We always wanted to go to Las Vegas one day for the CES consumer electronics show, which is a cult show that was first held in 1970. It was here that a CD-ROM, a sound card, a tablet, a netbook and other devices familiar today were presented. This year, 50,000 people came to CES, 3,500 companies participated in the exhibition, and 3,200 journalists covered it.

Our company is the largest manufacturer of autonomous service robots in Russia, Northern and of Eastern Europe. Our robots work as administrators, promoters, hostesses in Europe, the USA and China. At CES, we wanted to find new customers.

Stand

First of all, to become a member of CES, you need to apply on the official website. Everything is standard: you specify the details of the contact person, the name of the company and its specialization, product description and indicate the section in which you want to exhibit.

Furniture rental is the biggest expense item. A cabinet costs $600 a day, a plastic chair costs $50 a day.

When registering, we indicated the Robotics Pavilion. All the robots that were taken to CES gathered there, but by the time we applied, there were no more places in it. The organizers promised to contact us if anyone's booking was canceled, they were very friendly, but they were in no hurry to help. Several times we asked to offer us alternatives, but received polite replies. Then we started calling other numbers listed on the CES website. We called the managers to work with participating companies, but they did not answer us. Then they began to call on general phones and ask what sections there are in general, where there were places left. So we found out that the free space remained in the section of car audio systems and the SmartCity pavilion - there should have been presented technical solutions for the urban landscape, smart home systems, electric vehicles, security systems and video surveillance systems.

We asked to book a place in SmartCity and provide us with an invoice. Our robots work as promoters, hostesses, museum guides in various crowded places such as cinemas, museums, shopping centers, business centers, so they are part of the infrastructure of smart cities. So we received an official invitation to CES.

In the section we were offered to book 10 square meters for $4400 or 60 square meters. for $44,000. We chose a smaller area, but if the delegation is large, it is more profitable, of course, to take up a lot of space.

Infrastructure

After paying for the booth, we had to negotiate with all the suppliers. At CES, there are no show managers or an interface for booking all the necessary services. You need to equip the stand yourself. We received a list of links to equipment suppliers, their contacts and a price list from the organizers. I'll warn you right now: the prices are high. Internet access for three days costs $550, and that's just the cost of the cable. If you need a router, that's $4,000 plus. Electricity during the show is $300, each additional outlet is another $100.

Furniture rental is the biggest expense item. A cabinet costs $600 a day, a plastic chair $50 a day. Again, rent. In a day. The furniture was cheaper to buy, but we were afraid of losing time and therefore paid $735 to rent a cabinet and three chairs for three days of the exhibition. Although we still bought a TV for broadcasting promotional materials at a nearby Walmart for $150. Renting the same TV would have cost us $550.

After counting the number of applications for robots, we realized that the amount of potential contracts is about $10 million

When our data appeared on the site in the participants section, we began to receive letters with offers of promotion services several times a day. American marketing agencies wrote, which promised media coverage and a lot of TV cameras. The CES administration offered partner packages that provided coverage and traffic.

The price of such services starts from $ 10,000. We could not check the quality and results in any way, so we decided to do it on our own.

IN personal account exhibitor has a Medialist section. It is a database of all accredited media and journalists, more than 3,200 correspondents from all over the world, including contacts from FoxNews, TechCrunch, The Guardian and many others. Each had a name, e-mail, links in in social networks and even a mobile phone. Using this database, we sent out invitations to our booth with a description of the product and the company. When we saw a person with a “Press” badge or operators with cameras, we simply called them to the booth and showed the robot. Promobot was discussed in the WSJ and in a number of other media.

It is worth noting that we were lucky with the location. At CES, there were only three places where participants were registered. One of them is in our SmartCity pavilion, the other is next to our pavilion, near the stands of Google, Hyperloop and other big companies. A gigantic flow of visitors constantly passed through our pavilion. This also played into our hands.

Polygraphy

We prepared all promotional materials in Russia and carried them in our luggage. The luggage is lost. We were left without everything, and we had to re-order booklets, but this time in the USA. In one of the million letters with offers from partners, we found the contacts of the printing house. We are very lucky that its founders were emigrants from Russia. They got into position and already in the evening of the same day we had all the materials. It turned out to be more expensive than printing in Russia, but cheaper than other printing houses in Las Vegas.

