Future discovered in a gun range outside Vegas

Future discovered in a gun range outside Vegas     January 10, 2016 Hi fellow Fools - If you've turned on the news this week, you've probably noticed an unusual amount of tech news. And not just clips of a new iPhone and your usual tech fare ... it's been weird stuff. I've been in the middle of it all. The night before writing this, I saw a drone "fireworks show," an artist drawing in virtual reality, and a Hollywood composer creating a melody with invisible instruments. And that was all in a 15-minute span! Yet, hidden among these weird events is a trend so powerful it could be positioned to change dozens of industries. Allow me to separate the real information you need to know from all the noise. From the center of the tech world... All the weird tech news this week... it's coming from a conference called CES held in Las Vegas. The conference is 100% focused on technology. Thousands of companies from Intel to GoPro to Ford design elaborate show floors and press events to unveil their visions for the year ahead. The conference is a big deal. It's so big that even mighty Las Vegas doesn't have enough hotel rooms to house all the tech bigwigs, members of the press, and the aspiring entrepreneurs that invade the city. Been there done that I've been going to CES for years, so any starry-eyed awe from the scale of the event is long gone. My sole focus each year is to sift through the thousands of ideas presented, talk to industry insiders, and come away with two or three big ideas to pass on to David Gardner and our analyst team. So, what's a big idea at this year's conference? Self-driving cars are one. I've been watching the industry for a while, and I've been able to meet with companies in the space and see their work as self-driving cars have evolved from a vague concept in R&D labs to reality. But the pace of advancement in the past six months has been truly stunning. Days before CES started, I attended a small, invitation-only presentation on self-driving cars that left my head spinning. After the event, I raved about the progress of self-driving cars to a table of attendees. After letting me finish, one of them said, "If you think self-driving cars are cool, you should check this out" ... and handed me a business card with handwritten directions on the back. It read: "DRONE RODEO - MANDALAY BAY TOUR BUS PICK UP. NOON TOMORROW." I had a light day scheduled the next day... So, in spite of being unsure - maybe even a little skeptical - of what to expect, I told him I'd be there. The drone rodeo The tour bus picked me up right on time the next day, and we drove into the desert ... and drove ... and drove ... nearly an hour outside the tech frenzy of CES and into the mountains above Vegas. A picture of the drive out... Nothing but buried bodies and sagebrush out here! Being greeted with this sign, I wasn't sure what to expect! I'll uh... stay clear of the firing area. Yet, inside the firing location that had been rented out were dozens of drones of all shapes and sizes. My first drone experience? Controlling one just by moving my head. Drones are much more than just consumer toys. For example, I was able to pilot a fixed-wing drone used to help in agriculture, mining, surveying, and many other decidedly non-consumer activities. They're also becoming vastly easier to use. With no experience, I was able to pilot this drone. I even took a selfie with it... Once again, no prior experience necessary. It literally had a selfie button where it became self-piloted, identified me in the picture, and snapped away! So - are drones another big idea for investors? In the United States alone, according to one session I attended, drone unit sales are expected to grow 149% this year. They're now a multi-billion dollar industry that's only getting larger. The trend has caught Motley Fool cofounder David Gardner's eye. Last month he recommended a company in Rule Breakers that has seen a huge boost to sales from the drone market. Yet, up in that shooting range in the mountains outside Vegas, I started connecting a larger picture in my head. One of the drones I used -- when I pressed a particular button -- would follow me around ... no controls needed. That company president told me the next step was "machine learning," where drones can identify any object and self-pilot to follow it. That same "machine learning" technology is what's allowing drones to be used in agriculture, mining, and other heavy industries... ... And it's the same technology used in self-driving cars. Earlier in the week, the CEO of a self-driving car company said they were possible only because of a "shazam" moment took place a few years ago... That "shazam" moment of computers becoming "smarter" is reverberating throughout several industries. So, while you might have heard about drones, or self-driving cars, or any number of amazing breakthroughs this week... Investors looking for the explosive returns behind all these trends will be focusing on the companies building the platforms to make all these gadgets "smart." That's what we'll be hunting for in Rule Breakers this year. And based on what I've seen in Vegas, 2016 is already off to a pretty incredible start. To your wealth, Fool on, Eric Bleeker, CFA P.S. If you want access to the recent David Gardner recommendation I mentioned, plus a front-row seat to all the Rule Breakers picks past and future, you can try a free, seven-day trial today. Find out how you might profit from the biggest trends in technology.   Having trouble seeing this email?  View on Web We work fervently, feverishly, and Foolishly to make sure all the facts and figures we publish in our emails are 100% accurate and up to date. David Gardner owns shares of Ford. The Motley Fool owns shares of GoPro. 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