Aside from highlighting innovation, the international Consumer Electronics Show (ces) does one thing really well: draw crowds. Last January 170,000 visitors, including fifty-six students from byu’s MBA Tech Society, convened in Las Vegas to see the latest in intelligent goods.
Eight MBAs share their top picks from tech’s greatest spectacle.
1. Petrol Antagonist
Hybrid and electric cars are well known, but fuel-cell automobiles are a newer environmentally friendly alternative to gasoline counterparts. Toyota’s Mirai (Japanese for future) will be the first hydrogen-powered vehicle available commercially when it goes on sale later this year. “We’ve heard about them in theory, but fuel-cell cars are now a reality,” says Chetan Zawar.
toyota.com/fuelcell
2. Doodle Digitizer
The Slate by iSketchNote allows users to immediately digitize their handwritten sketches and notes. “As a designer, I am always looking for ways to make digital design and art-making more tactile,” says Julia Tian. The Slate’s slim size and long battery life also make for easy portability.
isketchnote.com
3. Curves Ahead
TV has come a long way since its black-and-white days, says Brian Rigby. His top product, an LG 4K OLED television, was “a stellar display that left everyone in awe.” The model features a curved screen with a color display and image refresh rate that quadruples current HD quality.
lg.com/us/experience-tvs/oled-tv
4. Charbroil Bot
No more scrubbing a dirty barbeque after the burgers are cooked—the Grillbot can do the work for you. Similar to a Roomba, the Grillbot is an automated device that cleans your grill grates with a touch of a button. “It’s a unique product that addresses a real pain point for barbecue fanatics,” says Shayla Barber.
grillbots.com
5. Reality check
Virtual reality has long been in the margins, but Joseph Murphy believes Oculus Rift could make the technology mainstream. “They’ll revolutionize how we view entertainment, education, and telecommunication,” Murphy says. The Rift boasts stereoscopic 3-D and a 100-degree field of view.
oculus.com/rift
6. TV à la Carte
Sling TV has the most “disruption potential” of all the products at CES, says Ryan Oaks. The service allows consumers to watch top cable channels, including ESPN, live for $20 a month. “It has the goal to capture the elusive twenty- to thirty-five-year-olds who usually don’t pay for cable,” Oaks says.
sling.com
7. Digital Da Vinci
Janice Woolley initially needed practice on the Touch haptic 3-D stylus from 3D Systems, but the technology still won her over. Mimicking the feel of traditional sculpting, Touch allows users to feel texture and mold virtual materials in a way that connects the digital and physical worlds.
cubify.com/products/touch
8. Right Track
With a background in marketing, Brady Leavitt tabbed Eye Tribe, a portable eye tracker, as his top device. Providing a cost-effective method to conduct user-experience tests while maintaining a high level of performance, the camera is $99 and can be used in conjunction with computers, tablets, or smartphones.
theeyetribe.com
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Article written by Jordan Christiansen
