TechStuff Visits CES 2017

l Las Vegas, Nevada. Last if I sound weird, there's a couple of reasons for that. One. We are recording this using law of microphones and on our normal studio microphones too. I've been talking all day, so my voice is starting to get a little uh weak. I was a crokey, little lower, little, a little stronger. Yeah it sounds like that, Yeah, exactly. Is your mother's name Martha. And then also we're in a hotel room obviously not a studio, so it's gonna have a totally different sound

to it. But we wanted to record this because we are actually here in Las Vegas. We are attending ce s C s of course, formerly known as the Consumer Electronics Show, but technically it's just CEES now. We are doing this as a team effort, although we kind of have two production teams exploring c E s uh and then you are one of those teams. I'm on the other. And one other thing I should point out, this is my ninth c Yeah, congratulations. Do we get a sound game? Rooms?

Too bad? You don't have your little air horn app do yes? Go ahead, pull up vamp Yes, Yes, ladies and gentlemen. It is so important that I've been here nine years, so important in fact, that my badge has a little white ribbon on it that says five plus years on it. So I can I can feel. I don't know if it's superior the right word. Hit it, Ben, hit it. Let's celebrate perfect then perfect. We're also a

little loopy, okay, So yeah, Las Vegas. For those who are not in the United States, Las Vegas is in the Pacific time zone. We are from Atlanta, Georgia, which is in the Eastern time zone. That's three hours ahead of Las Vegas. So while it is currently in the PM in Las Vegas, it's a little after midnight back home, so we're a little loopy. We're exhausted. We've had a long day on the show floor today as we're recording, this was the first day the show floor itself was open,

although we've been in Las Vegas a few days. Because ce S is always preceded by a couple of press days where they have special events for the press, they have press conferences. Now, Ben, as a first time attendee of c e S, I want to hear or what your reactions perceptions that sort of thing have been, because I've done this enough times now where it doesn't like I don't I don't view it through the eyes of someone who's never been here before. Man oh, Jonathan Strickland,

Ladies and gentlemen, sensory overload. I've only been to Las Vegas once before my entire life, and it was earlier in twos sixteen. The bright lights alone, right, the seizure inviting lights and also decor yes yes understated is what

insult that has never been applied to laws veges. But what one thing that was that was amazing is uh, the entire the entirety of technology laid out, So for any fans of science fiction listening to tech stuff, you know you're familiar with episodes Jonathan's done on vaporware for instance, Right, and the next big, big idea that has always uh sort of like that old Alice in Wonderland joke, Jam yesterday, jam tomorrow, jam today. Yeah, nailed it. And so what

we're what we're seeing here full disclosure. I am here and and our team is here entirely to focus on the future of automotive technology. But when you invited us to come with you to see us seen, to see the actual experience and listeners, just so you know, you can check out Jonathan's earlier episodes on CS where and and I I half wish that you could hear and am half thankful that you will never hear Jonathan Strickland on his legendary day back in the office after es

those haunted eyes my friends, and there's thousand yards stare. Yeah. So so the first, uh, the first thing I would say was that the first event we went to was see Us unveiled, and c S unveiled is your longtime listeners are familiar with It's uh, it's a press only event, right, so there are no other like the only people who are there are exhibitors, who have been invited to participate

in cees unveiled and the press covering it. And then you know people of the actual venue who are bringing in copious amounts of shrimp cocktail right right, right right, which you warned me against. Yeah, well no, no, I warned myself against. I'm allergic to shrimps, ray shotguns. Three,

because what is life if not living? So what astounded me there was that there were this panopoly of various wildly different technological devices, uh, some of some of which were relatively focused on a single idea, like a single call in response, like it was it was an implementation

of a very identifiable concept. Yeah, exactly, So, like you look at the thing, and even if the thing itself doesn't immediately tell you what it does, a glance at its name or a quick look at the description like okay, that I totally get what that's supposed to be. Yeah. And then and then there were these other things which were much more big picture, much more abstract, you know, ephemeral, ephemeral and and do check out our our video of of you Jonathan uh learning how to sleep vies smell. Yeah,

you know what I mean. And so and so there were all these there were. I think what struck me was the sheer varieties not the right word, the sheer altitude of stuff. Right. And then there's no there's no rhyme or reason to it. Right, It's not like they're it's not like CS Unveiled is divided up into zones. Right, you don't have here are three different drone manufacturers, and we're just gonna put them all together because those are all that. You know, people who want to see drones

all go there. No, they might be anywhere in that room. And uh so they might have a drone manufacturer right next to a company that makes products specifically for infants, um really for their parents, because infants have notoriously terrible buying habits. And then you might have another one next to that that's an automotive like aftermarket stereo system. There's

no real logic to the layout. You you absolutely have to go aisle by aisle in this room to see all the stuff, or else you might miss something important booth by booth, and and and it's really table by table because it's not. We warned you the of us who have been here before that that CES Unveiled is not what the rest of ce s looks right, And I was, I was, I was so loud and Jonathan you you were, you were so um it was like it was my first day on the force or something.

