CES 2016: 7 of the coolest reveals from Intel

11 months ago

Intel seems to be targeting a very specific audience with its announcements at CES 2016 – with Intel technology being brought into extreme sports, Segways and … Lady Gaga.

Here’s what we found out:

1. That hoverboard you got for Christmas is lame now

Oh, you got a new hoverboard for Christmas? That’s nice. But it’s not a hoverboard-butler, is it?

One of Intel’s more exciting unveilings was its brand new “personal transporter” (or hoverboard to everyone else), which can transform into a robot.

The hoverboard-butler, which uses Intel RealSense technology, will be open platform and so the possibilities for what it may be able to do are endless. What we know right now is that it can grow arms, stream video and make cute faces. All the important things.

2. And so are your trainers

Something else to be embedded with RealSense technology is New Balance trainers. The chief executives of Intel and New Balance entered the stage wearing New Balance trainers with 3D-printed soles, which had been created using images of the bosses’ feet taken by a RealSense camera, to suit their walking styles.

Perhaps more exciting was news that Intel and New Balance are also working on a smart watch, as part of New Balance’s new Digital Sport division.

3. You don’t need instruments to make music

Intel Curie was announced at CES last year, but we got to see it in action this year. All audience members were given wristbands, and it soon became apparent that everyone on stage was wearing one too. It allowed Allah-Rakha Rahman, the Grammy winning composer behind Slumdog Millionaire, to compose by simply gesturing.

Some other people got involved too, as you can see in the video above.

4. The Winter X Games just got a little more interesting

By embedding Intel Curie chips, no bigger than a button, into snowboards, riders are now able to get a whole lot more data about the stunts they’re pulling off. ESPN is also in on the action, so all the data from the chip will appear on your TV screen when tuning in to the games in Aspen later this month.

5. And it’s not just snowboards that will get the technology

Red Bull Media House is another to partner Intel, so extreme athletes of all types will now have all this data available.

6. Drones are getting smarter

And while the athletes on their BMXs and such will be able to really analyse how well they’re doing, the drones capturing footage of their stunts will now be able to dodge trees – even falling ones – and other hazards.

They’ve thought of everything.

7. Oh, and there’s something big happening with Lady Gaga

Nobody’s quite sure what’s going to go down between Lady Gaga and Intel at the Grammys in February, but the pop star reckons that thanks to Intel technology she’s now able to “invent the un-inventable”.

It sounds promising.