Speaker: Robert Sanborn
Each year, technology companies bring out new or greatly improved products for consumers. Products geared to younger consumers get most of the media attention. This talk will review the products that mature consumers may find helpful. Much of the information will come from Robert’s trip to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas being held from January 7-10, 2025.
Program: Live and Zoom: Consumer Technology that may change your life for the better in the next few years
Speaker: Robert Sanborn, past-president, Indianapolis Computer Society, PC consultant and website hosting operator, Scientech Club member
Introduced By: Rick Whitener
Attendance: NESC: 95; Zoom: 34
Guest(s): Sandy Gosling, Thomas Mote, Linda Gilman
Scribe: Alan Schmidt
Editor: Ed Nitka
View a Zoom recording of this talk at: https://www.scientechclubvideos.org/zoom/03312025.mp4
Speaker Robert Sanborn has a degree in Computer Technology from IUPUI. He was the President of the Indianapolis Computer Society in the 1980’s. He brought speakers like Bill Gates to Indianapolis so that the group's members could learn more about the then-new area of personal computing. He runs a personal computer consultancy and website hosting business. He has been a member of Scientech since 2015.
Each year technology companies release new or improved products for consumers. Products geared to younger consumers get most of the media attention. This talk reviewed products that mature consumers may find helpful. Much of the information came from Robert’s trip to the Consumer Electronics Show, CES, in Las Vegas, which was held in January 2025. He first started visiting CES in 2006.
The last CES had 141,000 in attendance adequately spread over the equivalent of forty-three football fields of floor space. They had Tesla car shuttles between the north and south halls trimming the 20 minute walk to 2 minutes. There were a plethora of interesting devices: an electric, propeller driven, one person plane; an ice cream maker; Diagu Tumbler for hydrogen infused drinking water (to reduce oxygenated free radicals); a rechargeable wine cooler; a wine aerator; battery powered roller skates; GE Profile, one unit, clothes washer and dryer at $2,100; a dump in clothes folder; a microprocessor powered Bioleg knee for $51,000; autofocus glasses using tiny cameras tracking eye movement to autofocus. The Bilagio in Las Vegas celebrates holidays with special displays including a decorative snake for Chinese New Year.
Artificial Intelligence, AI, companies are spending billions of dollars. LG had a transparent TV that could display in front of a window pane, when inactive, without obstructing the window view. John Deere had a models of autonomous machinery operation at a mine, a farm, and spraying in an orchard. The desktop computer has shrunk. NUC has a three-year battery life. Kara pulls its water from the air and makes coffee for $399. Particularly relevant were CLEER earbuds that rest on top of the ear to resonate into the head bone and allow the wearer to hear the music, but also keep up with all the sounds around them for $220. There are noise canceling headphones for travelling at $199. There is a special pen with cameras to track what you are writing on any surface. There is a smart telescope to tell what stars you are looking at $499. There is a supposed squirrel proof bird feeder with identifier for $359. INOVA purifies the air with water droplets for $2,000; to water fortified with minerals for $4899. UGREEN has a 3 in 1 gallium nitride 65-watt charger for $50. Yarbo has a snow blower or mower where you take a picture of your driveway to define where it should go and it automatically clears the driveway snow or yard grass for 1.5 hours blowing the snow where desired for only $499. A car model had four independently steered wheels for enhanced parking maneuverability. Drones have been big for years. A drone can fly around a monument, coordinate with a 3D printer, and create replicas of the monument.
One hall was entirely healthcare, some with tiny booths and requests for GoFundMe to develop the ideas and processes. There were Uber self-driving cars in the area. IBM was impressive years ago when first developing voice recognition technology which now can immediately translate or put spoken text on a screen. Various options are available to attend CES at reduced cost including press passes, payments, and exhibitor and dealer courtesy passes.
Robert Sanborn