The Consumer Electronics Show is an annual trade show that has traditionally been held in Las Vegas since 1967. Manufacturers of consumer electronics come to this exhibition from all over the world to “show themselves” and “see others”. Initially, CES until 1990 showed mainly VCRs, optical discs, camcorders and sound cards, but over time, the arsenal of technical innovations has grown significantly. Now at the most advanced exhibition for lovers of technical devices, everything from smartphones to televisions is shown.

The beginning of each year for many connoisseurs of high technology is, first of all, those novelties that are shown to the public during this largest technology show. LG has once again managed to show something unusual - a huge TV with high resolution roll up. Almost simultaneously with this, a message was received about another new product from the company, showing the level of a budget smartphone in 2018.

Every year, the number of orders for a variety of goods through online stores is increasing significantly. At some point, we will come to a situation where the current infrastructure and people will be unable to cope with this task. Already, many technology companies, including large online retailers (for example, the same

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption HTC has outpaced competitors Sony and Oculus and is going to offer glasses to the mass consumer virtual reality second generation in April

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES), held annually in Las Vegas since 1967, usually provides a glimpse into the future of consumer technology.

It is not missed by any self-respecting big company in the field of electronics. It is here that the latest innovations are presented and the most important deals are concluded.

However, in recent years, the most sensational gadgets in Las Vegas are brought not by huge corporations, but by startups.

This year, thanks to crowdfunding, there are likely to be even more such discoveries.

Now the creators of the new products must convince retailers, hunting for the next hit of sales, that the marvels of technology they promised in the video promotional videos are amazing in practice.

Dozens of young companies will be able to participate in the exhibition officially opening on January 5 thanks to the financial support of their governments.

France, Israel, Ukraine and Holland brought their national stands, which proudly showcase the achievements of local talents.

However, Beijing has turned out to be the most prolific in this respect: more than 1,300 exhibits will come from China.

“Every year at CES, I meet people working on technologies that change our lives. You can see literally all areas of high technology here,” said Robert Scoble, one of the world's most famous tech bloggers and forecasters, in an interview with the BBC. Silicon Valley.

There is, of course, nonsense here that does not deserve attention, so the main task- to be able to distinguish a development that probably promises a future hit from possibly failed projects.

We have selected for you some of the exhibits that may be the most popular this week.

In this area, three virtual assistants are fighting for the palm: Alexa from Amazon, Cortana from Microsoft and Google Assistant.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption A blue circle built into a desk lamp, simply called C and made by GE, turns into a speaker when you call Alexa from Amazon

OnVocal will show off wireless headphones that can be connected to Alexa, and GE has already touted its new desk lamp that doubles as a speaker powered by Amazon's voice assistant.

Sonos also intends to add this feature to its wireless speakers, though it doesn't appear to be ready to show the results of that effort just yet.

However, it is too early to dismiss Alexa's competitors.

Microsoft is known to be working with Harman Kardon on a speaker with great acoustics, and Microsoft has also been experimenting with adding Cortana components to other types of products, including toasters.

And Google is using at least one of the devices in Las Vegas - the Aviva speaker - as a platform for its cloud-based artificial intelligence.

Image copyright Aviva Image caption Aviva says its smart speaker will be equipped with Google Assistant

As one of the experts suggests, there may be more people who want to join this race of voice-controlled gadgets.

French startup Bixi is promoting gesture control technology - it will offer a novelty that will allow you to control smartphones and tablets without touching them, just with a wave of your hand.

The Austrian company offers a novelty: on top of the touchscreen on this tablet there is another screen, with a flexible surface on which small bubbles appear, lining up in refreshing Braille text.

Image copyright Blitab Image caption Blitab plans to introduce an Android tablet at the exhibition that can be used by the blind

Year of the robots?

We are still far from the era of robots hardly distinguishable from humans. While they remain fictional characters in television series.

However, at trade shows like CES, we have a chance to see prototypes of these devices that are getting smarter.

London-based Emotech will showcase this kind of innovation.

Image copyright Emotech Image caption Robot Ollie learns over time how to behave with different users

Emotech will introduce Ollie, a desktop bot that has its own smart assistant that recognizes different family members and adapts to the character of each of them.

Scientists from University and King's Colleges London and from the University of Edinburgh participated in the creation of Ollie, and an investor from China joined the financing of the project, investing $ 10 million in the development.

In Las Vegas, modular robots will also be presented, consisting of different parts with different functions. This concept, which allows consumers to change the characteristics and functions of the device, is supported by several companies.