Listen to your rookie, right, We're gonna come at you from all sides. Did you stick with me? And you'll you'll get through the day, right, right? And I and uh, you said, this is just a taste, And I was already so now you I thought I wasn't going to get across the border. You remember that, Yeah, and uh? Wrong story short, not to be too Nabokov about it, but I had this, uh, I had this mismatched badge that had imposter syndrome. Alright, so let's tell this story

because I think it is interesting. It's okay, it's just a minor, little little thing that happened. But um, anyone who's ever had to work with online forums, you know, there can sometimes be little oversights, like there could be some sort of automated UH code that doesn't always check all the right boxes, and if a box goes unchecked, unfortunately, the end result is that you get the wrong thing.

Ben and I, out of the group of eight people who came here, from how Stuff Works were the victims of this cruel arrangement where when we went to retrieve our badges, we were designated as industry attendees. Now now c e S has different categories of badges, right, you have media, which that's the press. You have exhibition press, which means your exhibitor press, I think is what they

call it. Exhibitor press means that you are you also have at presence on the show floor and you get access early access to the show floor because of that. So people who have exhibitor press badges, they can go to the show floor even when it's not technically open to the to the rest of the attendees, it's not open to the public at all. Then you have like other like you know, industry analysts or exhibitor badges, buyer government yea. So we both had industry attendee, which is

the most vague of all the categories. And we went to the casino where they have the press day, which is well really the convention center, which is at Mandalaid Bay. So we go to Mandalais Bay and before we even try to get in line, we had at least the sense to ask the rest of our team has media badges, we have these industry attendee badges. Are we gonna have a problem And they said, yes, you are, go over here and get in line for people who are having issues.

And we got to the front of line sure enough. Very nice lady who was who was sitting there said did you have to pick up your badges at the airport? And we're like yes, and she's like yeah. So apparently we were not the first happened to you as a veteran got through. It was weird because apparently with mine it was just a simple matter of checking that box or un checking it or whatever it was. But Ben, with you, the system just did not want to make you press for a really long time, I know, in

the first year. But you know what, it was worth it. It was worth it to get in there. And on our second day, and we're recording this, by the way, before our final day, so we're this is our third day as we're recording, yeah, yeah, And the second day was still not officially open, and there were these amazing press conferences, some of which were controversial, which we looked

at in a live stream. And today was our first day on the show floor and we we kind of like uh, divided and conquered, right, And so you were running and gunning as fast and as hard as you could, mainly focusing on North Hall because in c s there are there are actually several centers where there are exhibits.

So the one that's probably best known as the Las Vegas Convention Center, which has more than like a million square feet of exhibition space, uh, and that has three halls of North Hall at Central Hall and a South hall. The North Hall is where almost all the automotive technology is located. And because you're the host of Car Stuff

and you're they're focusing on automation. Also, this is a good time to mention there is a companion episode to this episode right the episode we're recording right now, the Tech Stuff episode, we have a companion piece of Car Stuff, which technically is already published and yet paradoxically we have not recorded yet. This is just like Looper. Yeah, it's just like that. It's just like that scene in Looper.

So if you haven't listened to Car Stuff, first of all, shame on you go and subscribe to car Stuff right away. It's not amazing show. Ben and Scott do a phenomenal job. And um, but you'll be able to hear more about the vehicle focused technology in that episode and I'm a guest on that. Uh, So we're not going to focus

on that too much here. But when you walked into that North Hall and you started to see how how various companies had structured their booths in order to try and draw people in, I mean, that's the whole purpose of cees is pull pull people in so you can convince them that your product is awesome. What was your first kind of impression walking into the North Hall at

Las Vegas Convention Center. Oh? Okay, So to set the scene, we luckily, we luckily have some seasoned guides, so so our crew members and uh and you, Jonathan have been there before. So US US cubs and rookies are like are pretty much at this point following the guide, and we talked about how is like a scene in an RPG video game where where the characters are shown the different parts of the map and there's a lot of

fog of war as well. Yeah, that's exactly. Yeah. And so so we get there and we're out about ten minutes from when the doors open, and there there's a crowd of people congregating, and when I say congregating, I mean easily what twenty yards behind us filled with people. Yeah.

