Intel CEO Debuts New Wearable Tech at CES 2014

Datamation content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.

Intel wants to be inside — everything.

That’s the message coming from Intel’s CEO Brian Krzanich. In a 2014 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) keynote delivered Monday night, Krzanich demonstrated an array of innovative technologies from Intel that firmly place the silicon giant at the forefront of the new wearable computing and mobile technology revolution.

At the core of Krzanich’s keynote was the announcement and demonstration of new silicon called Edison, which is based on Intel’s Quark effort that brings x86 computing down to the embedded computing form factor. The Edison is the size of a standard SD-flash memory card and provides what Krzanich describes as Pentium-class computing capabilities. Edison is a 22-nanometer process based chip and initially will be available with a dual core and include Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity options. Edison will be at the core of a host of new smart connected devices that Intel want to help bring to market.

“We want to make everything smart, that’s what Intel does,” Krzanich said.

During his keynote Krzanich demonstrated how the Intel Edison chip could be used in smart baby monitoring solution. In the demo, an Edison chip was embedded with the baby monitor and then connected to an Intel Smart Coffee Cup, which was also Edison powered. The smart coffee cup display changed to reflect the status of the baby monitor.

Intel also demonstrated its own smart earphone technology called Jarvis, which includes a smart assistant somewhat similar to Apple’s Siri technology.

In a bid to further boost innovation, Intel announced the ‘Make it Wearable’ contest, which promises up to $1.3 million in prizes for new ideas for wearable technologies that could be powered by Intel’s Edison.

Krzanich also admitted that he recognizes that security can potentially become an issue when it comes to the new era of pervasive mobile and wearable computing. To that end, Intel will continue to emphasize its mobile security technology from McAfee. Going a step further, Krzanich announced that McAfee Software for mobile devices will be free in a bid to help grow the whole ecosystem.

Android and Windows

While the emerging world of wearable computing is still very new, there is another challenge that consumers face as they try and meld their existing Windows habits with mobile. To help solve that challenge, Krzanich announced a new Intel dual-boot technology that will enable consumers to have both Microsoft Windows as well as Google’s Android on a single device and be able to seamlessly switch between the two operating systems as needed.

“You don’t have to make a choice moving forward – you can have both,” Krzanich said.

wearable tech