Smartphones were at the center of many innovations (Congratulations Apple and Android for your vision!) at the Sands/Venetian at CES 2016.

The Sands/Venetian was where it’s at as far as I am concerned regarding innovations in electronics. The Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) was not even close as far as analog and power technology (except for my visit to the NASA booth; I did not expect to see them there!). The LVCC was more of a place to make deals for distributors and reps with the many new consumer-related innovations; after all it is the Consumer Electronics Show.

Here are only a select few of the smartphone innovations I saw:

Smart phone stabilizers for video or still camera photography by DelTron Intelligence Technology Limited, which announced the launch of Vimble.

Marvell introduced its NFC controller, which enables the smallest antennas for mobile.

GreenPeak Technologies’ smart home solutions, including non-intrusive senior monitoring capability via sensors through a hub for smartphone monitoring, were on display. The Family@Home consists of easily installed interoperable sensors, wirelessly connected, that talk to each other and to the Web, and have cloud intelligence and special algorithms to enable this network to recognize, assess, and make decisions regarding what the smart home should be doing. All managed over the Web on a single dashboard app on a smartphone, users can keep an eye on their family members and pets and monitor their home; their most valuable asset.

Semtech and myDevices partnered for a platform open to all hardware manufacturers with LoRa-enabled device

Bosch’s sensors are in 75% of all mobile phones.

The ZigBee Alliance and EnOcean Alliance came together at CES to combine the benefits of energy harvesting wireless with ZigBee 3.0.

There were so many more like smartphones plugging into the smart car and connecting with the smart home using MirrorLink, and smartphones snapping into augmented reality systems to view your smartphone videos in true stereo, with realistic sound location, even when you turn your head.

TRENDnet’s CES suite had plenty of networking equipment ranging from outdoor long-range access points to industrial switches. It made clear that TRENDnet is focusing more on SMB, particularly in the emerging markets. However, the two announcements at CES were both related to their consumer efforts – one was the TEW-827DRU, a AC2600 MU-MIMO 4×4 802.11ac MU-MIMO router and the other was the TEW-809UB, a AC1900 USB 3.0 WLAN adapter.

As one gets older, or designs PCs for certain users in mind, how much power is being consumed is a key metric. The easiest piece of equipment to use is software, which gives a value but is known for being abstracted from the true value and often wrong due to bad assumptions. The next step up is using a cheap $20 or less wall meter, which most people do, although those readings are skewed by the efficiency of the power supply or assume a constant voltage from the mains. The best reading is at source, and actually probing the component being tested, although that requires digging in with voltage probes on the hardware level. There should be a middle ground, and we saw it back at CES 2015 with Cooler Master.

Back then, we saw an early prototype. The power supply was outfitted with an ARM based microcontroller that could measure certain points of the power supply, giving voltage, current and power at each of those points. This data could be gathered by software using USB, or to another device using Bluetooth because the power supply also had Bluetooth. The idea was that the PSU could be monitored on the system when powered on, or a user could log in to a home server connected via Bluetooth and check via the app.

Microsoft has long been the bastion of long term support for older platforms, so today’s support news out of Redmond is particularly surprising. Intel launched its 6th generation Skylake cores back in August, and support on Windows 7 has been not as strong as Windows 10 right out of the gate. It’s not terribly strange that new features like Intel’s Speed Shift will not be coming to Windows 7, but today Microsoft announced that going forward, new processors will only be supported on Windows 10. Skylake will only be supported through devices on a supported list, and even those will only have support until July 2017.

During CES, I met with Etron Technology, whose new products are mostly built around Virtual Reality. It suddenly struck me that Etron isn’t really showing off chips. It’s demonstrating what VR can do for CE vendors.

TOKYO – After the annual gadget frenzy of the Consumer Electronics Show, where it’s virtually impossible to focus on one product, or even one product category, picking one theme that’s likely to drive the chip industry in 2016 and beyond strikes me as sheer guesswork.

It’s easier to picture new consumer products that represent incremental change — singles and doubles — in the industry. But a home run, out of the park? Who knows?

We do know that “consumer demand is sluggish across a number of categories from smartphones to tablets and laptops,” as illustrated by the 2016 Accenture Digital Consumer Survey. More dire is the reality that “demand for the next generation of devices enabled by the Internet of Things (IoT) is not growing fast enough to offset declines in traditional categories,” as the report put it.

During CES, I met with Etron Technology (Hsinchu, Taiwan), whose new products shown at its booth are mostly built around Virtual Reality. It suddenly struck me that Etron isn’t really showing off chips. It’s demonstrating what VR can do for CE vendors.

I was reminded of what it takes for fabless chip vendors these days to enter the consumer electronics market. Designing a good chip isn’t enough. You need a platform and unique software algorithms that make your chip sing. More important, you need to prototype a system, and develop a business model around it that can inspire CE vendors.

Lu was full of ideas, many already prototyped as good-looking consumer systems on display at his company’s booth.

With Etron’s surround-camera, dubbed “eYsGlobe,” consumers can now easily record in 360 degrees without resorting to the multiple cameras that require images to be stitched together.

Etron’s3D imaging and gesture-sensing technologies reminded me of Intel’s RealSense

Intel’s latest version of RealSense reportedly uses IR. The IR camera projects a stream of dots invisible to naked eye. On nearer objects, the dot pattern spreads out while, for farther objects, the pattern becomes denser. Using this displacement, the depth is calculated.

