The 2017 Wishlist

CES sets the technology agenda for the year ahead. Here we explore the underlying trends from 2017’s show and exhibit the best of the products our team discovered while trawling the show floors

- Ian Betteridge, Barry Collins, Tim Danton

If there’s a capital of weirdness, it’s Las Vegas. This makes it the natural home for CES, the world’s biggest technology show, because it’s also an oddity: a show that gets bigger every year, at a time when trade shows seem to be losing relevance. Maybe this is because CES has never stood still and has, over 50 years, reinvented itself many times.

CES 2017 feels like a herald of change. A few years ago, what we call “computer” technology dominated; now CES reflects that technology is everywhere and in everything. From talking cars to sensors capable of making anything “smart”, it covers every kind of technical endeavour.

EVERYTHING IS SMART

Think of a man-made object and someone, somewhere, is making a “smart” version. Smart beds capable of sensing when you’re snoring and gently tilting the mattress to help stop your partner strangling you; smart fridge cameras that suggest recipes based on the available ingredients; smart cat feeders that can sense which cat is eating if you have more than one; walking sticks that sense how much exercise a person with limited mobility is getting and can alert you if they have a fall. Even a smart hairbrush.