WORDS Chris Rooke

The Consumer Electronics Show kicks off the year by showcasing some of the most interesting technologies that manufacturers think are going to take off, and some of the barmiest technological inventions around, in a sort of crazy competition for who can cause the most sensational headline.

While in the past the convention has been targeted towards the press, more recently many exhibitors have used it as a platform to garner mainstream interest in new products or advancements — and nothing says mainstream quite like Michael Bay. Despite their best efforts, everybody was upstaged by Bay, who himself left Samsung’s stage mid-endorsement after the teleprompter failed.

However, there was still plenty of interesting technology around. Smartwatch company Pebble unveiled the Pebble Steel: a newly designed version of their wristwatch that uses higher quality materials, such as stainless steel and a leather strap. While the new version doesn’t include any features, it does encompass a more traditional watch design than its slightly clunky predecessor. It goes on sale for $250, and is certain to cause a stir; Pebble is widely considered to have the most complete feature set of any smartwatch currently available, and with a neater design, it’s bound to be of more interest to consumers.

While the Pebble Steel will be landing at the end of the month, the Oculus Rift won’t be hitting shores for quite some time. Unveiled at CES 2013, the Oculus Rift is a virtual reality gaming headset, that straps on to the user’s head and allows them to explore virtual worlds. The experience has been improved over last year’s model, with less motion blur and latency issues, and with an improved pixel count. The Oculus Rift team also showed off a new circular treadmill system that allows players to run around as their character while exploring the virtual world.

In the meantime, running around in real life might be a bit more interesting with a whole range of wearable fitness tools on display — mostly bracelets, which track movement, altitude and other data to calculate daily exercise. When you’ve finished doing that, you’ll be able to come home to one of 18 designs of Steam Machine gaming platform (built by a whole variety of manufacturers) plugged into your 105” curved Ultra HD (3840 x 2160 pixels) TV, as shown off by Sony, Samsung, and LG — although Sony’s CEO Kaz Hirai predicted during the show that Ultra HD TVs aren’t going to take off for another six to eight years. If CES is anything to go by, 2014 is gearing up to be a year of wearables: with smart watches and fitness trackers on top of last year’s Google Glass, it’s likely that in twelve months time there’ll be a lot more people walking around covered in sensors.