Now that the 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is in our rear-view mirror, at least one take-away rings clear–consumer electronics represents a growing opportunity for embedded design.
According to Embedded.com’s Bernard Cole, “…the ability of embedded systems developers to continue to improve the hidden and invisible infrastructure upon which the consumer electronics systems and devices depend will determine the success or failure of consumer electronics as a market that drives the world economy.”
Indeed, embedded designers seem to be on the path of innovation when it comes to the consumer electronics infrastructure. Embedded systems and devices are playing critical roles in products from smartphones and tablets to wired and wireless home networks and beyond. More of our devices are Web-enabled and able to “talk” to each other, without our intervention. This is why The Internet of Things is more than a trendy term, and why some are calling this the “age of the microcontroller”.
What kinds of technologies should embedded designers continue to explore, in order to create the systems that will power tomorrow’s consumer electronics?
Atmel | Bits & Pieces 
Security. A lot of the IoT projects that I see are frankly scary, in their lack of any serious security. That carries over (or has been inherited from) less standard “connected” devices. “Traditional” internet security is “hard” in a small and deeply embedded microcontroller, and it’s not clear (at least to me) that the overall security models that exist are very applicable to that world, anyway.
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