So the way it works is that the doors are the doors are technically open in the sense that they're not shut, but no one is allowed to go in unless they have that exhibitor press or they are an exhibitor the hoi POLOI like media and all the other folks who are not on officially exhibitors. The Yeah, we're not allowed to go inside until the first day. It

starts at ten am. So we were probably I don't know, maybe fifteen or twenty people back from the from where the doors were at most right, and then more and more gathered behind us as the time drew nigh for

them to allow us. And I was actually amazed at how crowded North Hall got right away, because as whenever I did see, yes, the old days before I was covering stuff for Toyota, I say North Hall for the second day, and uh, I always I always thought people who were hitting South Hall at Central Hall the hardest because there are a lot there's a lot more general technology there. But this year, I mean there was a lot of excitement around vehicles, so the first thing, so

I'm very much like a cheap skate, right. So first thing I see on the left, I see like some bags and uh, I'm thinking, you know, we've got crew with us, they've already got stuff. We might see some This is my rationalization for grabbing two bags. And so do these bags and walking and we know we have to go to the left, and we're angling the entire time. We're working as this hive mind unit. But it's hard

to pay attention to our unit. It's so easy to get lost in a crowd of stuff, thing you care about. And there's you know, there's a high performance autonomous car to the right, you know what I mean. There's a Faraday future beckoning in the distance. I see the neon glow. There's a booming system lasting base. Yeah. So yeah, there's there are a lot of demands on your attention that are all simultaneously. It was, yeah, it was immediate sensory overload,

and we, uh, we saw that it was hitting. The weird thing was if you walk in and you find what do we call like an island where there's not that river of people, and you turn and you see, uh, you see people walking in probably about maybe five to ten feet and then stopping and just sort of getting divide and looking around. If I wasn't with a group of people and at work, you would have been one

of those folks. Absolutely. I don't know how long it would have stood there, And anyone who's been doing it for a while, like you'll, you'll, you'll hear us start to grouse about. Look, you can, you can, you can step off to the side and gawk. I have places I need to be. That's another thing. So many people stop in the middle of the thing. Well, and here's ben.

When I started doing this, it was two thousand and eight, and so the iPhone had only been out a year, and um, and smartphones weren't that big a thing, right, smartphones not not everyone had them yet. Sure, I mean a lot of people in ce s did, but not everyone had. And you didn't have nearly the number of apps or social media platforms that were easily accessible on

your right. So add to all the demands of an unattentioned we just listed a second ago all the ones that you're already carrying with you with your smartphone, and you're essentially you're essentially suffering a d D. You are like a d D personified, and some people are compelled to whip out their smartphone and check it every couple of feet, even if there's a multitude of people behind them that's desperately trying to get to the other side

of the hall. Get that endorphin rush. I've got to ask you, this is this is your ninth years, so on, so on your on your ninth year, this is this is to some degree, a lot of people would think this is old hat. I disagree with that because we've talked off air, and the thing is, while the maybe the bureaucratic parts of it, the housekeeping parts of it, might be old hat, what it means to what it means to me is that you have a nose for the things that stick out well. I can, because I've

been cutting it so long. I can see the things that are brand new, or at least are are noticeable enough this year to be called brand new, right that. I usually say trendsit c e s have kind of a three year arc before they become really well known. First year is when you might only see one or two examples of a particular type of technology or or something that a particular type of technology is trying to do.

Like it may be that the technology itself can take many different forms, but it's all being done for the same purpose, right. Uh, So that first year you might only see one or two examples. The second year and they might be prototypes, they might not even be production models. The second year you start seeing production models out of

a couple of niche companies. The third year you start seeing the bigger companies developed their own version of that niche market stuff, and then it becomes mainstream and or the other flip side of it is, no one buys the stuff and it just fades away. So a great example of something that was uh that trickled in then was omnipresent and now no one talks about it really that much anymore. Is three D television. Three D TV

just didn't happen. I mean, there are like almost every television that's sold today has a three D mode or is three D compliant, But consumers just didn't jump on that. They didn't care. They didn't want to have to have an extra set of hardware in order that them to watch their TV. So that was something that they the industry pushed really hard for several years and then ultimately it's a non talking point. It just doesn't come up. I mean, it maybe included in the specs for a device,

but it's not. It's not prominently advertised typically, right, Yeah, there's it's not something that we hear. It's not it's not something that we hear networks or currency creators talking about more. But on the flip side, Uh, something else that was just getting started when I started going to

ce S were consumer drones. You were seeing just a few of those on the market, and the first ones were just quad copters that didn't have any like they might have a very basic camera on them, but it was mostly too to allow you to do like some fun like a r type stuff. Parrot drones were probably the best example of that, early on, pretty expensive, and now today there every everyone has a drone. Like it's crazy, you you Intel has drones on display, Um, they're uh,