Image copyright Evovacs Image caption Unibot can change its functions depending on what modules are installed on its base.

An example of a modular robot is Modi, created on the principle of Lego constructors. The kit includes several small cubes that allow you to create devices with different functions- motor, lamp or infrared sensor.

Another example is Unibot, a robotic vacuum cleaner that can be turned into a mobile surveillance camera if desired, as well as an air conditioner that purifies and humidifies the air.

Older people will certainly meet with approval Cutii - a robot that resembles an iPad on wheels. It is assumed that this device will become an inseparable companion for the elderly.

In general, there will be a lot of robots at the exhibition, and very different ones - tirelessly picking up balls on tennis courts, removing cat litter from a tray with filler without any emotions, as well as their smarter counterparts who can measure their strength with you at the chessboard.

Image copyright ITRI ​​Taiwan/Auto-pets/Yumii/Tennibot Image caption There will be many specialized robots at the exhibition in Las Vegas

Don't forget to check out Laundroid as well. A Japanese company has secured a $60 million investment from a number of firms, including Panasonic, to mass-produce a giant robot that neatly folds clothes.

This device was first shown at last year's CES and apparently made an impression, although some called the idea ridiculous.

And if in 2017, according to plans, the mass production of Laundroid begins, it will be very interesting to see how the robot will satisfy its owners.

Image copyright Seven Dreamers Image caption Potential Buyers Laundroid robots must have a fairly large living space to accommodate their new purchase

Health and wearable electronics

This year, one of the most popular trends in the field of health is new technologies that help pregnant women and those who want to conceive a child.

Take Ava, for example, a smart-sensor bracelet that is said to alert women to the best time to conceive.

Or a tracker for future dads called Trakfertility. It will help, firstly, to calculate the concentration of spermatozoa, and then - using the application associated with it - will tell the owner how to increase their number.

Image copyright Ava Science Image caption The creators of Ava claim that this device will help women better understand their bodies and, accordingly, get pregnant faster.

And if, after a couple of glasses, you are suddenly tempted to get close to the wrong partner, the Milo Sensors smart bracelet can, as its authors say, become the first wearable device in the world that measures the level of alcohol in the blood.

Joking aside, the medical sensor industry is growing by leaps and bounds and will soon be able to turn over billions of dollars, analysts say.

The ultimate goal is to create something resembling a tricorder from the television series " Star Trek"(Star Trek). If you remember, it was a miracle device that allowed you to diagnose any ailment.

A startup from Israel will demonstrate a gadget in Las Vegas that promises to almost bring this idea to life.

Image copyright TytoCare Image caption Diagnostic device maker TytoCare says they want to empower customers to take control of their health

The TytoHome sensor makes it possible to measure the heart rate, check the condition of the throat, lungs and others without leaving home. internal organs- and automatically send all this data to the doctor.

Without a doubt, the new items will delight fitness fans as well. To say that the demand for gadgets of this kind has reached its peak and is declining would be a mistake. The Apple app for the Fitbit fitness tracker became the Christmas sales leader, which proves that people are still actively buying this product.

However, gadgets with built-in airbags can add intrigue.

Image copyright Inemotion/ActiveProtective Image caption At least two companies participating in CES are trying to pair airbags with their smart wearables

ActiveProtective is promising to showcase a prototype smart belt for the elderly that, when dropped, will deploy an airbag, preventing a hip fracture.

The novelty of the company Inemotion, which produces clothing for skiers, works on a similar principle. The airbags built into it will help to avoid fractures and injuries on the ski slope.

The French company Wair has developed a scarf, under which a mask with an air filter is hidden.

However, the question remains whether such gadgets will be able to go beyond their niches and bring enough profit to their creators.

Concerning smart watch, then there will certainly be more of them - as well as applications developed for them. It is possible that in Las Vegas we will see Android Wear 2.0, that is, the second generation of the version operating system Google Android, built for smartwatches and other wearable devices.

However, if you have already held your breath, then so far in vain, since this sector has not become a hit, as many predicted.

And now we need to hold our breath - we are promised to demonstrate the world's first vibrating tight jeans, which will help their owners, who have laid a route on the map, determine which way to turn without looking at the screen.

