Smart home technology has always been a popular theme at the Consumer Electronics Show for the last few years and next week’s show will likely continue with this trend.

The 2017 edition of the show, which marks the CES’s 50th anniversary, starts on Jan. 5 in Las Vegas, with many press conferences due to kick off earlier in the week.

Here’s a look at some of the smart home technology expected to be unveiled at CES next week:

Intel and Amazon to demo its Tiny Smart Home

At CES next week, Intel Corp. will demonstrate its full suite of Internet of Things solutions using its Tiny Smart Home that it demonstrated for the first time last month. The Tiny Smart Home uses Amazon Alexa for voice control, MiOS Ltd.’s gateway with an Intel Quark processor provides home automation and Amazon Web Services provides the cloud-based processing.

Below is an example of Intel’s Tiny Smart Home that was on display at AWS re:Invent conference last month.

Intel’s press conference takes place on Wednesday, Jan. 4 at 4 p.m. PST.  

LG’s smarter appliances and levitating speaker

LG Electronics Inc. is set to have a busy CES next week. In addition to unveiling five new smartphones, the company will unveil a variety of smart home appliances that incorporate deep learning, as well as a levitating speaker.

Smart home appliances with deep learning features

LG’s new smart home appliances that will be unveiled at CES include a robot cleaner that will use deep learning to recognize objects in a room and react to them. It will be able to tell the difference between a chair and a human and can ask the person to move out of the way.

The new air conditioner will be able to learn which rooms of the house are occupied most during specific times of the day and adjust the temperature accordingly. LG’s new fridge will analyze usage and eating patterns and make adjustments, for example, it will only make ice at a specific time of the day when it will be used.

The LG washing machine will be able to adjust its programs automatically based on the quality of the water used.

LG’s Levitating Speaker

LG is also set to unveil a Levitating Portable Speaker (main image above) at CES. The wireless speaker hovers in mid-air above the accompanying Levitation Station. The 360-degree omnidirectional speaker has a subwoofer embedded in the base station and can be used indoors and out.

The levitation is possible thanks to electromagnets in the base station. Once the speaker’s 10-hour battery starts to run low it will automatically descend to the Levitation Station where it will charge wirelessly.

LG’s press conference is scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 4 at 8 a.m. PST.

WooHoo smart home hub with touchscreen

SmartBeings Inc., a Silicon Valley-based startup, is set to showcase its WooHoo smart home hub with a touchscreen at CES. The artificial intelligence-based hub, currently raising funds on Kickstarter PBC, combines a touchscreen display, face and voice recognition and a 360-degree rotation HD camera into a single device.

Samsung’s Amazon Echo-compatible robot vacuum

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. will unveil its Powerbot VR7000 robotic vacuum that incorporates Amazon Echo voice compatibility.

Samsung won’t be the first company to integrate Echo voice compatibility into a robotic vacuum. Last month, Neato Robotics Inc. introduced Alexa integration for its Botvac Connected vacuum.

Samsung’s press conference is scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 4 at 2 p.m. PST.

Oticon’s hearing aid that connects to the smart home

Oticon Inc., manufacturer and supplier of hearing aid solutions, will show off the Oticon Opn, the world’s first hearing aid that connects to the internet via the IFTTT (If This Then That) network at CES.

The hearing aid can be programmed to interact with various smart home devices. Via their hearing aid, users can be alerted when someone is at the door, lights can be turned on automatically when they switch on their hearing aid or they can hear when the smoke detector goes off.

Connecting to smart home devices will allow users with hearing loss to listen to a TV or music directly through the hearing aid, while users can adjust the volume and switch programs via the smartphone app.

Main image via LG; Images via SmartBeings, Oticon