Polaroid has drones on display. It's weird because in order to fly it, you first have to pick it up and shake it really hard for like thirty seconds. It develops the ability to fly and then sponsored hey, hey he's a local, local guy right, well, local to Atlanta, not in Las Vegas. Oh yeah, visit us if you want to do it our home office. We'll walk over to the Whole Foods where you see that guy at the Olive our story. Oh really yeah, Wow, Well I

didn't interrupt them. I'm gonna have to go over the Whole food is more for you going to I feel like we didn't have anything in common. That's terrible because there's an Olive b stro you have to pass. You must, you must really just have a lot of issues walking into that. Let's get a little hyper local. They're going back to see Yes Yes, So you know, seeing those trends and yeah, it means that when I see something that that kind of is outside of that group, I

take notice. So here's an example. Last year when I went to see S, I saw a few different devices that were designed to encourage meditations and and and encourage an ability to release stress. Uh. The argument being that we're carrying more and more stress in our lives, we're having harder time dealing with it. We've got a lot of those demands on our attention would again adds to that stress. So this year we're not just seeing meditation, We're seeing a lot of technology that's being marketed as

a means to help you go to sleep. Yeah, I find this particularly interesting. Not that long ago, I did an episode about a s MR, which is kind of it's it's often sort of grouped into that category. It's something that a lot of people watched to to relax and often to all sleep. To write a s m R. For anybody who has checked it out, there's an entire culture online. Yeah. Well, like uh, partling Feathers and talking like this. Yeah. Yeah, And I interviewed Heather feather who

is one of my favorite a s MR artists. She is a doll, a wonderful, wonderful person, and uh, she did very well explaining the whole concept. Well, the rise of a s MR shows that there is this incredible demand for things that will help people relax and distress. So we're seeing that now in the consumer marketplace because there's an entire section at c e S devoted to

sleep tech. I haven't even seen it yet because that's what I'm doing tomorrow, which is good because I'm gonna need to sleep by that, right, you might not have any any problems. I'm pretty much. I think after we record the show that already published but hasn't recorded, yet I'm pretty much going to bed. So that's an example

of a trend that is is uh. I would say in that second to third stage, right, probably more in the second stage because I'm not seeing sleep tech being adopted by the really big names yet, but it's definitely in that second year part of the arc I was talking about. Now, um we one of the things we did early on, we did a live stream where where we talked about some of the trends that we know,

is sleep tech being one of them. We talked about another interesting end and this is kind of uh edging over into the automotive part two because that's one of the companies we mentioned. We talked about how two thousand and sixteen we saw some tumultuous events and circumstances for some high profile companies. We have to talk about this.

This is Texas. So so we've got this issue where imagine that you are an executive with a prominent company, whether it is one that's been around for ages or it's one that's just made headlines because it's so audacious, and then you have a rough year and then you go to c S where you have to put on your best face. Yeah, you're gonna you're you know, you're gonna be hit by hard questions and yet you still

have to do this pr game. The two companies that we thought really um encompass this that they embodied it and they went through we went to two totally different approaches. Yeah, Faraday Future, which is one of the most ambitious startups I've ever heard of. I mean, it's a it's a company that is trying to break into the automotive industry building a car which is not just a car, but a whole line of cars, which is, by the way, the one of the most difficult things everyone can do

from scratch. I mean, the fact that Tesla was able to do it is amazing. Well, yeah, and Tesla only was able to do it, I would argue, because there was a very it had the appearance of audacity, but it came from the actions and bankrolls of PayPal, so it didn't start from an angel investor, you know what I mean. And then we have another example which which we uh we especially felt called to mind where we

were the plane over here. Yeah, so that would be Samsung. Obviously, Samsung in twenty sixteen, especially in September and October, had a terrible, terrible time because the Galaxy Notes seven famously was having these issues where some people were having their their handsets were bursting into flame, typically when being charged, the battery was bursting into flame. And it was such a hard, hard problem for Samsung. First, they issued a

