Today, along with my two colleagues Alan Perry from CFAX 1070, and Jennifer Cairns the CEO of Egurus, we covered a lot more of the show and the show floor at the Las Vegas convention Center.

One very large and very busy area visited today was the flying robotic drones. There are drones that are considered toys starting at $29, and then there are drones that run into the many thousands of dollars that are used commercially. They have been around for a while now, but they’re starting to become very intelligent. These drones run longer, and are much smarter about how they fly thanks to Intel Realsense technology built into them. This makes them much safer around any people or operators.

We also saw something called the Daqri smart helmet. This device is worn like a regular helmet, but has a heads up display built into the visor and is connected to a central computer. The wearer of this device can actually see into specially designed display electrical panels that have problems, system pressures that are too high or too low, and the heads up display will warn them in real time if something is wrong. On some of these systems, the heads-up display will display instantly to the user the steps to take to remedy the situation if it is considered dangerous. Again this is all possible based on the Intel Edison processor that was unveiled last year. This device is shipping right now and the helmet cost is several thousands of dollars.

The common theme of so many of the products we’ve seen over the past few days, is that these companies are working hard to develop technology and products to make our lives easier and safer.

Ron Fraser
London Drugs Computer Department Manager – Yates St, Victoria

So, another exciting day at CES 2016 here in Las Vegas. Today we ended up walking almost 18,000 steps or the equivalent of 16 km. That’s not unusual here. Everything is gigantic scale, and the distances between these things looks normal to the untrained eye. To give you an idea how big this event is, the total amount of display space is about 3 1/4 million square feet. Apparently that’s well over 50 football fields worth. And that distance is spread out over several hotels, two convention centers, and all over Las Vegas. Add 170,000 attendees, almost 6000 press members, and then 15,000 presenters and you get the picture. Don’t forget it takes a lot of talented people to also set up, takedown, and maintain a show like this so they are all here as well.

Some of the things we saw today that were notable? Well, we saw a new frontloading washing machine by Samsung that has a second door that will let you add clothing if you forget to put it in initially. That’s very useful. We saw a brand-new Samsung refrigerator that has cameras inside the fridge so wherever you are out shopping you can actually see the contents of the fridge, and know if there’s something you need to purchase before you come home.

This same fridge has a Black glass panel that turns totally translucent so you can see inside the fridge with just a quick knock on the glass. You can also order groceries right on the LCD panel on the refrigerator, have them delivered to you and have the refrigerator pay using your MasterCard Visa or debit card.

The drudgery of home chores is a thing of the past, truly, with some of these new devices.

I will have a lot more for you tomorrow!

Ron Fraser
London Drugs Computer Department Manager – Yates St, Victoria

This time of year there are plenty of things to look forward to… of course, there are all the cultural/religious/statutory holidays and the gifting and the feasting and general merrymaking associated therewith…. for nerds like me, this year there is also a certain movie release featuring wookies and lightsabers, which our nerd-hearts-and-minds have been anticipating since around March. However, for the good people at the Photolab and London Drugs as a whole, as well as anyone in Western Canada with a passion for the art of photography,  there is one more thing—one more big thing—to be excited about:

A brand new Photolab website and in-store kiosk—after months and possibly years in careful planning and development—are ready to roll.

The new website offers more creative ways to order not just prints and enlargements but fine art prints, photo gifts and all the Photolab’s products. It will allow you to securely start and finish your projects here, there, or anywhere – and there is no need to download software. I was fortunate enough to be granted a sneak peak at the ‘beta’ site to preview it for this post.

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