by Dot Cannon

At CES® 2016, which ran January 6-9 in Las Vegas, innovation was a given.

A sense of play, along with all the creativity, made it one of the best shows ever.

For his Tuesday evening pre-CES® keynote, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich made his appearance on a hoverboard.

Several minutes later, CTA™ President and CEO Gary Shapiro, who had introduced Krzanich, stepped onto the board and sailed offstage, with a, “‘Bye!”

During his keynote speech, Krzanich illustrated a number of new Intel innovations–including drones that can follow on command.  These can also steer away, to avoid a collision,when someone approaches.

There was also a mini “fashion show”, that evening, of Intel’s new 2016 wearables, created with the Curie™ module.  (Curie™, a button-sized hardware device, had been introduced at 2015 CES®.)

Smart clothing displayed included this “adrenaline dress”, which extends its “wings” when the wearer’s stress level rises.

Perhaps our favorite innovation, however, was this one:

These wearable bands play music without an instrument!  On this set, the band on the right hand strikes piano notes.  The left hand, meanwhile, changes the key with a turn of the wearer’s wrist.

For CES® 2016, the arts were very much a part of the creativity behind the technology.

Country singer Lexie Hayden performed her original composition, “When I Am With You”, as an opener for Gary Shapiro’s joint keynote with Netflix CEO Reed Hastings on Wednesday, January 6th.  Hayden’s song had been selected from more than 118 submissions, in the “CES® 2016 Soundtrack Contest”.

Drones’ exploding popularity was one of the trends Shapiro referenced, in his portion of the keynote.  “In 2016, more than 25 companies will be in our drone marketplace, here at CES,” he said.

Later on in his keynote, he would also reference the ways technology is blurring the lines between the arts and sciences. “In disaster areas, we’re starting to see engineers put in 3D shelters,” he noted.  …”This is the promise of our industry, to better lives and solve problems.”

Reed Hastings’ portion of the keynote met with applause as he covered the ways television had developed since its infancy.  Part of Hastings’ presentation included previewing two new Netflix series: The Crown, about a young Queen Elizabeth coming into her own in the 1950s, and The Get Down, a musical drama set in the South Bronx in the 1970s, by director Baz Luhrmann. Both series are scheduled to premiere on Netflix later this year, and both preview trailers received an enthusiastic reception.

But the loudest applause came when Hastings announced, “In just the time we’ve been onstage (this morning), we switched Netflix on in 130 countries…and we’re working on China.”

CES® has broken records every year we’ve attended.  This year, the show covered more than 2.4 million net square feet of exhibit space, according to the Consumer Technology Association®.  The CTA also says more than 3,800 exhibitors were on hand for CES 2016.

That’s a lot of innovation–and here are just a few of the examples we saw.

Kenneth Yip, of SDL, was displaying this glassware that…

…sparkled with LED lights when there was liquid inside and the glass was raised and tilted!   “We have water inside as a conductive media,” he explained.  “So actually, the water triggers the light to turn on.”  (Imagine if your favorite club featured these?)

Meanwhile, Eric Janszen (l) and Eric Malafeew (r) offered a solution to two common problems.  They managed to address the fact that most of us hate stationary bike workouts, AND the general sedentary state of most computer gamers, with the “VirZoom”.  This stationary bike puts a rider in thirty different virtual-reality game scenarios.

Creator Eric Janszen said wintry weather helped to inspire his creation.  “I’m an avid bike rider…but I live in Boston,”  he explained.  “Sometimes, as late as May, you can’t ride.  So I’d be in the basement, (on the exercise bike) and I’d close my eyes and imagine I’m pedaling through…a VR game.  It was like, I wish VR was around, so I could use it to make these bikes less boring.”

Eric, who had premiered the VirZoom at the “Showstoppers” new-idea pitch event on Tuesday, said parents were telling him they couldn’t get their formerly-sedentary kids off the bike!

Now, this wearable may look like a pendant–but it’s actually something a lot more exciting.  It’s called “ili“, and is the world’s first wearable translator!   (Ili is created by Logbar, which made the Ring ZERO input device.)

“There’s a button in the middle, that you can push and hold, and all you have to do is speak into it,” explained Jeff LeBeau, Vice President of Operations at Logbar.

Jeff explained that ili required no Internet connection, so using it when traveling overseas would not be a problem.   Each unit, he explained, is assigned a pair of languages.  So an English-speaking traveler headed for Rio, for example, would order a set with English and Portuguese.   Ili will be available in June 2016, and Logbar will start accepting pre-orders in April.

Meanwhile, as you’ve probably guessed, this is no ordinary rubber duck.

Say hello to “Edwin the Duck“, an app-connected smart toy, created by pi lab!  Pi lab Brand Manager and Creative Director Garrett Curry says Edwin will make life easier for parents of newborns to two-year-olds.

“Edwin is not only an app-connected toy, he also is a nightlight,” Garrett said.  “Secondly, he actually has a bluetooth sleeper and is perfectly waterproof.  So you can stream your music through him and throw him in the bathtub or pool.

In addition, Garrett, said, Edwin contains a thermometer.  Parents can take their child’s temperature, simply by putting “Edwin” on his or her forehead.

And here is Guy Hayazaki, of Seven Dreamers Laboratories, Inc., with the world’s first laundry-folding robot!  Guy says developing the “Laundroid” took ten years–but we should be seeing it sold alongside washers and dryers in 2017.  And, by 2019, Guy says Panasonic will be featuring it in a washer/dryer combination called an “all-in-one”.  It can fold up to 40 pieces of clothing, and sort them!  (We can’t wait to see this one in action!)

Great show, CES® 2016!  We’ll see you in the future.