an exchange program where they started exchange notes seven's. Uh, they said that, you know, the actual percentage of those that were affected was quite small. Sure, they wanted to do an exchange program, but then some of the exchange units reportedly were bursting into flame, and that's when Samsung had to issue a worldwide recall. Uh. And last I had heard there's still several hundred thousand out in the wild. Oh yeah, and uh some of the phone service providers

are breaking notes. Yeah. In fact, uh, that was a big deal where I think it was Verizon that said they weren't going to do it, and then they said, okay, we'll do it, but we won't do it till January eight or something. It's like poison until update. Right. Yeah, it's essentially to make sure the phone can't be a phone anymore, and that way no one has a reason to keep it around. And uh, so long story short,

this was a huge pr problem for Samsung. I mean, it was an enormous issue, very damaging to the company's reputation. And then they come out to c S and they have a whole press conference that they have to hold. They've got that time slot, and it's you paid a lot of money to be part of CS And so then we've got them coming out and they start off their press conference by acknowledging there was a problem, but

not apologizing for it. They essentially said, uh, we're looking into it, or, as I would like to say, we have top men looking at the top of men whose yeah, exactly, so not not to cast dispersions on Sam. So I'm sure they are investigating it. They obviously they have very great motivation to find out what exactly was the problem. But a lot of people felt that that perhaps was not enough, that perhaps they should have come out so far as to apologize for the the issue and the

way that was handled. But that did not happen, and then they went ahead and had the rest of their press conference. Faraday kind of the way they they addressed their problem. Faraday's problems into A sixteen included a bunch of executives left. They reportedly started having some financing issues despite the billion dollar investment of various business people from

from Asia. But then, um, we we heard reports that the construction on their production facility here in Las Vegas where we are has halted and that they and that people haven't been getting paid for a while. So uh, they didn't acknowledge that at all as far as I

can tell. When they Yeah, they said they were still planning on having their production model ready by which is incredibly ambitious, like that old comics strip, the little two panel comic strip that we see so often on the internet, and the dog in the burning house right at the table as sure himself. I'm just saying him because of the hat. Uh, everything is fine. What we saw is that not only did executive leave over sixteen, but two left just a couple of weeks before c YES started.

So this was an interesting thing, you know, seeing seeing these companies that had very public problems, Uh, and how how would they handle it? And so you could argue that Samsun, you know, if you felt like they owed people an apology, you could argue that they fell short on that, but at least they acknowledged it, which Paraday as far as we could tell did not. Uh so that was interesting. We've seen some some cool tech. You've got a chance to walk into Central Hall for a

little bit. Oh yeah, I I went and checked out a Samsung exhibit. Actually, this is great washer. The washer that washes while you wash. It was the it was the will it explode? And there's a timer. You get money. Uh no, you don't get money. You get bend Bucks And anyone who's interested in that please write to me. And it's a wonder one exchange training so you can't exchange you back. It is accepted in various locations throughout my mom's house. Were negotiations for the kitchen. It's a

big win for us. So, uh, when to check out some of the VR experiences because one of the big questions that people have. So going back to the example of three D television technology, there were some great startups right that had this brilliant stuff, and then larger manufacturers saw it, loved it. This is an opportunity, right and spoke to broadcasting partners, content creators saw it, loved it. This is an opportunity. Somewhere along the way, they forgot

to ask the consumer if they wanted it. Right, yeah, there was. It was an effort to manufacture demand and it failed. That's a great way to put it in its perfectly and brutally concise. So the question with the R then is is this manufacturing demand? And the answer is there's a lesson learned primarily through the idea of using a smartphone as the hardware, Right yeah, I mean doing that where you're you're help starting to rely upon uh someone using a piece of technology they already own.

So there's no initial investment to purchase other hardware apart from maybe a headset that it will slip into. In fact, I have two of them on my table right here, essentially Google card board, but these are from Kodak picks Pro. Yeah. I need to give one of those to Ramsey because that's that's technically one of them is his. So doing going through that approach, you you lower that that barrier

of entry. But at the same time, anyone who's a savvy consumer realizes that the experiences they're going to get using a phone as their display are going to be far below the quality of something that's a dedicated piece of hardware VR. So yeah, we're we're seeing um struggles in the VR space. There's tons more VR here and a R than I've ever seen in the past. Like there's so many examples, and again it's another one of those pieces of technology that seems like everybody has some

former and pieces. I I gotta tell you, man, I took this virtual reality boat ride. I hope you guys can hear the air quotes votes. I'm doing the sound effect we use on other services, so it's never been done on this one. But thank you, thank you. So we're in this. We're in this thing. I went because

