Smartwatches, intelligent homes and drones that follow users wherever
they go are on show at Berlin's mega consumer electronics fair, which
opened its doors to the public on Friday.
Here are some of this year's eye-catching trends and innovations at the six-day showcase:
Smartwatches go round
Samsung,
Huawei and Motorola pick spherical faces for their latest smartwatch
offers, giving them a distinctly different look to arch-rival Apple
Watch, which has a rectangular face.
Keeping track of emails,
water versus caffeine intake or how many steps taken in a day, are among
the myriad functions offered by the intelligent wristwatches.
The
Android smartwatch makers are hoping that their models will claw back
some market share from Apple, which shipped about four million
smartwatches globally in the second quarter, market researcher Strategy
Analytics estimated in July.
Samsung had shipped just 400,000 units in the same period.
Homes that run themselves
If there is a word to describe electronics and appliances launched this year, it would be "smart".
Household
must-haves from refrigerators to washing machines to coffee makers can
all be hooked up to the Internet and controlled through an app on a
smartphone.
Italy's Cuciniale is showcasing a cooker that takes
orders from a smartphone, and can cook a steak to perfection - be it
rare, medium rare or well done. And pasta will of course be al dente,
the company says.
Love plants but can't remember to water them? French company Parrot has a sensor that waters automatically.
Samsung
Electronics has meanwhile unveiled not only a line of smart appliances
but also a series of gadgets called "Smart Things", including plugs and a
hub that coordinates or goes with intelligent white goods.
Its vision is for the homeowner to programme daily routines that the house can run on its own.
Alternatively,
certain tasks can be controlled remotely through the smartphone - for
instance, opening the door from a distance when grandmother comes to
visit, as usual, half an hour too early.
3D sound
You are
sitting on your sofa when you hear the ratata of a chopper cutting
through the skies, a butterfly flutter next to your ear or the stomping
of feet vibrating through a packed stadium - 3D sound adapted for
cinemas is now coming to your home.
Audio systems specialists
Onkyo is launching speakers that send sound bouncing off the ceilings,
producing the effect that it is coming at the listener from above.
3D
Sound Labs has meanwhile created headphones that "take into account a
person's head shape, ears and shoulders, and ... gives the impression to
the brain that the sound is surrounding you - from the back, front,
right, left, top and bottom," said the start-up's founder Renaud
Seguier.
'Follow me' drones
For skiers who want photos of themselves in action on the slopes, camera drone maker DJI says it has the answer.
Among
several new features for its "Phantom" series is a function that keeps
the drone hovering over its user wherever he or she goes.
And, if
the drone loses signal and strays off the beaten track, there is another
new feature called home lock which would take the little buzzing
unmanned aerial machine back home.
Back-to-camera basics
The
pioneer of instant photos Polaroid returns to its roots with a digital
camera that prints snapshots instantly - on special paper without
requiring ink.
The so-called ZINK paper contains colour crystals
that are invisible until a photo is taken, working much like old-school
Polaroids.
However, the camera also has the advantages of a memory-card which stores up to 32 GB of images.
Print me some food
No
IT show would be complete without 3D printers, which have taken the
world by storm, making anything from protheses to jet engines to
jewellery.
In a bid to whet the appetite for 3D printers, Taiwanese maker XYZprinting is showcasing one in Berlin that ... prints food.
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Further reading:
3D Printer,
Cameras,
Drones,
Home Entertainment,
Huawei,
IFA,
IFA 2015,
Internet,
Laptops,
Motorola,
PC,
Parrot,
Smart Devices,
Smartwatch,
Smasung,
Wearables
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