What to expect from the country’s first-ever gadget expo?

The massive India Gadget expo is right round the corner, kicking off from June 19 for four days. Offering a platform for inventors, innovators and end-retailers of the gadget and technology industry, nearly 60 brands from gadgets and electronics industry including LG Electronics, Haier, Qualcomm, Panasonic, Nokia, D-Link, Gionee, Xolo, Amazon and others would be part of the expo being organised by L&T promoted Hitex Exhibition Centre in association with SK Innoventures. A series of seminars, exhibition, presentations and business networking opportunities have been scheduled for the four-day event. We’re hitting the show floor to bring you all the latest from the first ever gadget convention and here is a sneak peek of what to expect: from gaming goodies to wearable tech, bigger phones and faster tablets, here’s what we’re hoping to see in Hyderabad!

Gaming’s taking over

India has seldom been the main stage for video games over the years, but it looks like 2014 is the year that changes. Many of the ‘Virtual Reality and Gesture Recognition’ related gaming gadgets aka ‘Soft Kinetics’ might foray, this year. The celebrated Oculus Rift’s gaming experience is another eye candy which might woo young gaming nerds. We can’t wait to take a peek at the price tags, get to grips with the controllers and to see the variety of different consoles on the show.

Wearables are going even bigger!

2014 is going to be the year of the wearable computer and what better place to kick it off than at this year? Expect to see even more fitness trackers at this year’s event, packing even more smarts than before. The major players in the fitness space can be the ones made in Hyderabad by its people including the LeChal shoes.

The next wearable on the catalogue could be the one and only Google Glass. The device is like the forbidden fruit--for we have seen it, heard about it but have never felt it.

Smartwatches will be going big at this year’s event, building on the success they’ve had over the past 12 months. Big players like Sony and Samsung revealed their takes on the smart wrist tech with the Smart Watch 2 and Galaxy Gear respectively, and we may see some new competitors in the city. You can expect to see even more companies giving their take on the form factor, such as LG, which had its upcoming Lifeband Touch band leaked, while there’s likely to be other entries from smaller tech companies too.

The smartphone race continues

Smartphones are getting bigger and faster over the past year and it looks like that trend’s set to continue well into 2014. This year’s show in Hyderabad is no doubt going to be home to even more phablets, building on top of the success that Samsung has had with its larger-than-life Galaxy Note range. With many phones makers like Gionee and Nokia jumping in the bigger form factor, you can also expect even more to pop up at this year’s show.

Phone sizes aren’t the only thing going big: screen resolutions will be growing in size alongside them, giving you a razor-sharp display to enjoy your movies, photos and games on. We’ve already heard rumours that Samsung’s Galaxy S5 will be packing a mammoth 2560×1440 screen resolution, so you can expect other phone makers to follow suit too. You’ll also need some hefty hardware to push all those pixels too, so expect to see even faster phones pop up with meatier processors. Apple’s leading the pack with its first 64-bit processor in the iPhone 5s and it looks like other phone makers will be following suit – perhaps as soon as the weekend.

Graphene products

Like many scientific breakthroughs, this one happened serendipitously. Back in 2004, physicist Andre Geim and his colleague Konstantin Novoselow were trying to cut graphite into the thinnest possible slices with the high-tech equivalent of a cheese grater. But they were struggling to get beyond layers that were less than 10,000 atoms thick. The slicing process, however, produced residue, and the researchers would regularly use scotch tape to clean the graphite surface. The tape was then discarded, and the clean surface would be examined and measured. Then someone got the bright idea to ignore the graphite and examine the tape. Under a microscope they saw "really transparent pieces of graphite" arranged in a honeycomb lattice. Tada! Please put your hands together for graphene.

As unexpected lab events go, this one was a winner. Among other honors, it won its discoverers the 2010 Nobel Prize for Physics. Now that the invention has forayed into the market already, we might love to see these in real, in here.

3D printers

3D printers certainly aren't toys, but one US company is preparing to launch a 3D printer for children called Printeer. Also NASA has cleared a 3D printer for launch to the International Space Station in August. The decision follows trials at Marshall Space Flight Center in the state of Alabama. The printer was developed by California start-up Made in Space. In a digital age, when technology skills are some of the most important a child can learn, is there a way to bridge the gap between the screen and the physical world? Now there is. 3D printing is tailor-made for today's curious tech-savvy people and you might end up printing something you like at the expo.