CES 2014: Intel Wants to ‘Make Everything Smart’, Demos Multiple Smart Products at CES

To open his pre-CES keynote, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich told the audience this his company wants to “make everything smart”. If a product could be better-served with some brains behind it, then he wants to see it happen. We talked earlier about one example of this in our Intel Edison post, but I didn’t want to skip over some of the other intriguing ideas that were exhibited.

Note that none of the products here are going to be manufactured and released by Intel. Instead, they’re merely proof-of-concept, with Intel showing what’s possible with its technologies. Krzanich said that we should expect to see products based on these designs this coming summer.

When working-out, an effective way to monitor your heart rate and other information is to wear a specially designed product around your chest. For obvious reasons, this isn’t the most convenient. This is a problem that Intel helps rid with its “Smart Headset”, a pair of earbuds that have the ability to accomplish the same goals.

A product like this kills two birds with one stone, because a lot of people who exercise wear earbuds already to listen to music. The best part of these might be the fact that they’re powered by the jack they’re plugged into – no external power or charging is needed. Plugged right into your mobile phone, you’d be able to get instant information about your workout.

While a non-issue in the grand scheme, it’s not always so convenient to plug our mobile devices into their power cable to charge, and beyond that, either the cable connection or the connection on the device can become damaged over time. “Smart Bowl” to the rescue. Just toss your electronics in, and the bowl will charge them all (assuming they have wireless charging capabilities, of course).

Seen in the bowl above, and also in Krzanich’s hands below, the Jarvis Headset aims to make Apple’s Siri look like child’s play. In the demo, Jarvis is called-upon to help the user make dinner reservations and perform other basic tasks. Before the user wraps-up, Jarvis politely reminds them that three emails from their wife remain unopened (a potential life-saver).

The demo was unbelievably impressive, but as these things so often go, real-world non-staged experiences tend to differ. Still, I highly recommend checking out the demo for yourself here (skip to 14:40) to gain a better understanding of its goals.

The hottest piece of wearable computing at the moment is the smartwatch, so no surprise, Krzanich pulled one of those out of his hat:

Each one of the products shown-off here are impressive and a definite sign of what’s to come. The next year is without question going to be quite interesting on the wearable computing front.