Technology unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show points to a connected future that has implications for retailers and consumers alike.

Samsung boss BK Yoon delivers the keynote address at this year’s CES in Las Vegas

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which takes place every January in Las Vegas, provides the ultimate gaze into the technologies of the future.

Of the themes that dominated this year’s event, advances in wearable technology and the connected home were two of the most alluring.

“The connected home is going to continue to be a big trend for 2015,” says Dave Ward, head of innovation and technology at Currys PC World. “As people control more of their daily lives using smartphones and tablets the next area they will want to have a smarter interaction with is the home.”

Ward cites Nest, the thermostat that learns from users’ behaviour and automatically adjusts itself to save energy, as an example of how devices are becoming smarter every day, even when they are not connected.

The idea that everything is connected – the so-called internet of things – was a talking point at this year’s CES.

“Billions of connections, through embedded sensors, are being integrated into the world around us: in our clothing, our cars and our homes, enhancing dumb objects and making them smart through automation or data collection and aggregation,” explains Ross Sleight, chief strategy officer at mobile marketing firm Somo.

The implications for product design and consumers’ lifestyles are potentially enormous. In his keynote speech at CES, BK Yoon, president and chief executive of Samsung, said the internet of things has the potential to transform society, the economy and how people live their lives. As an example he described Samsung’s new three-dimensional range sensor, which can detect the tiniest movements and is precise enough to understand a person’s surrounding environment and offer services accordingly.

Samsung is also working on microchips, such as the embedded package on package (ePOP) and bio-processor, which are energy-efficient and compact enough to go into a wide range of devices, especially wearables and mobile devices.

“The next area people will want to have a smarter interaction with is the home”

Dave Ward, Currys PC World

There is a feeling that whereas in the past wearable technology was impressive to look at but not commercially viable, some devices are now reaching a stage of maturity. Smartwatches are just one example of a product whose time may have finally arrived. “The ability to glance at your wrist and decide whether you want to action or dismiss a notification is actually pretty incredible once you start,” says Ward.

Wearable technology, however, is not just about the devices themselves. Forrester analyst JP Gownder believes it is also about cloud-based services that take data from wearable devices in order to harvest insights. “We’ll see a broader focus on services, particularly from companies like Samsung, Microsoft, and Google,” he says. “We’ll see more evidence that services link together customers and value-added services in areas like health, fitness, tracking children and pets, and workforce enablement.”

Technology company Netatmo used CES to showcase Welcome, the first smart home camera to use face recognition technology.

Welcome sends the names of the people it sees in the user’s home to their smartphone. The camera also notifies users when it detects an unknown face.

What such innovations mean for retailers in terms of future product offerings is notoriously hard to predict. As Sleight says: “It’s not necessarily what’s happening at CES that’s going to be of interest for the immediacy.

The next big thing for them is going to be what the middle market consumer is doing, what they’re adopting and how they’re using technology.”

Sleight adds that CES is only the first step on a long journey for technology before it makes it into consumers’ homes. “It is, however, all about understanding where the leading edge of tech is and how brands and retailers can take what they see and incorporate it into their strategy for the future,” he says.