the boat ride was the shortest line. The medium line was the was the flight line, like air flight over Sydney, and uh, the most uh most mandy line was a thing called Skeleton Mountain with right And of course we had a long day and I was thinking, you know, I'll wait till Skeleton Mountain just comes out on my phone. But but to be fair, so everybody knows, this was not simply a some sort of oculous riff situation where there's a phone in a in a VR headset and

you put it on. These were in dedicated like chairs that were hydraulically operated, so this was like a full immersive experience and hactic feedback you had, like, so it's like almost like a moving movie theater, very epcot. So, so this would be more of an experience where you don't necessarily have control over what's happening, but you can control your point of view, right exactly. That's the only agency you have is looking around the perspective. Uh. That

was cool. The phone didn't blow up as he got good as Jonathan, as you can see those you can see I still have my eyes, yes, and then there in fact where they were when I saw them this morning. Thank you. And you guys know that my colleague is a skeptic, so he uh, he will tell you if I'm not being straight with you. That's true. So so that was cool. Yeah, it was an interesting VR. I had a VR experience today too. I went and did something called Project Alloy, which is over at Intel, and

they had two different experiences as well. One of them was a zombie survival game where he's trying to shoot down zombies. The other one was a room that you got to walk around and guess which one I got to do the room not not the room, movie, not that room. There's no temm uh. That didn't have Dylan's Dylon's finally pricking up once we talked about Tommy Rizzo. He was slimping in his This is totally true. He was slumping in his chair a little bit right until

we got to Tommy Rozzo. So the project Helway was interesting. It was an example of mixed or merged reality is what they call it merged reality. So imagine a VR headset. So you're looking at a display. It's on your head. There's a forward facing camera on the case itself, all right, so it's kind of like a phone. It's got you know, like a forward facing camera um or backward facing camera in the case of a phone. So you're you're wearing this and the camera picks up stuff that's within a

couple of feet of your body. So that way, when you started getting close to something, it starts to show up in your views. So Ben, where you are standing right are sitting right now, you're probably close enough where I would actually be able to see you, and I'll be looking at a virtual display that I would see I would see the video of you right there. So that means I could walk around a physical space but not not bump into objects or people who are in it,

so I could still have a virtual experience. In this case, it was actually pretty cool. When I walked in, it looked like there was a giant globe with a moon orbiting it, so really it was just you know, the Earth with the moon orbiting it in the center of the room, and then at three points around the globe there are these green buttons and different buildings underneath them.

If I went and pressed a button, then to my left, an enormous version of the building I had just picked would rise up all of the ground and I could take a better look. So there was like an something like an Aztec pyramid, something that looked kind of like the taj Mahal, and something that looked like more of a European cathedral. Sounds like a crazy dream. It was

a little weird, uh. And then I would turn it, i'd see Ramsey because he would be standing very close to me with the camera, and but I didn't bump into him because I could actually see him and he didn't appear like he was in the scene. It was more like if he were interrupting a scene. Like it wasn't seamless, okay, so it didn't look like something yeah, yeah, exactly. It didn't look like Ramsey was standing on top of the earth or any just that he would kind of

be breaking through the signal in a way. So an interesting implementation. I assume from the name project that it's still kind of in the developmental phase of stuff is yeah, and but it's seeing something that's being called merged reality as opposed to virtual reality or augment reality somewhere in the middle. Was really interesting thing. So we have a R, and then we have VR, and then we have MR. Yeah, and then you have m R e's which wasn't that

a terrible video that? Did that ever come out? No? I hope not. Yeah, we uh we uh on came we had a bucket available, which yeah, which we needed. Going back, going back to the point I would like to ask on behalf of everybody listening on overall? Yeah, so far in comparison to twenties, sixteens past, how does this measure up? What are you thinking? It looks well? Um, it's pretty busy, although towards the end of the day Central Hall wasn't nearly as as bustling as it was

first part of the day. Um. I have a much more focused approach this year than I have in years passed, Like in several years, I was essentially let loose at CS and that was up to me to wander around and find things to talk about. Was a one man. I was the only guy from how Stuff works who who is just set up alone adrift in a lost

sea of technology. Um. This year, I had a much more focused game plan, so I didn't see as many of the booths as I typically do because I had I had a very specific places I needed to be and in video I needed to shoot. UM that stuff I saw, I enjoyed. We had a great time over at the Stern Pinball UH booth. We actually got to play pinball, I got to talk to Gary Stern, who

