Every year, the world-famous Consumer Electronics Show (CES) attracts hundreds of thousands of people who want to explore all the upcoming gizmos and gadgets out there. The tech innovations on offer range from self-driving cars to 8K televisions to even robots.

This year, 180,000 people are expected to attend the show, which takes place from January 9th to January 12th in Las Vegas. The 3.2 million square foot convention center harboring the show will be filled with the tech creations of approximately 4,000 exhibitors, including the innovations both of billionaire tech giants like Amazon (AMZN  ) and Google (GOOGL  ) and of more humble entrepreneurs. Attendees come from 150 countries.

One exciting development to look out for is L'Oréal's (EPA: OR) new UV Sense, essentially a miniature tracker - small enough to fit over your fingernail - that provides people with information about UV, pollen, humidity, temperature, and air quality levels. The technology employs NFC, in conjunction with a smartphone that can provide reminders to either put on more sunscreen or avoid the sun entirely.

There seem to be a lot of developments on the VR front. A company called Merge VR has created a Nerf-like toy gun that, when used in conjunction with an iPhone app, makes users feel like they are shooting at aliens in real life. The toy is called the Merge 6DoF Blaster, and is unique because it does not require any VR glasses or goggles.

© Merge VR / mergevr.com/press

Some of the more mainstream technological attractions include the Lenovo (HKG: 0992) Smart Display with Google Assistant that functions as a tabletop smart screen and personal assistant. Think Alexa, but with a sleeker design that is better adapted to a domestic lifestyle.

There are also a host of robotics-based innovations that are amplifying the appeal of a robotics market that still has low penetration rates globally. One of these is "BUDDY," a social companion/personal assistant robot that can answer questions, play music, and show a live feed of the inside of your house when you're away.

Not everything at the CES seems to be running smoothly, however.

The Las Vegas Convention Center lost power on Wednesday morning in the middle of the event. While the source of the outage remains unknown, it lasted around two hours and negatively affected both companies and attendees, many of whom were unable to show off or explore the various gadgets present at CES.

"We are working hard to restore this temporary power outage at the LVCC. We appreciate your patience and apologize for any inconvenience," said the Consumer Technology Association, the group that organizes the show, in a statement.

© Sense Glove / www.senseglove.com

"The guys with battery-operated equipment are having a field day," said Max Lammers, lead developer for VR-accessory company Sense Glove. "A lot of people are not going to be happy."

Many large, established brands like Intel (INTC  ) took to social media to make light of the situation, prompting the hashtag #CESBlackout to trend on Twitter (TWTR  ).

While the success of the next two days of CES are integral for it to retain its reputation, there has definitely been no dearth of talent in terms of the products on display so far.