Gadget show puts future on display

Associated Press

LAS VEGAS

Look around. How many computing devices do you see? Your phone, probably; maybe a tablet or a laptop; your car; the TV set; the microwave; bedside alarm clock; possibly the thermostat; and others you’ve never noticed.

Much of that computing isn’t doing much while segregated into individual devices. But many of these gadgets have the potential to get smarter by connecting to their fellows, which in turn could open the door to a brave new “Internet of Things.”

To see where that might be taking us, there’s no better place than the annual gadget extravaganza formerly known as the Consumer Electronics Show – and now simply as CES.

The show, which starts Wednesday in Las Vegas, is the place for companies large and small to show off new connected devices. These range from the seemingly trivial – for instance, smart umbrellas that message you if you leave them behind – to the undeniably helpful, such as navigation devices that display driving directions onto your windshield so you don’t have to take your eyes off the road.

According to the McKinsey Global Institute, a division of consulting giant McKinsey & Co., the value created by connecting the world’s devices could hit $11 trillion annually by 2025, a mind-boggling sum that represents over half of U.S. economic output in a year.

In recent years, CES has begun catering more heavily to startups hoping to break through the noise. That’s largely a reaction to the fact that many of technology’s biggest names have been no-shows for some time.