7th January 2014

Intel at CES 2014

At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Intel Corporation has been showing off its latest innovative technologies. These include an intelligent 3D camera system, a range of new wearable electronics, and a 22nm dual-core PC the size of an SD card.

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich has outlined a range of new products, initiatives and strategic relationships aimed at accelerating innovation across a range of mobile and wearable devices. He made the announcements during the pre-show keynote for the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the biggest gathering of the tech industry in the USA.

Krzanich's keynote painted a vision of how the landscape of computing is being re-shaped and where security is too important not to have it embedded in all devices. The world is entering a new era of integrated computing defined not by the device, but the integration of technology into people's lifestyles in ways that offer new utility and value. As examples, he highlighted several immersive and intuitive technologies that Intel will begin offering in 2014, such as Intel RealSense – hardware and software that will bring human senses to Intel-based devices. This will include 3D cameras that deliver more intelligent experiences – improving the way people learn, collaborate and are entertained.

The first Intel RealSense 3D camera features a best-in-class depth sensor and a full 1080p colour camera. It can detect finger level movements enabling highly accurate gesture recognition, facial features for understanding movement and emotions. It can understand foregrounds and backgrounds to allow control, enhance interactive augmented reality (AR), simply scan items in three dimensions, and more.

This camera will be integrated into a growing spectrum of Intel-based devices including 2 in 1, tablet, Ultrabook, notebook, and all-in-one (AIO) designs. Systems with the new camera will be available beginning in the second half of 2014 from Acer, Asus, Dell, Fujitsu, HP, Lenovo and NEC.

To advance the computer's "hearing" sense, a new generation of speech recognition technology will be available on a variety of systems. This conversational personal assistant works with popular websites and applications. It comes with selectable personalities, and allows for ongoing dialogue with Intel-based devices. People can simply tell it to play music, get answers, connect with friends and find content – all by using natural language. This assistant is also capable of calendar checks, getting maps and directions, finding flights or booking a dinner reservation. Available offline, people can control their device, dictate notes and more without an Internet connection.

Krzanich then explained how Intel aims to accelerate wearable device innovation. A number of reference designs were highlighted including: smart earbuds providing biometric and fitness capabilities, a smart headset that is always ready and can integrate with existing personal assistant technologies, a smart wireless charging bowl, a smart baby onesie and a smart bottle warmer that will start warming milk when the onesie senses the baby is awake and hungry.

The smart earbuds (pictured below) provide full stereo audio, monitor heart rate and pulse all while the applications on the user's phone keep track of running distance and calories burned. The product includes software to precision-tune workouts by automatically choosing music that matches the target heart rate profile. As an added bonus, it harvests energy directly from the audio microphone jack, eliminating the need for a battery or additional power source to charge the product.

The Intel CEO announced collaborations to increase dialogue and cooperation between fashion and technology industries to explore and bring to market new smart wearable electronics. He also kicked-off the Intel "Make it Wearable" challenge – a global effort aimed at accelerating creativity and innovation with technology. This effort will call upon the smartest and most creative minds to consider factors impacting the proliferation of wearable devices and ubiquitous computing, such as meaningful usages, aesthetics, battery life, security and privacy.

In addition to reference designs for wearable technology, Intel will offer a number of accessible, low-cost entry platforms aimed at lowering entry barriers for individuals and small companies, allowing them to create innovative web-connected wearables or other small form factor devices. Underscoring this point, Krzanich announced Intel Edison – a low-power, 22nm-based computer in an SD card form factor with built-in wireless abilities and support for multiple operating systems. From prototype to production, Intel Edison will enable rapid innovation and product development by a range of inventors, entrepreneurs and consumer product designers when available this summer.

"Wearables are not everywhere today, because they aren't yet solving real problems and they aren't yet integrated with our lifestyles," said Krzanich. "We're focused on addressing this engineering innovation challenge. Our goal is: if something computes and connects, it does it best with Intel inside."

Krzanich also discussed how Intel is addressing a critical issue for the industry as a whole: conflict minerals from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Intel has achieved a critical milestone and the minerals used in microprocessor silicon and packages manufactured in Intel's factories are now "conflict-free", as confirmed by third-party audits.

"Two years ago, I told several colleagues that we needed a hard goal, a commitment to reasonably conclude that the metals used in our microprocessors are conflict-free," Krzanich said. "We felt an obligation to implement changes in our supply chain to ensure that our business and our products were not inadvertently funding human atrocities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Even though we have reached this milestone, it is just a start. We will continue our audits and resolve issues that are found."

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