is the head of the company. He opened up one of the machines for us to look at, which is a very a different beast than the old pinball machines that were largely electro mechanical. Now it's mainly digital, and yeah, it's really cool digital, but was still like with you know, mechanical solenoids and stuff to do the actuation for the various components. But it's all done with busses now like microprocessors and busses as opposed to the hard wired circuits

that it used to be. Frankenstein's monster. Gary Stern actually said that, you know, and a few years ago you would have a half mile worth of wire in one of those pinball machines. Now it's more like a quarter mile, So it's been halved. It's still a huge amount of wire, but it's much less than what it had been. It's much more efficient. The machines themselves aren't as heavy as

they used to be. Um. But when he opened it up, it's not like I could take one look at a wire and know exactly what it went through it was. It was like a spaghetti monster of madness. But that was a lot of fun to see that. Um. I don't know what the perception is among the press yet.

I haven't talked to enough of our peers to find out if they feel like this is a good c e S or bad c e s. We've had some in the past where there was so little innovative technology on display that anything remotely all the ordinary, no matter how silly it may seem, was pounced upon as being interesting. So the big example of that would be from several years ago, the haptic fork, the haptic fork, which would

uh try to keep you from eating too quickly. If you were moving the fork too fast, it would start to vibrate so that the food on the fork would fall off. Well, you had to eat at a at a certain speed, you know, the mindful eating, in order for the fork to remain Still, can I say this on our Family show? What a Yeah, that's fine? Um, yeah, if nothing else I can believe it. But by by eye I mean Dylan, Oh god, But okay, I see what you're saying. So we we don't know all the way.

But but you've seen from me and stuff. One thing I did want to ask you about. Yeah, so this is something we talked about off air, and we can be briefly which was we asked about drones spoiler alert the Companion episode on car stuff. We'll we'll touch on a little bit of dronery. Is that what we'll drone on? We'll drone on to So what's the best drone? What what's the most what's the well, what's the craziest one

you saw craziest that's gonna be? Oh my god? Can I just ask you, is it true that there's a drone that can carry people yes, yes, that would be the e Hang drone. It is large enough to carry one person for about twenty minutes. That's all. We gotta really good look at it. Um that will be It will be at least in a promo if not a full on video. Yeah, that was That was probably the craziest. I mean that when I think of premiered last year, but it was the first time I had seen it.

I didn't get you to see it last year, so I was really impressed by that. They're also, I mean, we're seeing more drones with thermal imaging, which is cool and kind of scary at the same time. Stuff they don't want you to know. Would probably have a lot to say about that. We saw a lot of drones that are taking very different approaches. There's some that are more like racing drones, so they're built very light and for speed and for cornering and that kind of stuff,

and they're very high performance racing drones. There are others that are more for things like capturing footage if you want to do like crane shots or helicopter shots. There are others that are specifically meant for our first responders and emergency situations. All of them are here, and we've seen um that huge variety, and I just I suspect it's just going to continue. We even saw the Star Wars drones that um we we were sent a Star Wars drone at the office, uh, in the form of

a speeder bike. Dylan actually uh has also got one of them, although he got a an X Wing. And then we we both were drooling over the tai Fighter Advance that was on display over on the show floor. Yeah, well, well we only have to I'm not rich, but we're doing We're doing well. We're comfortable, We're drone comfortable. But you know, we could go on and on about this. The I think the the interesting thing is again hearing

your perspective about how it really is sensory overload. Like I get to a point where I just had blinders, where I could be looking at something and no information is coming into my head like I that happened to me last night when I went to what was called Digital Experience. There's all these other events that happened after the normal hours of the CS have closed that really it's just an attempt for companies to get more face

time with media and other other important folks. In the industry for people to network, yeah, and to promote stuff, and so um, I went to this thing, and I walked through that room three or four times, and I think I might be able to tell you two or maybe three pieces of tech that were on display, and then nothing against the people who were there, no nor the technology. There was plenty of stuff that was really interesting. It literally was just that I was tired and it

was so much. It was like, it's so much information that my brain as a defense mechanism, was shutting down the ability for new information to come in. So um, Yeah. And that happens typically to me on the third day of of the show four being open, but it hit a little earlier this year, and we were here earlier this year. Yes, that's true. So our plan for tomorrow as the recording of this podcast, it will be in

the past by the time you hear it again. Another paradox is that we're both going to go back to the show. Ben is going to go back to the Las Vegas Convention Center. I'll be going over to the other the other major area where they are exhibitors, and that's the Sands Convention Center. Is that the area where the Eureka places. Yes, Eureka Park, So that's where all the startups are. Like, it's a lot of the smaller companies that tend to focus on a specific product or

