CES 2018: What to expect for smart home tech

Every new year summons another edition of the tech world’s biggest trade show-slash-party—yup, CES is back. Over the next week in Las Vegas, the biggest companies in consumer electronics, automotives, and more will be showing off their latest innovations. And hundreds of startups will vie for attention on their potentially revolutionary inventions.

What will be in it for us regular folks who just want technology to make our lives at home a bit better? Well, watch this space (and our Twitter and Instagram accounts) as we hit the show floors next week to find out.

But first, here’s a rundown of what we’re expecting to see at CES 2018, loosely organized by room.

Living Room

One of the biggest winners at CES 2017 was Amazon Alexa, the smart assistant that managed to get integrated into practically everything, from fridges to cars.

This year, we’re expecting Apple’s Siri assistant and Home Kit smart home platform to make more of a splash, considering the tech giant announced the HomePod smart speaker and home tech hub last June. Of course, with more integrations into different kinds of devices, Apple’s smart home system will expand its control well beyond the living room.

And yes: There will be more TVs this year, armed with all kinds of tricks. The buzz for 2018 has been around 8K resolution displays (yay more pixels!). Honestly, we’re just there to see how Instagrammable the TV displays will be at this point (see above).

Keecker

And there will be robots, but this year we may see more “practical” examples, like the entertainment-focused Keecker “homebot” shown above, or the Cutii home support robot geared towards seniors.

Kitchen

Sunny Eckerle

What does it mean for a kitchen to be smart in 2017? We’re counting on more smart home integrations—Alexa, Google Home, the whole gang—in kitchen appliances, even more niche devices like air fryers and sous vide machines.

Whether it’s augmented reality, voice control, or wireless charging, the latest technologies common in living room devices will be found in the kitchen as well.

Bedroom

Sleep tech may be the most exciting new frontier in the smart home, with plenty of companies big and small working on perfecting a night’s sleep. Sleep Number will be showing its latest app-enhanced mattresses and we even hear buzz of a smart bed that stops snoring—whoa.

New sleep solutions also won’t be limited to mattresses. There will also be WiFi-connected pillows, devices to create ideal sleep conditions, and smarter bedding for pets.

Bathroom and beyond

Sunny Eckerle

When it comes to the connected home, the bathroom, for better or worse, is not getting left out. Smart home apps and assistants, for example, are infiltrating showers now, letting you, for example, customize the perfect shower length, temperature, and pressure, or mix in—what else?—essential oils.

Of course, there will be tons of new products that do a lot of the “behind the scenes” work, from home monitoring systems to new wireless charging solutions. We’ll watch out for those, too.

As CES 2018 kicks off, keep up with Curbed’s CES coverage of the newest, weirdest, or otherwise impressive tech, right here on the site, as well as on Twitter and Instagram.