CES 2017 marked the 50th anniversary of the world’s largest consumer technology conference. Over 175,000 people attended, from over 150 countries. Our tech experts, comprised of Lorenzo Wood, Simon Kissler, Rafe Blandford and the DigitasLBi Technology team, roamed over 2.6 million square feet of exhibit space and investigated the 3,800+ exhibiting companies to compile a list of the Top Ten Toys and Trends at CES 2017. Here’s what rose above the rest and a blend of the CES stuff that wow’d, woo’d and are worthy of watching.

1. J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 7
L A S V E G A S
TOP 10
TOYS + TRENDS

2. DigitasLBi’s CES 2017 Top Ten Toys + Trends
Inspired by and designed for you. Our logical takeaways and insights from the
past week.
CES 2017 marked the 50th anniversary of the world’s largest consumer
technology conference. Over 175,000 people attended, from over 150
countries.
Our tech experts roamed over 2.6 million square feet of exhibit space
and investigated the 3,800+ exhibiting companies to compile a list of
the Top Ten Toys and Trends at CES 2017.
As your agency partner, we bring the exhausting and exhilarating CES
floor direct to you. Here’s what rose above the rest and a blend of the
CES stuff that wow’d, woo’d and are worthy of watching.
Here’s to more innovation and exploration in 2017.

3. TOP 10
TOYS

4. CES 2017: TOP TOYS
2. Jibo, Denso, Qihan, Woobo & Buddy1. Signature OLED TV W by LG
We all remember the push to make our cell phones thinner
and lighter every year, it seems like LG felt that desk
standing TVs were so 2016 and gave us a 2.57mm thick
(for reference, your new iPhone 7 is 7.1mm — or almost
three times as thick) stunning 4K TV in the LG Signature
OLED TV W, that is so light that you can hang it on the
wall like any picture with magnets, and the operating
system sits inside a sound box that is connected via a
practically invisible single cable.
Runner-up: Even thinner
than the LG TV is no screen
at all. This Sony 4K laser
projector sits six inches from
the wall and produces a
bright 120-inch image.
This is a bit dependent on your needs, but it is clear that a
personal Robot is a must in 2017. The options are almost
endless, but some of our favorites include Jibo, the
“world’s first social robot for the home”, the Denso
Robotics cafe, which pours you a perfect cappuccino with
the elegance of a master barista, a set of synchronized
dancing robots from Qihan, Woobo who is cuddly and is
educational for kids, or Buddy, who just wants to be your
friend.
Left to right: Jibo, Denso Robotics Cafe, Qihan, Woobo, Buddy

5. CES 2017: TOP TOYS
4. Laundroid by Seven Dreamers
While we all wish our laundry would just magically do
itself, this looks to get us past the most painful part.
Laundroid is an appliance that takes your clothes, analyzes
what they are, and returns them into their proper folded
position. From there it’s still up to you to return them to
your dresser, but at least the hard part is over. If you’re
itching like us to rid yourself of this chore, you still have to
wait a bit until the product is generally available. It is
anticipated around March or April this year. Also, socks
interestingly, are still on you to fold.
3. Sleep Number 360™ by Sleep Number
Bed would not have been our first place to look for
technology innovation, but after resting for a few minutes
on the Sleep Number 360 bed, we might just be converts.
This surprisingly normal looking bed is full of sensors and
intelligence that measures you, your body position, your
sleep, and the temperature around you and works to
customize the bed and the room to what is most sleep
enhancing for you. This includes warming up your feet
(apparently, warm feet help people go to sleep) as well as
our favorite function, that it automatically makes an
adjustment when it detects snoring, to help you breath
better.
Runner-up: You have to
place clothes carefully onto
the Foldimate, but for an
estimated $700 it does a
similar job in less space
compared to the Laundroid
Runner-up: For $200 on
Kickstarter ($300 estimated
retail) you can retrofit your own
bed with smart technology by
picking up the Zeeq smart pillow.

6. CES 2017: TOP TOYS
6. Hypersuit VR Experience Rig
Sitting in a chair or standing is kind of taking away from
the experience when we get into the latest VR experience,
so fortunately there is a solution. With the Hypersuit VR
rig, we can fly through experiences, control them with our
body movement and look stylish doing so.
5. Zera Food Recycler by Whirlpool
The average family throws away about 400 lbs. of food
waste every year. Fortunately Whirlpool has created a new
device for us, to turn this into valuable compost to feed
our garden rather than go into the landfill. Just put food
waste into the Zera throughout the week and at the end of
the week, run it and within 24 hours you get a neat little
pile of clean compost. Now I know what you’re thinking,
this must smell terrible. Fortunately Whirlpool has you
covered and you will be surprised to hear that it is indeed
odorless.
Runner-up: Cerevo’s Taclim
shoes give you the feel of
walking through different
terrain in your ground-based
VR experience.
CES 2017 Innovation Winner

