Holographic TVs, self-driving cars and metaverse at CES, world’s largest consumer tech conference

The year is set for innovation and new businesses. Here are trends likely at the world’s largest technology conference, such as holographic TVs and the metaverse.

Alphabet unit Waymo is creating ride-sharing driverless taxis.

The art of prediction increases in difficulty further when it is technology trends that are being forecast – and that’s before factoring in this very unusual year.

But if there are trends emerging in the sector, undoubtably they will be among the dizzying array of exhibits at this year’s CES, the world’s largest tech conference.

Now in its fifth decade, CES is the world’s most influential technology fair and the futuristic wearables, virtual reality goggles and autonomous vehicles on show can be relied upon as a preview of what to expect in the world of consumer tech in the year to come.

A number of big-name companies have dropped out of the event or dramatically scaled back their plans. Microsoft, Google, Intel, Meta, Twitter, Amazon, TikTok, IBM, Mercedes and BMW are all giving the year’s biggest technology show a miss.

Australian media is now largely covering the Las Vegas event remotely, given the spike in Covid-19 cases sweeping across the US. Even local giants who would otherwise have a presence on the floor – such as Telstra – will be ­absent.

But the show must go on, as Consumer Technology Association chief executive Gary Shapiro wrote in the Las Vegas Review-Journal last week. “It will have many more small companies than large ones. It may have big gaps on the show floor. Certainly, it will be different from previous years. It may be messy,” Shapiro said. “But innovation is messy. It is risky and uncomfortable.

“CES 2022 will kick off 2022 in messy fashion, but it will be chock full of innovation and full of entrepreneurs and businesses. We will all be taking risks. But without risk there is no innovation.”

The metaverse

This is the year we truly enter the metaverse.

Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg made a splash in October when he announced his company would change its name to Meta, and the ripples are now being felt across the technology industry including at CES, with the conference hosting a specific program to talk about non-fungible tokens (better known as NFTs), the digital objects that will populate the metaverse.

The so-called metaverse is a new digital space that Meta believes will supplant smartphone apps as the primary form of online interaction. Picture: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images

While 2021 was about planting the seeds of the metaverse (which can be thought of as the next version of the internet), 2022 will be the year that those seeds start coming to fruition. While Zuckerberg wants Meta to be the first and biggest company to build out the metaverse, it will be far from the only major player, with tech companies across the globe racing to own a piece of the virtual pie. Expect exhibitors including Razer and Canon to show off their latest virtual reality innovations, while influencers including musician Will.i.am, and investor and entrepreneur Mark Cuban will speak at CES about their respective visions for the future of immersive tech.

“If you’re gambling on a game, you’ll see gambling related [experiences],” Cuban said of what to expect in the metaverse. “If you’re a 10-year-old kid who likes sports and wants to watch the NBA with special characters overlaid, there will be overlays for that.”

Australian venture capital outfits are eyeing NFT and blockchain companies closely, so expect a lot of activity in this space over the coming week and year.

Health and fitness

With global health companies such as Peloton making a splash in Australia last year as we were kept away from the gym, expect a fresh generation of wearable devices and connected fitness tech to debut at CES this year. The Apple Watch still holds market dominance, with an estimated 45-50 per cent market share of the smartwatch market globally, but Google is expected to enter the market for the first time this year with a new watch, rumoured to be codenamed Rohan.

While Google has pulled out of CES, expect “Rohan” to debut later this year, along with potential new smartwatch devices from smaller rivals such as Garmin and Samsung. Meanwhile, new innovations at CES in sensor technology, smart fabrics, flexible membranes and more will help us boost activity and get us back into shape after years of lockdowns.

Remote work

The pandemic has had a profound effect n our working lives and, despite two years of working from home, many workers still have sub-par home setups. Expect a fresh wave of webcams, keyboards, microphones, conference devices and lights to dominate the CES conference floor. Korean giant Samsung has already previewed its new range of high-performance 4K monitors that it says are ideal for remote office work, boasting a range of unique built-in apps. “With working from home now more common practice, there is a greater need for innovative technology that is adaptable for our hybrid lifestyles and spaces,” Samsung Australia’s vice-president of consumer electronics, Jeremy Senior, said on Monday.

Self-driving cars

Following years of promise and gradual progress towards true self-driving capabilities, major manufacturers including the likes of Alphabet, Tesla, GM and Apple – which is heavily rumoured to be working on a car of its own – are working towards making self-driving cars a reality within the next decade. General Motors chair and CEO Mary Barra will deliver the opening keynote at CES 2022, and she’s more bullish than most about the technology’s potential. Regulation still needs to catch up, but the autonomous technology itself including LIDAR is coming along in strides.

“With tens of millions of lines of code in any given vehicle’s systems today, they are effectively computers on wheels,” Ms Barra said ahead of her keynote. “We are bringing to market technologies and features that are radically changing what vehicles can do for people to improve their lives. Connecting vehicles to each other, and in the years ahead, to traffic lights and roads around them so vehicles know how to avoid backups and collisions, and choose the most ­efficient routes, will reduce congestion and increase safety.”

Holographic TVs

We’re at a true golden era for televisions, with OLED TVs now as inexpensive as ever and new technologies including Micro-LED and QLED meaning consumers are truly spoiled for choice.

Manufacturers are constantly chasing bigger and brighter displays that offer more pixels and better contrast, and Australians in the market for a new TV in 2022 will be the real winners. Rather than just bigger and better however, there will probably be genuinely innovative displays on show at CES. Rumours abound of holographic and transparent TVs to debut this week in Las Vegas, along with TVs that can be unrolled and put on a wall like wallpaper. Just don’t expect them to hit the mainstream just yet.