Where to begin….
After over 15 years doing CES, I have seen the changes, in how it’s presented, and how I’ve interacted with.
A growth on both sides.
I started a new media outlet in 2005, and it continues to this day. That’s Photoinduced.com, where you are reading this now.
At first CES was combined with PMA which was a photo centric convention, and more specific to my site, Photoinduced, covering the photo and video market.
As PMA went away, I was always looking for the brand and products that would be of interest and enhance the lives of content creators, although I primarily called them photographers and videographers at the time.

After doing it virtually last year due to the pandemic, it was great to be back in person.
Why?

Because the human contacts I make, and the conversation held that were not impeded by a sterile online presentation are what CES is all about for me.
Not only going to the scheduled keynotes and press events but walking the floor.
It’s about discovery.
It never fails to be a positive thing to actually see a product, talk to the inventors or marketers about the how and the why.

I’ll go into the history of attendance later, but for CES 2023 here are my impressions:
There have been 2 major concepts being promoted.
Sustainability and AI.
AI is kind of the “Alexa enabled” from a few years ago. In other words, every product wants to get that stamp on the product to show they are future focused, and the products they are bringing to market will continually learn how the consumer will use them and learn from that repeated use.
That, for me, is the long and short of it.
Some people consider AI is all about MidJourney and ChatGPT which are very cool and part of it, but products that learn from usage will make your daily life easier.

Sustainability was the concept that the major brands hung their hats on to show the public that they are responsible global citizens, and are working toward zero emission, recycling plastics, and using designs that will impact the environment less.
It does have to start with those big players, and they have to be recognized for making this a front and center presentation feature.

I did have a little bit of an issue with all of it.
It is a noble and righteous goal. The amount of time they propose executing it is a bit far off.

And at the end of the day, let’s be real. CES is at its core, a trade show.

The goal of the show is to write business for new products to sell. And yes, the outdated products need to be recycled, or they end up in a landfill.
Now I’m not being righteous, but just calling it out.
I’m fine with it. I’m a consumer. I look to give all older tech away or recycle it.

In the press events I attended, all brands leaned into it.
The one who leaned into it the hardest was Panasonic.
And they did. A great job of it.
One other note on their presentation was the fact that they had a person signing right up on the big screen. Respect for acknowledging

Sony made an attempt , although the screens were mainly covered by the press core due to their placement.

I will in future posts write more about a couple of companies in the creator that I think are taking sustainability seriously and doing it right now.

I know. You are wondering, what were he products that are new, or coming that could be of interest?
Is it the Sony concept car, that they actually presented a fews years back, and would not talk about it?

or this one below, presented last week, now that they have partnered with Honda, it could be a really in 2026? Do you care?

Ok, let’s look at AI.

Yes, there were many products that incorporated the ability to learn.
The scariest meeting, I had was with a company the takes movie scripts and analyzes them to determine success at the box office.
They claim 80% success rate. Not matter what you may think 80% prediction rate is pretty solid. Especially if a studio is looking to spend buckets of money

The scary part was that they are moving into the ad world.
And opening an office in NYC, the heart of the Ad world.
I asked what would materials they need to determine success.
Strategic brief, script, and perhaps a storyboard.
Now, brand have been hoping for a way to make the emotional creative connection to marketing, to a science that can limit financial exposure.
I get it.
But this is a tool. That could suck the life out of an emotional story, relating to a product.
Who would want to have an ad idea killed because the data and science, learned AI based on a data source ( not revealed) ?

And yes, I saw a bunch or motion capture developers who are bring more realistic animations to the world. Even a consumer level motion capture system that didn’t require black suits and capture dots or balls. Make yourself into an animated character.
Of course if you are a gamer or have watched the Mandalorian, you’ve already seen some amazing tech.
Oh yeah, that Avatar movie as well.

Now the consumer content creator can access those tools, in a similar fashion.
What I didn’t see or missed was AI generating motion. In other words, other than a deep fake, we are not so close to fully AI generating live action. Won’t be long.

I did have 2 favorite future facing and appropriate sessions:
One was a Q&A with astronauts live on a space station, discussion g their lives and the experiments they were performing. The panel live in CES, represented companies that are funding and directing these experiments.
The great part was connecting the experiments and how they affected product development. It went from how Tide learns from how laundry in space improves the product on earth. Can’t do a lot of laundry loads in space.

Then another company was creating human tissue in space with a goal of 3D human organs in 5 years.

Another fave session was with the chairman of Nasdaq, and how AI will affect stock values.
Shorting stocks based on planted negative information, was just one way AI can work with criminal intent to manipulate perception and sales of stocks. AI engines work with the info provided.

As far as amazing new products revealed, there were not a huge crop, with most being  improved versions of what we have seen before.

One thing I find funny is all of the posts that mention the pee-reader in the health tech segment,
Do people just like to giggle at the mention of pee? Seems like. Below is the pee reader that would go into your toilet bowl

Last time I met with Withings it was about their luxury digital watch series, which are pretty dang good.

In the next post, I’ll share some products that are available now, that may be of interest, and some coming to market this spring.