When Intel was founded in 1968, your average
computer was the size of a desk. Today, they
can be as small as a single chip. What will
they be like tomorrow?
One of the most popular booths at CES, the
consumer technology conference, is Intel.
Intel’s business is semiconductors, which
while important aren’t that exciting to
look at. At the Intel booth, you’ll find
a ton of technology that relies on Intel semiconductors
to work. It’s a strategy that always draws
a crowd.
Take their new Curie module, for example.
Curie is what we call a system on a chip,
meaning it contains all the basic elements
of a computer on a single, tiny silicon chip.
The small size and versatility means designers
can put Curie to many different uses.
At CES 2016, Intel showed off a simple proof
of concept involving bracelets. The bracelets
contained Curie chips, which have gyroscopes
and accelerometers that can detect movement
along six axes. Using the bracelets, visitors
to Intel’s booth could control schools of
digital fish across an enormous display. But
that’s just the start.
The chips are capable of not just detecting
motion but also processing that data in meaningful
ways. To show how, Intel installed chips into
special BMX bikes. The Curie modules can track
the bike’s movement, including any sick
stunts the rider wants to pull.
I used that word correctly, right? Sick?
The Curie module can send data to a display
through Bluetooth, giving the rider real-time
feedback on his or her performance. From air
time to the number of bike rotations during
a jump, it provides the hard numbers.
But let’s get a bit more whimsical with
this tech. The Chromat Adrenaline dress uses
a Curie to detect changes in the wearer’s
adrenaline. So if the wearer begins to experience
stress, with a more rapid heartbeat and shallow,
quick breaths, the dress uses actuators to
expand outward, mimicking how some animals
will puff up to make themselves look bigger
when confronted with a predator.
Our favorite implementation of this at CES
was the Segway Robot, which everyone was calling
the HoverButler. It’s part personal transport
device, part robot. You can ride around on
it or switch it to robo-mode to greet guests
and be generally adorable. It’s got extendable
functionality, meaning makers can create new
extensions to attach to the robot.
So that’s a quick look at the stuff that
makes our stuff work. From computers to the
Internet of Things, these technologies are
the hidden workers that keep everything running.
Let us know what upcoming tech you’re excited
about. And don’t forget to check back with
us every day for the coolest stories in tech,
science, pop culture and everything else at
now.howstuffworks.com!
