It’s almost time for CES, the Consumer Electronics Show that takes over Las Vegas every January. The event is usually the place to go for new product launches, tech demo’s and all things future related.

Last week the Consumer Technology Association announced the CES 2019 Innovation Honorees, a kind of best-in-class list of companies and products deserving of recognition for particular innovations.

Interestingly, Chinese drone manufacturer made the cut in the Robotics and Drones product category.

Voice-enabled Mantis Q makes CES innovation shortlist

The CES Innovation Awards recognizes outstanding design across 28 product categories. An elite panel of judges, including designers, engineers and members of the tech media, review submissions based on design, functionality, consumer appeal, engineering and how the products compare with competitors. Products recognized as Best of Innovation received the highest ratings in their respective product categories.

For the complete list of CES 2019 Innovation Honorees, including product descriptions and photos, you can visit CES.tech.

So why did Yuneec’s Mantis Q make the grade ahead of the rest of the drones that were launched in 2018?

We can only think that it’s down to the drone’s voice control. While plenty of the consumer models on the market can be controlled to an extent by gestures, the Mantis Q is the first to respond to verbal commands. You can read more about the Mantis Q here.

The foldable drone launched in August into a competitive space already packed with tiny drones from DJI and Parrot.

We doubt this will be the last CES-related drone announcement we hear in the runup to the festival and beyond. Not too long ago CES was abuzz with drone releases and industry news.

We don’t expect to get too many huge news items this year though, as most drone companies have their own timetables for product and service releases and more industry-relevant events at which to announce them. We reported live from DJI’s Airworks conference last month, for example.

Still, it’ll be interesting to see what comes out of CES 2019. The dates to pencil into your diary are January 8-11.