specific line of products. Uh, the ones that you see in the convention center tend to be bigger companies that might have a raise of products, like families of products, like Samsung is a good example. They've got TVs, they got refrigerators, they've got washer dryers, they've got all sorts of stuff. They got phones that will blow up, they

got all sorts of things. But when you go to Eureka Park, you tend to find companies that we make three D printers, or we make these robots, or we makes right that they're supposed to be an a R toothbrush, and I don't know what that means. There's an augmented reality toothbrush and I don't know. So it doesn't project on your teeth. I don't know. Tomorrow you are Journey, and I'm going to get a lot more information about what's there, and I'll be shooting a lot of episodes

of the series Forward Thinking. I do. If you aren't familiar before it Thinking, go check out Forward Thinking that's a fun show I do about what the future holds for us, and in this case, I'm using c e s to kind of look at how future ideas are creeping into the technology of today and uh and then where could we go from there? Knowing that not all of these technologies are bound to succeed, some of them will likely fade into obscurity, but that's kind of the

fun of it too. Um So, before I completely wrap up, first of all, reminding my listeners check out that companion piece to car stuff or of car stuff rather, and make sure you listen to that so as you hear our talk about the way the automotive industry has been taking oversees. And I have a final question for Ben, the most important one. I don't know what this question, so I told Ben that I had a question I

could not forget to ask him at the end. Very important considering where we are, Where are you on gambling? Are you up or down? Oh? I am actually up? Yeah, I have almost tripled my fortunes. Wow, that's sweet. I'm almost a I've almost a thirty year thirty Yeah. What's the word for millionaire? But instead of a million, it's thirty. So you started with tending you're up to almost thirty you're doing better than I am. I I I'm up sixteen dollars and cents. I did not know this would

be the question. I know you didn't know. I didn't tell you it was an important one, though. Yeah wait wait wait wait yeah, Well if you go back and listen, tech stuff has an episode about how slot machines work. I am currently sixteen dollars and twenty five cents ahead. So I listened to my own show, followed my own advice, and as a result, I have more money than when I started with. And maybe you should retire a champion.

Maybe I propitiated the gods of gamblers. I what I do is I put a twenty dollar bill, Chris twenty dollar bill into the machine, and then I play, and I wait until I get over the twenty dollars, and then I hit cash out, and then I walk away, and then maybe later on I'll do it again. But as soon as I get over the amount that I had, I cash out and walk away. Now you know, I'm I'm going to like like many people with a newfound fortune, I am planning to directly before we leave for the airport,

blow my tire, my entire my entire state. Yes, I can come a coffee maybe a buffet on the dalliance of black Check, and I'm going to use this voice. I can, I can recommend, I can recommend the Gremlins Slaw Machine. It's very good to me. Uh well, thank you, thank you for asking. And yes, yes I am a thirty year that's wonderful. So Ben Bolin, thank you so much for joining me on this show. I will unlock the door and allow you to leave the hotel room

as as we're finished recording your show. I would also not to be um, not to be too too much of a diva, but I would appreciate if you could, Untie, We'll see. We'll see, uh will in the meantime while we're trying to houdin our way out of the ropes. Uh. I think that I think the long time listeners already know we had mentioned the episodes of previous c S

s or ces pass on tech stuff. I do want to recommend, if you are acquainted with the internets and for everybody's benefit, of not using the Blackjack voice again until it's time. Uh. Jonathan Jonathan also has video video segments on forward thinking, as well as a show that we both work on together called brain Stuff, which addresses everyday science, not just of math, but the questions that you didn't know you wanted to hear, one of which would be probably if you haven't heard of it yet.

You know how in old time movies people have a weird voice. You're tired of the Transatlantic accent. Yes, that's why I talked about strolling down the boulevard and saying the dirigible races. Yes, So why do people talk that way? Why does it sound like that? Well, you can find out. And that brain Stuff episode, so if it didn't already pop up on Facebook for you, when when viral which was kind of crazy, So check it out when you have a chance. Uh, and do please tune in to

car Stuff. Yes, yes, and remember, guys, if you have any questions, comments, suggestions for future episodes, you can always write to me. My email address is tech Stuff at how stuff works dot com. And by the time you listen to this ce S will be over and I'll be able to look at my email again. And if you don't like using email, you can contact me on Twitter or Facebook. The handle of both of those is tech stuff H. S W And I'll talk to you again really soon for more on this and thousands of

other topics. Is it, how stuff works dot com