7. CES 2017: TOP TOYS
7. Prosthesis Exoskeleton by Furrion
If you are looking to make a statement or needed to reach
that thing on top of your house, this may be just what you
need. The Furrion Prosthesis is a 14 feet by 16 feet
exoskeleton that weighs in at a nimble 3.5 tons. That said,
controlled by your body movements it can run at speeds
up to 21 mph and jump 10 feet high in the air. This will
definitely win that halloween costume contest or settle
who can run fastest among your friends.
Runner-up: Hyundai’s
HUMA exoskeletons
provide life-changing
mobility for people
with nerve injuries.
8. Solar Paper by Yolk
Solar Paper is finally relieving us from carrying those heavy
extra batteries. Running out of juice on our cell phone
while we’re jamming out or catching up on the latest
snapchat is quite annoying. Solar Paper lets us charge up
anywhere we can find light and doubles as a bookmark in
the latest novel we are reading. The best part is, it’s
already available and it can be expanded for additional
charging capacity.
Runner-up: The ZapGo
case accepts a full iPhone
charge in 5–10 minutes
and then charges the
phone as you go about
your day.

8. CES 2017: TOP TOYS
10. Care Patch by Protontek
If you’ve ever had to look after a sick child you’ll have felt
the conflict between keeping an eye on their temperature
and letting them rest. Last year Temptraq demonstrated a
disposable Bluetooth thermometer that sticks under a
child’s arm and gives a continuous reading of temperature
for 24 hours. It’s a great product, but at $20 and up per
use it’s pricey. This year, Protontek showed the $45 Care
Patch which provides similar functionality but can be
recharged and reused many times.
9. Hover Camera by Zero Zero Robotics
With its carbon fiber shell, enclosed propellers and
compact book-like dimensions, the Hover Camera shows
how the drone market is maturing. It is tuned for a specific
purpose: take it out of your bag, open it, switch it on and
leave it hanging in the air. It will follow you to
automatically in various ways to take pictures or film you.
This is not about flying: this is about getting a job done.
Runner-up: Elanview’s
Air Selfie is a smaller
and cheaper version
with the same idea
Runner-up:Temptraq’s
one-use stickers are
lighter but pricier.
They last up to 72h.

9. TOP 10
TRENDS

10. CES 2017: TOP TRENDS
2. Robots
From utility to entertainment - there’s a robot for that. While we don’t
see everybody racing out to robotify their life quite yet, there were
many indicators of useful and thought provoking applications. We can
see robots expanding upon the role of the Roomba and handling tasks
such as mowing the lawn or folding your clothes. In addition there are
several use cases for utility robots in areas such as airports or other
public places for wayfinding and information purposes. Lastly there
are interesting educational and toy applications emerging that we can
see evolve into educational tools or to support individuals with
disabilities or other special needs. The role of the humanoid robot a la
“Ex Machina” or the TV show “Humans” is still a bit in the future, but
there are compelling applications where robots can help make our
lives easier and more pleasant.
1. Intelligent Life
Whether you use the Jetsons or Star Trek as your inspiration, it’s no
question that we’ve made great strides towards realizing some of the
once far fetched ideas of intelligent systems in our daily lives. The
pervasiveness of digital assistant systems (Amazon Alexa, Siri, Google,
Microsoft Cortana) and the increasing integration of these systems
with a wide variety of services and products is beginning a slow
convergence into a truly intelligent platform. This promises a future
where artificial intelligence learns about every aspect of our likes,
preferences, and behaviors and can use this information to serve as an
intelligent assistant to us, that at times may even seem like it knows us
better than we know ourselves. This is certainly still in its infancy, but
building on last year’s Alexa splash, this was the major theme and a
strong trend underlying all of CES.

11. CES 2017: TOP TRENDS
4. Mothers & Babies
Baby tech has certainly existed in the past, but it came into its own
this year along with women’s tech - mostly a newcomer as a category.
There is an exciting array of products to help monitor and quantify a
baby’s growth journey as well as coach parents and babies along the
way. However, it was the arrival of women’s technology that really
lifted this category, with the most notable product being the WIllow
Breast pump that creates a more comfortable wearable that is
intelligent, adaptable to varying levels of milk production, is easy to
clean, well designed, and integrates with an app to help you track the
breast milk’s age.
3. Health & Fitness
This year a key theme in a lot of tech and gadgetry is recognition that
a gadget for the gadget’s sake is not long-term viable. As such, there
is a strong push towards solving real problems and creating
compelling use cases. This is very pronounced in the health and fitness
space, where sensors and technology have become very focused on
providing relevant and actionable information. For example, Under
Armour displayed both a set of PJs that help athletes fall asleep faster
and recover better, as well as running shoes that can measure fatigue
level and coach the wearer on the intensity of workout that is most
beneficial given their current condition. Other examples include a
wearable to monitor BAC, a digestive tracker to help you identify
which foods might be causing you issues, or multiple tooth brushes
that help you insure good brushing technique or help kids learn how
to brush their teeth while making it fun to do so.