Image copyright Spinali Design Image caption Spinali Design jeans are connected to a smartphone and begin to vibrate on the side of the body where the person needs to turn

TVs

If you asked experts 10 years ago what kind of screens we would look at in our living rooms, they would most likely mention TVs, in which organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) are the main functional element.

However, their predictions would not be entirely correct.

Hopes that the production of OLED TVs will become cheaper have not materialized. And their colors were not as bright as those of color LED LED TVs.

In addition, some viewers complained that dark colors on the displays of OLED TVs, too, let us down, so some details of the picture are hard to make out.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Panasonic was once famous for its plasma TVs, but has now switched to OLED TVs

However, OLED TVs continue to be popular due to their stunning brightness and depth of picture, as well as ever thinner screens.

Panasonic has hinted that it will show an advanced OLED display in Las Vegas, where blacks in the darkest scenes will have a lot of hues. Sony is said to have similar news.

There is also hope that prices for such TVs may go down.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption QLED, UHD, HDR, HLG - it's not easy for buyers to understand modern TVs

Samsung is expected to pompously showcase QLED, an LCD display technology that uses quantum dot rather than LCD liquid crystal LEDs for backlighting. The brightness of such an image, as promised by Samsung, will exceed all expectations.

But we will soon have to get used to another acronym - HDR, which stands for high dynamic range.

We are talking about the principle by which, for example, the human eye works, and which is a kind of optical system that is sensitive to wide color scheme. The picture on such a screen will be especially bright and detailed - especially when images of scenes where there are bright light and shadows.

Image caption Dolby claims that its version of HDR provides the best picture quality, but most TV manufacturers prefer to support the HDR10 standard (10-bit color depth)

Smart homes and other Internet gifts

Now it is possible to add sensors to a wide variety of products without spending much money and energy, endowing them with the function wireless transmission data. This literally led to an explosion of ideas - sometimes, however, not the most reasonable ones.

Image copyright Genican Image caption The Genican device can scan the barcode on discarded used food cartons to automatically create a shopping list for your next trip to the store. But how often will we use such a gadget?

And is it really necessary that the air freshener be controlled by a smartphone?

Much more important is when smart machines make everyday life more comfortable without much effort. Many companies have decided that the first step is to improve refrigerators so that they can sterilize themselves when necessary, as LG does.

Image copyright Smarter Applications Image caption British start-up Smarter Applications developed Fridgecam. This device monitors the contents of the refrigerator, and when individual products expire, it asks the owner to purchase a fresh product. In addition, Fridgecam can suggest recipes based on what is in the refrigerator.

The Consumer Electronics Show, one of the largest consumer electronics shows in the world, has come to an end in Las Vegas. As always, it shocked with its ambiguity: despite the fact that CES is primarily addressed to consumers, it is difficult to imagine someone in their right mind who would buy anything from the show announced at the show. On the other hand, CES traditionally features a lot of startups that show absolutely crazy things and technologies. has prepared its own list of the strangest products since the first major event of 2017.

Wild, wild CES

In Las Vegas, the minds of CES visitors tried to stir up the creators of completely unexpected gadgets with support for the designated functions. For example, the Simplehuman company did not reinvent the wheel and boasted of a wastebasket, which differs from its counterparts in the support of voice commands. Simply called Sensor Can with Voice Control, the basket responds to both voice control and user movements. You can buy it already in March 2017 at an undemocratic price for a trash can of $180.

Representatives of the Withings company, which is part of the large Nokia and specializes in wearable electronics, have not lagged behind in creativity from their colleagues. This time, French pros from the Finnish holding delighted the guests of the exhibition with a smart comb made in collaboration with L "Oreal.

It differs from a regular comb by the presence of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth modules, a gyroscope, a microphone, an accelerometer, a pressure sensor and other services. At retail, smart Hair Coach combs for $ 200 apiece are promised to be shipped as early as mid-2017.

Last but not least, the Willow Smart Breast Pump, which syncs with a smartphone app, lets you pump (and track) milk in real time. The innovative breast pump fits right into your bra and works wirelessly. By the way, the container into which milk is filtered is attached to it, and Willow can work without recharging for up to two days.

The developers assure that analogues to many of the developments presented at the exhibition do not yet exist in nature. But it is worth considering: are the originals needed?

Go yourself

The Consumer Electronics Show 2017 gave a whole galaxy of interesting newsbreaks to lovers of unmanned vehicles. NVIDIA introduced the Xavier supercomputer, which can be equipped with almost any car.