Etron’s 3D Depth-map technology uses disparity, calculated using a stereo camera. Left and right cameras are spaced some apart, each capturing images. A comparison of left and right images serves to calculate disparity.

There’s nothing new in this stereo concept. What’s new is how Etron implements it on a chip.

One-upping Intel, Etron has figured out a way to run intensive depth-map computing algorithms on its 3D depth-map camera controller itself, instead of using up a host CPU’s processing power.

Etron’s 3D depth-map camera controller executes parallel computational algorithms, and outputs high performance depth-map images up to VGA resolution at 60 frames per second. The camera controller chip simultaneously controls the timing and image quality of two horizontally placed HD cameras to mimic the function of human eyes in capturing 3D images or video, said the company.

At CES, Lu showed off a smartphone prototype embedded with a stereo camera.

I recognized that Etron is going beyond Intel with its 3D depth-map technology applications when Lu started talking about 3D lifelike figurines.

Consumers can even go a step further – by actually printing those 3D images into 3D figurines. Playing with your own 3D figurines might seem to most Americans a little self-indulgent. But I was born in manga-crazy Japan, where I definitely see a market for this sort of thing.

French company EnerBee developed a micro-generator the size of a nickel that uses a combination of piezoelectric and magnetism to harvest energy for home automation. The company’s prototype light dimmer module harvests power from the rotation of the dimmer’s nob to send a radio communication to a smart light bulb

Startup Nexpaq developed a series of modules for smartphone cases and chargers that connect via Bluetooth but also have a built-in 2,600 mAh battery. The swappable modules include a breathalyzer, battery, LED, temperature and humidity sensor, and USB flash card.

The Cassia Hub from Cassia Networks is a Bluetooth router capable of significantly extending the operating range of a typical Bluetooth device. The Hub can network and control up to 22 devices at a range of 1,000 feet. The Cassia Hub also communicates via Wi-Fi or Etherne

With Nuimo, Senic (Berlin) wants to keep your smartphone in your pocket and make managing IoT easier. The wireless controller can manage smart home devices over a 40-meter range without having to use a separate app to manage each device.

Palm-sized Bixi uses gestures to control connected devices at a 25-cm distance over Bluetooth. Largely made with ST Microelectronics chips, Bixi uses optical and gesture sensors to remotely manage Bluetooth-enabled devices with a wave or hand raise.

Bonjour, the voice controlled alarm clock from Holi (Lyon, France), tracks your sleep and schedule, adjusting your wake up time to match your requirements

In a world where 90% of devices store personal information and the majority of connected devices don’t have sufficient security, the Internet of Things requires more than an attack dog. Cujo is an IoT security system for virtual intrusions.

Lumo Run from Lumo Bodytech (Palo Alto, Calif) are running shorts/capris for men and women with a slip-in sensor that tracks running metrics while providing tips to improve your run. A nine-axis IMU, accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, barometer, and vibration monitor track stride, pelvic rotation, bounce, and cadence. Auditory feedback during a run is also available through Bluetooth-enabled headphones.

Chinese company LeTv — the first company to use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 processor in a smartphone — also has a connected bicycle. The Super Bike “rideable” is a premium bicycle that’s connects with Android smartphones. Embedded sensors can track fitness, distance, BMI (body mass index) and also play music or map routes.

Zepp aims to improve your golf, baseball, cricket, or tennis game with a Bluetooth connected sensor hub that monitors movement and provides suggestions.

The Blu-Toque Bluetooth Beanie from Toronto-based Caseco is a waterproof beanie with Bluetooth and cellular connectivity for music and call streaming.

Lego’s WeDo are a series of connected building blocks to teach STEM to second through fourth grade students.
Each kit comes with a “smart hub” — microcontroller, motor, motion sensor and tilt sensor — that communicates with a smartphone or laptop via Bluetooth.

4moms’ connected car seat takes the hassle out of installing a safe seat for your infant. The self-installing car seat uses robotics and a variety of sensors to guide parents through the installation process

The Starling, a clip-on sensor that tracks and analyzes words a baby hears each day with the goal of increasing future intelligence.

After years of software-based funding and tedious development, the crowdfunding tide is turning toward hardware. At International CES, held Jan. 6- 9, officials from Indiegogo said companies throughout the chip and gadget ecosystem are getting on board.

“Everyone from Foxconn to Qualcomm want to talk to entrepreneurs…and offer them all the resources so they can make great products. That’s a new thing,” Evan Cohen, Indiegogo’s senior director of design, technology and hardware, told EE Times. “The whole maker movement has matured into an entrepreneur movement at this point.”

More than 110 products at this year’s CES started on Indiegogo, CEO Slava Rubin said, adding that the company has raised over $800 million in campaigns. Rubin believes one out of six companies on the CES show floor received funding from an Indiegogo campaign.

Direct conversations with larger companies are leading to a serious advancement in developer tools for the Arduinos and Raspberry Pis commonly used by startups, Cohen said. Companies such as Brookstone and GE are also getting in on some of crowdfunding’s benefits—market validation of otherwise unknown products and a built-in audience—with a recently announced enterprise crowdfunding from Indiegogo.

“The higher-up enthusiasm toward the startup world is really exciting. There was a time where you were a maker and you were lucky to get in front of somebody,”