
about the market for consumer technologies this year after experiencing the 2015
International CES.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - July 2015