The system is based on the 512-core Volta GPU, and its action showed on the example of an unmanned vehicle Lincoln. The main advantage of Xavier developers called artificial intelligence, capable of learning and subsequent autonomous decision-making.

NVIDIA will create its own drone in collaboration with Audi. Already in 2017, the Audi A8 equipped with the Traffic Jam Pilot autopilot will appear on the market, and by 2020 a full-fledged drone will be launched into mass production: it will look like submitted at CES concept car Q7.

Not all presentations of unmanned vehicles went like clockwork: Faraday Future, which positions itself as Tesla's main competitor, excelled. They plan to put their unmanned vehicle FF 91 into mass production as early as 2018, and a presentation of some of its functions was to take place at CES.

Everything went wrong almost immediately: after pressing the button, the FF 91 should have automatically parked, but this did not happen. After some time, the car nevertheless performed the long-awaited maneuver, and the hitch was explained by poor signal transmission.

The exhibition showed a lot of concept cars of the future: Toyota, Nissan and Chrysler were especially powerful. The concepts presented by them differ not only artificial intelligence but also futuristic design. Before serial production all these concepts are still far away, which does not prevent them from looking beautiful in the pictures.

The most realistic and interesting innovation in the world of cars was the head-up display from Navdy. The device is mounted on a torpedo behind the steering wheel and displays a holographic projection of various indicators and can act as a navigator. By the way, this is not a novelty: it has been sold in the USA since the end of 2016.

After the end of CES, he spoke in his usual manner on Twitter: he promised install new version autopilot on Tesla today. And you don't have to wait for this autopilot - just buy a Tesla.

Gaming laptop frenzy

Acer opened the parade of wild laptops with its Predator 21 X, which was presented at IFA 2016 in Berlin. It is worth recalling here that we are talking about a 21-inch curved laptop. Apparently, the company sensibly assesses the potential of this machine and does not refuse to release it, so at CES they announced the price of the Predator 21 X and the release date: in February it can be bought for nine thousand dollars.

The laptop has a resolution of 2560 x 1080 pixels, seventh generation Intel Core i7 processors and two NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 in SLI mode. In the top configuration, it will receive up to 64 gigabytes of RAM, up to four 512 gigabyte SSDs in a RAID 0 configuration, and a 1 terabyte hard drive. Do not forget about the full-size mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX switches and the ability to replace the number pad with gaming keys.

All this has gigantic dimensions (568x314.5x83.25 millimeters) and a weight of eight kilograms.

Following Acer, Razer introduced its new product. Concept laptop Project Valerie received as many as three displays with a diagonal of 17.3 inches and a total resolution of 12K (11520 x 2160 pixels). The manufacturer did not disclose detailed specifications, we only know that Project Valerie has one NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 installed. The release date of the device and its price are also still unknown.

Samsung also jumped on the gaming laptop train in 2017 with its first gaming laptop, the Samsung Notebook Odyssey. In general, it is no different from any other representative of this segment, only the very fact of the announcement is interesting. The Notebook Odyssey will be available in 15.6-inch and 17.3-inch versions with the same specs as every other 2017 gaming laptop (and exactly the same appearance). Price and release dates are still unknown.

Surface and iMac clones

Quite a lot of strange and unusual devices were presented in the monoblock segment. For example, HP announced the Envy Curved AIO 34, which has a stand that hides a Bang & Olufsen soundbar. It has a 34-inch curved display, an i7-7700T quad-core processor, an AMD Radeon RX 460 graphics card, and 16GB of RAM. The computer will go on sale at the end of February for $1,730.

In addition, HP has released the second generation of the Sprout Pro G2 monoblock with a 3D scanner. It has its own projector, touch area and Intel RealSense cameras, which, in fact, scan objects. Compared to the Envy Curved AIO 34, it has a worse 23.8-inch Full HD display and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M graphics. Its sales will begin in March 2017, the price is still unknown.

Distinguished at CES 2017 and Dell, which released its own clone of Surface Studio - however, in the form of a graphics tablet, not a monoblock. The manufacturer calls Canvas the world's first horizontal smart work surface, but in fact it is a large touchscreen IPS display with a diagonal of 27 inches and a resolution of 2560x1440 pixels.

In addition, Dell has equipped Canvas with a Surface Dial analog called Totem, which allows you to change the size and color of brushes while drawing, flip through pages of documents, and perform other actions. Canvas has a starting price of $1,800 and will go on sale in March.

