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Thursday, June 22, 2017

China hosts Asia Consumer Electronics Show

©Mark Ollig


The premier event for showcasing consumer technology for the planet’s most populated continent recently took place in Shanghai, China.

The Consumer Technology Association, which owns and produces the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in the US, also manages CES Asia.

The CES Asia technology event focuses primarily on the large Asia-Pacific market.

Asia is the highest populated and the biggest continent on this planet, with 4.4 billion people covering some 17.2 million square miles of the Earth’s surface.

As with the CES event this year in Las Vegas, NV, this year’s CES Asia event showcased the latest in consumer technology and products.

More than 450 technology companies exhibited their products at the Shanghai New International Expo Center and Kerry Hotel, which were the venues for the three-day event.

Floor space used for exhibits and displaying of technology covered more than 484,000 square feet.

Total attendance exceeded 30,000; including more than 1,100 members of the press and media.

Technology categories featured during this year’s CES Asia event included:

• 3D Printing

• Augmented Reality (AR)

• Drones

• Robotics

• Smart Home

• Vehicle Technology

• Virtual Reality (VR)

• Internet of Things (IoT)

• Green Technology

• Wearables

• Video Gaming

More than 50 technology companies showcased their newest robotic designs.

Robots designed for use as shopping mall attendants, restaurant helpers, coffee shop servers, medical assistants, educators, and home companions were displayed.

Rokid Corp., an innovative leading-edge technology company with headquarters in China, Beijing, and San Francisco, manufactures artificial intelligence (AI) robots.

They showcased their AI robotic mobile home companion called Pebble, which was released to the public in May.

Visually, Pebble’s metallic oval-shaped appearance is slightly larger than a Roomba robotic vacuum.

This AI robot is designed for assisting children with learning, helping senior citizens with household tasks, and providing entertainment.

Pebble comes equipped with 2GB/16GB of memory/storage, and a quad-core processor.

It also includes WiFi for internet access, a microphone and speaker, 12 light-emitting diodes or LEDs, wireless Bluetooth enhanced data-rate technology, and the Android 6.0 software operating system.

Mandarin is listed as Pebble’s official language, which makes sense, since Mandarin is commonly spoken in China.

Rokid has robots capable of simultaneous Chinese and English translations.

Pebble’s internal lithium-ion rechargeable battery will last for eight hours when not plugged into its AC power adapter.

The robot is manufactured using liquid aluminum which undergoes a “compression molding process.”

Pebble is comprised of the same high-strength aluminum used in manufacturing aircraft, along with a number of stainless steel parts.

This pleasant-looking, eye-appealing AI robotic assistant was repeatedly polished during its manufacturing, is scratch-resistant, and gives off a bright chrome-like shine.

“AI makes our life simpler. AI is replacing human beings in more fields. It saves humans’ labor, so we can do more creative work,” said Li Yuanpeng, Rokid Corp. product manager.

I uploaded a picture of the Pebble AI robot to my photobucket website: http://bit.ly/2rM6rxu.

“Chinese companies continue to grow more and more in importance. They are creating partnerships with Western partners to really further their technology. So, we are seeing development of technology advancing rapidly,” said Tom T. Kelly, senior director of CES Asia.

The US Department of Commerce granted CES Asia 2017 an Official Trade Event (OTE) designation status. This allows companies in the US to display their technology and products during CES Asia.

OTE status also provides US companies access to foreign country distribution, trade counseling, and other assistance for expanding and growing their business presence in the Asian marketplace.

The 2018 CES Asia event will take place June 13-15 in Shanghai, China.

As always, you can follow me on Twitter at @bitsandbytes.