12. CES 2017: TOP TRENDS
6. VR & AR Are Growing Up
We all now know about the headlining products such, as the HTC Vive,
the Oculus, Samsung’s Gear and Microsoft’s Hololens, and we all spent
some amount of time in the discovery phase of how to meaningfully
apply these products. At CES 2017, this seems to crystalize quite a bit
and display some trends for both technologies. We are seeing
predominant use of VR in gaming and marketing experience use
cases. This is amplified by the arrival of supporting equipment such as
shoes and gloves that transmit haptic feedback to the user, and
immersive rigs such as the Hypersuit VR to support flying, or
Samsung’s gaming rigs for single and multi-player experiences.
Conversely, AR seemed a bit more “serious” and utility focused with
numerous examples of industrial and medical use cases. A good
example of this is the Daqri smart helmet, that is ruggedized for
construction applications, with features beyond the regular set of AR
setup tools such as IR and thermal cameras to help analyze and
provide data in industrial and construction environments.
5. Autonomous Vehicles
While certainly not a newcomer, it is clear that this is not a fad that will
go away. Every car manufacturer displayed some form of autonomous
vehicles in addition to retrofit options by various third parties. There is
much exploration of various modes of autonomy to come, as well as
what they will do to the car and other vehicles as transportation
mediums and short term habitats. With Uber, Google, Daimler, and
many more running tests of autonomous vehicle application in person
and goods transports, and strong data that supports the computer to
be a safer operator than a human, there is an obvious trend to shift
driving responsibility away from a human driver, allowing an always-
awake and always learning machine to gradually take over driving
tasks from a human.

13. CES 2017: TOP TRENDS
8. Connected Everything
If are looking at it, chances are there is a connected version of it this
year. The list includes seemingly everything from beds and pillows,
stand lamps, drug dispensers, appliances, clothing, and many more.
While many examples are still working out the details of what is
relevant and useful, this trend opens the door to a large number of
sensors that can contribute to a more intelligent world around us in
the long run.
7. Environmental Tech
This was an interesting trend that is emerging stronger this year. This
includes both technology to be more environmentally friendly, as well
as tools to monitor the environment for personal health and safety
reasons. Examples include a personal air quality monitor, clothing that
detects and measure sun exposure, a water filtration system that
measures water purity and adjusts the filtration method accordingly,
commercial window film that doubles as a solar cell, window blinds
that double as solar panels or paper thin solar panels to charge your
mobile devices.

14. CES 2017: TOP TRENDS
10. Emotion
Detecting human emotion and responding to it has been an academic
discipline — affective computing — for two decades. Over the last
couple of years it has been applied to marketing as a data source:
tracking people’s reactions to content, for example. On the show floor
were many examples of products that apply this technology directly
by interacting with consumers, watching for emotion and deliberately
reacting to create emotional responses. The Feel bracelet is a
wearable that tracks your emotions much like traditional fitness
wearables track steps. Digital Strom uses emotion analysis to help
your home be responsive to the moods of its occupants. The many
companion robots on show use anthropomorphic tricks to create
emotional responses, such as relieving loneliness or calming anxiety.
Most ambitiously, Toyota’s Concept-[愛]i vision presented the future
car as an active member of the family, getting to know family
members and establishing bonds with them over time.
9. Beyond Pixels
Our world in the past few decades has been dominated by pixels.
From traditional desktop computing into mobile and apps, we have
been glued to some form of screen for many years while watching the
screens and device capabilities evolve. At the point where the mobile
phone is at the center of every life, we are seeing a trend that is
beginning to take us beyond pixels on the screen into experiences that
we can interact with via voice, gestures, actions, or simply by our
presence. While we’re certainly not ready to write off the mobile
phone, it will be critical for marketers and product companies to pay
close attention to these new user experiences and interaction
modalities to stay with consumer expectations and preferences.
Feel Bracelet Digital Strom Toyota’s Concept-[愛]i vision

15. CES 2017: TOP TRENDS
2017 CES Editorial Snapshots
Agency POVs on the not-to-be-missed trends and wows at CES 2017, as
featured on theDOSE, our agency publishing desk.
Jill Kelly (CMO, N.A.) on Amazon Alexa, arguably the most-talked about product that wasn’t there.
Jill Sherman (SVP, Social Strategy, Social Practice Lead, N.A.) on Generation Z and moving beyond performance.
Scott Donaton (Chief Content Officer) on whether must-attend events are actually something you must-attend.
Paolo Yuvienco (Global CTO) shares actionable steps brands should take coming out of CES 2017.
John Stewart (SVP, DNA [Data & Analysis]) on the abundance of data, and its uses as seen at CES 2017.
Adam Buhler (VP/Group Architect, Creative Technology & Innovation) on the IoT through the prism of CES 2017.
Keith Soljacich (VP/Director, Technology) on VR becoming bigger - and smaller - in 2017.