Best of CES 2015 Day 2: A robot human, insane televisions and cameras everywhere

ChihiraAico, a robot created by Toshiba at CES 2015 in the Las Vegas Convention Center on Wednesday, January 7, 2015.

Walk around the Consumer Electronics Show long enough and everything starts to blend together.

You start to wonder: What am I looking at? Is this new?

But look closely and you’ll notice some trends. Here are a few from the CES floor.

Androids

We’ve all heard of android smartphones — but what about android humanoids?

As some engineers perfect the art of building robots that fly and drive themselves, others are developing bots to look like humans. At CES, one literally introduced herself.

Toshiba’s Communication Android

The Japanese technology giant offered the only human-like android on the CES floor this year. Her name is ChihiraAico, and she’s here to serve you.

ChihiraAico can move her hands and communicate in Japanese sign language. The company hopes one day she’ll function as a service robot in the health care industry, helping elderly people with dementia.

ChirhiraAico looks like a kind young woman, complete with blinking eyes and a friendly smile. Today, ChihiraAico can only exchange greetings and make simple movements. By 2020, when speech synthesis and robotic sensing are more developed, Toshiba hopes to release the android as a sophisticated product.

Televisions

2015 CES: Day 2

A consumer plays a video game using an OSVR (Open Source Virtual Reality) headset on display at CES 2015 in the Las Vegas Convention Center on Wednesday, January 7, 2015. Launch slideshow »

While the picture on televisions continues to get better and better, a pair of other, just as interesting features have also been evolving: size and shape.

What exactly was en vogue in Vegas? Skinny and curved.

Sharp’s Slim 4K Ultra HD LED TV

We all remember the days of the humongous projection TV tucked into the corner of a friend’s basement, impossible to watch except from directly in front of it.

Those days are gone — and so are all the pounds and inches that came with them.

Take a side view of Sharp’s Slim 4K Ultra HD LED TV, and your mind might be blown to bits. It’s a third of an inch wide. And at its current factory size of 70 inches, the monitor weighs 88 pounds. That’s 20 pounds lighter and 10 inches bigger than the largest consumer television available a decade ago. It comes equipped with Google’s Android TV.

A representative demonstrates how slim the new 4K UltraHD LED TV by Sharp is on display at CES 2015 in the Las Vegas Convention Center on Wednesday, January 7, 2015.

A representative demonstrates how slim the new 4K UltraHD LED TV by Sharp is on display at CES 2015 in the Las Vegas Convention Center on Wednesday, January 7, 2015.

Changhong’s 4K Ultra High Definition TV

Stroll through any Las Vegas casino and you’ll find numerous slot machines with curved screens. While the novelty has seemed to stick on the casino floor, the jury is still out on whether you should have a curved TV in your living room.

Some say a curved screen makes watching feel like experiencing a wider field of view and sharper images. Others say a curved screen just costs a lot of unnecessary extra money, because it’s sometimes difficult to watch anything on a curved TV while standing off to the side of it.

But Changhong’s 4K Ultra High Definition TV, built at a standard 65 inches, seemed to have one of the most pristine images on the showroom floor. It was hard to ignore the numerous attendees commenting on just how much the colors popped.

A curved 4k television by Changhong at CES 2015 in the Las Vegas Convention Center on Wednesday, January 7, 2015.

A curved 4k television by Changhong at CES 2015 in the Las Vegas Convention Center on Wednesday, January 7, 2015.

Wearable Cameras

People have been strapping cameras to their bodies for years, but it wasn’t until GoPro came along that the trend exploded into what it is today.

Now it seems everyone is equipped with one, capturing their most daring adventures — and slow, boring drives across the country for sweet time lapse videos.

But one thing was for certain at CES: GoPro has some competition, and it’s gaining.

Polaroid Cube

This model is not only compact, it’s playful, sporting the bright Polaroid rainbow colors.

Like the GoPro, this camera can be mounted to anything, including your bicycle, skateboard or helmet. And the Cube is also weatherproof.

Click to enlarge photo

A Polaroid Cube and tripod mount on display at CES 2015 in the Las Vegas Convention Center on Wednesday, January 7, 2015.

Sony 4K Action Cam

At Sony’s booth, executives had Action Cams strapped to everything, from helmets to an off-road vehicle to a stuffed Rottweiler.

Sony’s new 4K Action camp looks like a mini camcorder and features 1080p video quality for capturing those wild moments in the great outdoors. The camera is built with a watertight design so a user can go as deep as 33 feet under before encountering any problems.

The camera’s lens also features a 170-degree field of view.

A Action Cam by Sony at CES 2015 in the Las Vegas Convention Center on Wednesday, January 7, 2015.

A Action Cam by Sony at CES 2015 in the Las Vegas Convention Center on Wednesday, January 7, 2015.

Drones

In some circles, the word “drone” is a menacing one. But the reality is the unmanned flying machines are soon expected to deliver your packages and assist in rescue missions.

Parrot displayed some of its newest drone products at CES, showing drones can used for so much more.

senseFly’s eXom Mapping Drone

This brightly colored drone — it almost looks like a yellowjacket — could be the future of using drones as inspection tools.

The eXom was built to inspect and map the area around dangerous structures like cliff faces and bridges without getting too close to the action.

The drone also captures and geotags video, still images and thermal footage — all at the same time.

Click to enlarge photo

An Exom drone by Parrot on display at CES 2015 in the Las Vegas Convention Center on Wednesday, January 7, 2015.

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