The CES event is approaching its end for another year. As the show progressed, fewer announcements were witnessed, however, the major focus was on mobility, AI, advancement in fintech and smartphone technologies. Let’s have a look at some of the interesting announcements from the concluding sessions.

HERE introduced a global one-stop solution for on-demand transportation and mobility

The company introduced one of the most disruptive offerings at CES - HERE Open Mobility Marketplace. It is a global one-stop shop for on-demand transportation and mobility services. HERE has advanced in the last three years by transforming itself into a cloud platform-as-a-service company with location as the context, similar to what Apple has done with smartphones and Google has done with search.

"Mobility Marketplace" & related services such as "Mobility Dispatch" is what every business or consumer was waiting for to serve as a standardized point of contact for all service types and seamlessly connect supply with demand. The detailed insights on location intelligence are covered in our research.

Dynamics and Sprint disclosed the world’s first battery-powered, “connected” payment card

ImageSource: Businesswire

Dynamics Inc. along with Sprint launched the Dynamics Inc. Wallet Card. This is a connected payment card solution with benefits like Multiple card support, rapid card replacement, fastest data breach response, anywhere distribution which means banks can distribute this card anywhere and anytime (e.g. through retail branches or during events) and can be activated immediately by customers. Moreover, the card has a cellphone chip, antenna for connectivity, battery, programmable magnetic stripe and EMV chip along with a display for choosing cards.

Connected card is a new addition to IoT and will change how we use multiple cards for payments, thus providing a simplified user experience. Due to it being a connected card, new card issuance and data breach fixes can easily be carried out with a secure over the air (OTA) update.

Telstra adopted Dual-mode Cellular LPWA Network strategy (LTE -M + NB-IoT)

2018 will be a crucial year for NB-IoT deployment as most of the operators are opting for NB-IoT as their LPWA Network of choice. Telstra had already commercialized LTE-M in Q2 2017 in Australia. By launching NB-IoT and covering 2 out of 3 cellular LPWA networks, it would give Telstra an upper hand over other operators.

Both LTE-M and NB-IoT cover different use cases, LTE-M is more suitable for mobility devices that need hundreds of kilobits per second, whereas NB-IoT is more useful for transmitting small packets of information. Telstra is using network slicing for some NB-IoT applications, usually as a way of assuring the quality of service and mitigating security threats. It will mainly be used for smart homes.

Mediatek is looking to enable AI on the edge using its NeuroPilot A.I. platform

With players like Samsung (Exynos 9810), Huawei (Kirin 970) & Qualcomm (Snapdragon 845) already announcing their plans, the next generation of flagships are all set to leverage AI as a differentiator, while Mediatek is trailing with its AI strategy. However, if Mediatek is successful in bringing AI to the chipset level, it will be good news for affordable flagship OEMs. This will eventually speed up the adoption of AI to the chipset level across lower price bands. As per our forecast, one in three smartphones will be AI capable in 2020. For detailed insights, please refer to our press release.

Mercedes revealed a new AI-based Infotainment System

Image Source: India today

Mercedes-Benz has announced its new infotainment system, which will be AI-powered with a voice assistance. The infotainment system includes two screens, along with a voice assistant which can be activated by saying "Hey, Mercedes". Other commands can do things such as, control volume and adjust the climate control of the car amongst other things.  For instance, the voice command "I'm feeling cold" can adjust the climate control.

Spreadtrum and OmniVison have released the turnkey active stereo 3Dcamera reference design for smartphones

Spreadtrum and OmniVison have jointly released the turnkey active stereo 3Dcamera reference design for smartphones. The design includes OV9282 and OV7251 global shutter sensors from OmniVision along with the Spreadtrum SC9853 chipset. This will enable advanced 3D imaging capabilities, such as 3D modeling, depth capturing and face authentication. Since 3D face recognition is the next trend in biometric authentication in smartphones, this solution will lead to faster adoption of 3D sensing technologies in the mid and low end segment smartphones. Further, this will also lead to adoption of new features like facial animation and more based on 3D modelling.

Powermat joined the Wireless Power Consortium(WPC)

Image source: Computer world

Powermat has joined the Wireless Power Consortium(WPC) and this will lead to further advancement in the wireless charging technology space. Wireless charging is heading towards a single standard and with  Apple adopting Qi-charging in their iPhones, the battle between WPC and Airfuel alliance seems likely to end.

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