According to the classics

It was not at all interesting to watch the announcements in the field of ultrabooks. Each manufacturer considered it his duty to make a transformer a la Surface or a “shifter” in the spirit of Lenovo Yoga. This is how the HP Specter x360, the Dell Latitude 5285, the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1, and many other faceless devices with terrible naming were born.

Smartphone manufacturers did not bypass the exhibition either. But since all the big names are getting ready for MWC, Asus, ZTE and other companies have performed at CES. For this reason, budget and simple phones were announced. The "sticky" ZTE Hawkeye, created in collaboration with members of the Z-community, stands out among them. It has an eye tracker that allows you to control your smartphone by moving pupils and can stick to surfaces. As a bonus, you can add Xiaomi Mi Mix in a white case, but nothing else has changed in it.

TVs at CES are another story altogether. Since they are very popular in the West, companies are constantly showing something new. So, LG announced the flagship OLED TVs Signature W7 with a thickness of 2.57 millimeters. The price and start date of sales is unknown, but there is a feeling that they will be very expensive.

Samsung continues to develop the technology of metal quantum dots (Metal Quantum Dots) and released a new generation of QLED TVs. They show brightness in the range of 1.5-2 thousand nits, while last year's models this figure was only 1000 nits. Sony's A1E series TVs are the company's first models to use an OLED matrix. In general, the big players have been less focused on curved screens and technologies like HDR and are making just good 4K OLED TVs.

01/11/2018, Thu, 16:35, Moscow time , Text: Valeria Shmyrova

The convention center in Las Vegas, where CES 2018 takes place, was left without electricity for two hours. Exhibition pavilions of LG, Samsung, Sony and other companies lost their light. The reason is a transformer failure caused by an unusually heavy downpour.

CES by flashlight

The complex of buildings in Las Vegas, USA, which is currently hosting the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), was out of power for two hours in the midst of the event. The incident occurred on January 10, 2018. The North and Central Lounges of the Las Vegas Convention Center remained without power from approximately 11:14 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. local time. During this time, the security service managed to evacuate most of the CES visitors from the buildings.

A preliminary investigation showed that the cause was a surface breakdown, that is, the loss of the insulating properties of the dielectrics of one of the transformers. The problem was caused by condensation resulting from heavy rain. This was announced in a statement by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), which is responsible for hosting CES. NV Energy, an electricity provider in northern and southern Nevada, helped deal with the breakdown.

Exhibition pavilions of hundreds of companies, including giants like LG, Samsung and Sony, were left without light. Also affected were the exposures of many small startups that paid thousands of dollars for the opportunity to become CES participants. For two hours, the light sources in the pavilions were luminous screens and built-in flashlights of various gadgets that do not depend on power supply. These were the visitors' smartphones, the equipment presented at the stands, as well as the illumination of the installations.

Derailment of Google's plans

Terrible downpours that flooded a Las Vegas street caused other damage to the exhibition, in addition to the lack of electricity. In particular, Google could not open its huge pavilion under the sign of Hey Google for a day, with the help of which it intended to advertise the Google Assistant voice assistant.

The main light source at CES for two hours was gadgets and booth lights

The advertising campaign was complemented by the fact that the Hey Google sign appeared on the Las Vegas City Monorail and on many billboards throughout the city. Also part of the installation was a giant gumball machine located at the main entrance to the convention center and two video screens in the parking lot.

Google usually demonstrates a fairly inconspicuous behavior at CES, notes The Verge. However, Amazon's competing voice assistant Alexa had a huge presence at the show last year, even though Amazon had no presence at CES 2017 at all. The assistant was simply integrated into the products of various companies, up to LG's smart refrigerator and the dancing robot. As a result, Google decided to keep up and turn CES 2018 into an advertising platform for its own voice assistant, but the company's plans were partially thwarted due to heavy rain.

Historical Significance of CES

The first CES was held in June 1967 in New York. In 1978-1994 the exhibition was arranged twice a year: the winter one was held in January in Las Vegas, the summer one - in June in Chicago. The event is currently held in January in Las Vegas at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Attendance reaches 175 thousand people. CES 2018 is held from January 9 to 12 this year.

It was at CES that the VCR was first introduced in 1970, the camcorder and CD in 1981, the DVD in 1996, the tablet and netbook in 2010, and the ARM architecture processor in 2011.