By | Bernard Marr | Internationally best-selling author, keynote speaker, futurist, and strategic business & technology advisor
For the first time in its history, the world’s biggest consumer technology show, CES 2021, was an entirely virtual event. This meant that rather than hundreds of thousands flocking to Las Vegas, potentially millions could experience it from their own homes.
There were still all the big announcements, launches, and insights into upcoming tech and trends that we expect from the event every year. Some things were inevitably different, though, due to the changing times we’re living through.
Understandably, technology related to healthcare and safety was more prominent than it has ever been in the past. Another focus was technology designed to help us adapt to home working, homeschooling, and our increasingly housebound lives. But there were also ideas and concepts that look forward to a time when traveling, socializing, and partying is back on the agenda.
Here are some of the key trends I picked up on, giving us a glimpse of the cool tech-enabled toys, gadgets, and gizmos we will be able to spend our cash on now or in the near future.
Covid-tech
Of course, one area of tech development with a strong presence this year is assistance in the fight against Covid-19 and other potential pandemics.
Razer, most known for its gaming-oriented laptops and accessories, doesn’t seem a likely source of covid-busting technology, but they’ve put their expertise in hardware design into creating the Project Hazel smart face mask that combines UV sterilization capability, voice projection, and of, of course, cool multicolored LED lights, in an n95-grade mask.
Smart thermometers were also a trend, including one developed by Kinsa that collects aggregated data from thousands of devices used in homes that can be used to detect and predict viral spread and outbreaks.
And LG had an autonomous anti-covid robot that uses UV-C to disinfect spaces and surfaces that it will start to put to work in schools, hospitals, and workplaces early this year.
