Future Tech Trends | Solutions
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Amidst super thin displays and more vibrant pixels at CES 17 , highly experienced CI product designer and technical manager at Habitech , Justin Martin-Lawrence , sees the strongest evidence yet for an IoT-inspired revolution in home control .
SevenHuggs remotes know what you are pointing them at
Hyrbid Log Gamma ( HLG ) for broadcast ( Live ) HDR , has been created by Japan ’ s NHK and the BBC
With every passing CES , the brainchild of Tim Berners- Lee is evidently more omnificent . Even for tech heads like me , the speed of IoT integration , as witnessed at every CES , still manages to shock like a poke in the eye . It ’ s more than a little unsettling to contemplate how far the wireless Internet ’ s transforming tendrils will have seized the imagination and expectations of our customers , even before we ’ ve wised up to the new control opportunities it offers . Looking at all the low-hanging fruit at this year ’ s CES , it ’ s obvious that we ’ re in a race to add the juicy potential of voice and proximity control to traditional touch interfaces . The new expanded control palette , populated by innovations such as Alexa , is sure to jolt CI out of its single control ecosystem view , introducing a level of home control interaction we ’ ve hitherto only dreamed of . For integrators , things are going to get a lot more sensory …
The Voice Of Things To Come
With Alexa , Amazon has definitely stolen the march in voice control . It was amazing to see so many companies integrating the technology : even Samsung ’ s latest VacuumBot , the POWERbot VR7000 , can be ordered to suck . Auto manufacturers such as Ford , BMW , Hyundai and VW have been quick to adopt as well , with the latter claiming to be the first to have directly integrated the feature with the car ’ s own system without an intermediary interface . VW had a dedicated Alexa Booth at CES . Meanwhile Linkplay ’ s turnkey module for integrating Alexa Voice Service ( AVS ) and music streaming services with speaker designs will accelerate its residential intro . I think this will be big in 2017 .
Proximity Remote
I ’ ve seen the Sevenhugs Smart Remote – a kickstarter project – before in the press and online and it was on display at CES , winning three CES 2017 awards including most innovative product in the Smart Home category . It gives you the ability to control any device ( so far compatible with over 25,000 ) in the room via Wi-Fi , Bluetooth or Infrared . Each Smart Remote kit comes with a Smart Remote , charging base and three room sensors , which enable the remote ’ s touchscreen to work out what you are pointing at . When you do , the remote will display an intuitive interface for that device . It ’ s pretty neat . You can also integrate services like Über and weather and carry the remote beyond the ‘ smart zone ’ to select and control any Wi-Fi device on the same network and any Bluetooth or infrared device from a selection carousel display .
High Dynamic Range
While 4K promises quantity , HDR offers pixel quality generating brighter , more vivid colours and better contrast . So naturally there ’ s a tech race to perfect the best HDR and inevitably a format war as well . The two contenders are the open format HDR-10 and the licensed Dolby Vision , with HDR-10 way ahead in the volume game ( as the choice of UHD Blu-ray and streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon ) and Dolby Vision ahead in the quality game ( because it uses Dynamic frame-by-frame metadata rather than static metadata ). Samsung , LG , Sony , Panasonic were all showing new HDR panels , all with HDR-10 ; with LG fitting Dolby Vision as standard . Same with devices : Xbox One S and PS4 Pro , UHD Blu-ray and many settop boxes support HDR10 , the new Chromecast Ultra includes Dolby Vision . Then there ’ s the exotically titled Hyrbid Log Gamma ( HLG ) for broadcast ( Live ) HDR ,
10th-11th May 2017 , Sandown Park , Surrey . Sponsored by March 2017 | 7