Gizmo Guy: Robot Heaven

With 3,700 exhibitors spread over 2.4 million square feet of Las Vegas convention space, covering the giant Consumer Electronics Show is a ludicrous mission. So please accept today's "Gizmo Guy Faves From CES 2016" with a giant grain of salt.

Kitchen capers. The concept of a "smart" (and pricey, at $5,000) refrigerator with a built-in LCD touch screen for leaving messages and making a shopping list has been floating around for a while. But Samsung's new Internet-connected Family Hub Refrigerator finally plays the game to logical conclusions. With new development partners such as Groceries by Mastercard, Fresh Direct, and ShopRite, items you need aren't just stored in an on-screen shopping list; they're ordered for home or curbside store delivery. Already at the market without a list? Web-connected cameras inside the fridge relay what's missing and needed. And if you have a compatible Samsung TV in the living room, what's playing on that screen can be mirrored on the refrigerator's display - so you'll never miss a big play when rummaging in the "icebox" for beers and snacks.

Drone on. Are un-piloted consumer drones really a "next big thing"? Most of the small multi-propeller fliers we spotted at CES seemed like glorified remote-controlled toys. But Parrot showed a fixed-wing (about three feet wide) drone that could scope out a forest fire. And Ehang unveiled its 184 AAV (Autonomous Aerial Vehicle), sufficiently big and brawny (at 440 pounds) to find, rescue, and carry home one very grateful (though traumatized) passenger.

Hot little rides. Hover boards were a happening thing at last year's CES and what did that get us? Horror stories about people falling off and the devices bursting into flames. Now backers of the next little things in ground transport - foldable electric scooters and "pedal assisted" e-bikes - swear their rides are safe (with proper battery management), street legal, and practical - capable of 17 miles travel (per charge) at speeds up to 16 m.p.h. Xcooter makes their $1,500 rides in Coral Gables, Fla., Urbe-E in Pasadena, Calif., with customer financing available through a major bank. And Ford (yes, Ford) is testing prototype MoDe:Me eBikes in Britain for package delivery. "We put some e-bikes and drivers into a lorry otherwise loaded with packages, move it to a central location, then the bikers fan out in different directions to expedite the deliveries," shared a Ford UK spokesman. Sounds more practical than drone drops, doesn't it?

Robot friends. Somabar, the Robotic Bartender, doesn't have a lot to say "but is a very good listener and a great mixologist," quipped inventor Dylan Purcell-Lowe. On sale this spring for $449, the counter-top machine holds up to six smart-tagged and app-identified 750ml containers of liquid pleasure. Somabar suggests appropriate drink options on a tablet/smart phone app, then pours your selection in under 10 seconds - less time than it takes to get most bartenders' attention.

We've seen what happens when South Korea puts its collective willpower and funding behind a product category like televisions, washing machines, and automobiles. "President Park Geun-hye has declared robots are the next priority for development," said a sales guy working the Seoul-ful (and fun) Future Robot booth at CES. Boasting computer-generated animated faces and touch-screen bellies, these Furo-i robots are already greeting hotel guests, snapping/printing photos, taking orders at fast food restaurants, and serving up movie tickets in tech-forward tourist spots like Macau and Dubai. A smaller desktop Furo-i aims to manage home surveillance, pet care, health monitoring, and emotional service. Next landing, Anywhere U.S.A.?

Retro pleasures. Vinyl records are still on the comeback; sales jumped an additional 30 percent last year. Now some iconic turntable brands are getting back in biz. Panasonic is reviving the Technics SL-1200, dormant since 2010. Sony's HX500 has a built-in high-resolution A/D converter, to transfer that toasty vinyl warmth to a high-quality digital format for portable playback. And the Victrola brand, long synonymous with record players - and its home base of Camden - is also being revived this year (by licensee Innovative Technology) with vinyl record/CD/FM players that look like the wind-ups in your great-grandparents' parlor.

Future column fodder. Promises of autonomous (self-driving) cars scared us silly last year at CES. Doesn't "assisted driving" and "human-

machine interface" sound more sensible? And achievable.

Dish Network is dishing some staggering video delights - a new Hopper 3 satellite TV receiver that can record up to 16 (!) channels at once, that simulcasts four high-def games on one 4K Ultra HD TV screen (for the "sports bar effect") and transfers recordings to a $99 portable drive (Hopper Go) for wireless WiFi playback on phone/tablet screens.

Voice activation of other devices through Siri and Amazon Echo is booming - Ooma Internet phones, Lutron light switches and window shades, and even Ford cars. It's magic!

How cool is virtual reality? The answer next week.

takiffj@phillynews.com

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@JTakiff