With the Consumer Electronics Show getting underway in Las Vegas, the onslaught of new products, innovations and ideas that will define 2015 are blasting off from that trade show’s launch pad.

But in truth, 2015 is more likely to be a year with some real growth on the trends that emerged in 2014 instead of a year the features new and surprising developments.

Shawn Dubravac, chief economist at the Consumer Electronics Association opened the show (and the coming year in technology) by outlining its four main themes:

Digitization of our physical space, permeation of logic, the “Internet of me” and “fragmented innovation” were the four themes listed by Dubravac.

Digitization of physical space can be seen through innovations such as the growth in 3D printing, creating on-demand products and home automation, which is set to explode with all kind of smart gadgets throughout the home.

Permeation of logic is when one thing logically flows from another or “predictive customization”. Netflix has embraced this with its recommendation process which suggests films based on what you watched in the past.

This will occur across other technologies and sectors. An example would be a smartwatch capable of tracking your health that realizes you are stressed out, and then perhaps suggests a mellow playlist from your streaming music service to calm you down.

All of the connected devices leading to the Internet of things will lead to the Internet of Me. Dubravac suggests that data from something like a web-connected toothbrush could be provided to your dentist, so he can make recommendations based on information about brushing habits.

And lastly, fragmented information, means simply that consumers should expect more innovation from a wider variety of companies, in more and more categories.

Other technology areas that will be significant in 2015 include:

Security: Two words: Sony hack. With that roiling story presenting geopolitical ramifications and real world impact from a devastating cyber attack, beefing up computer security will be something many businesses will take more seriously and spend more money on.

On a personal level, there will likely be a spike in innovative approaches and growth in things like password managers or timed messages that delete and other innovations.

Smarter cars: One of the areas in which CES has witnessed a massive shift over the past five years is the number of car companies that exhibit and announce deals at the show.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

It has become the place to hear the latest about cars that drive themselves and there are sure to be some real-world developments this year in that area as the concept inches closer to reality.

Beyond that science fiction type of news, more and more cars will open up their dashboards to technology. As with most technology, it’s likely to be reserved for the high end of the market at first but continue to move on down. As well, Apple and Google plan to duke it out in this area with Carplay and Android Auto, respectively.

Wearables: There will no doubt be countless activity trackers and smart watches given as gifts for the holidays this year, but we really are just at phase one for this area of tech. The past year has seen so many wearable concepts and the coming year is when many of them will come to market. The genre is still extremely gimmicky and has to get better to succeed. Apple’s iWatch could be the bellwether for that entire product line, if it succeeds and solves some of the existing problems. Health tracking is also going to only get better and move past glorified pedometers. The real growth area is far beyond the wrist.

4K Ultra HD TVs: The prices are finally coming down, so this is likely the breakthrough year for the next HD, and where it really becomes the standard. At LG’s opening press conference, 60 per cent of the company’s lineup was 4K offerings. Sharp was touting its new lineup as ‘better than 4K’. Of course, as soon as it really catches on, manufacturers will move on up and start touting 8K or some other high priced TV tech.

Read more about: