From electric cars to transparent televisions to the latest accessibility technologies and artificial intelligence virtual assistants, a wide range of innovations were on display at the CES technology trade show in Las Vegas this week
We noticed this at CES 2024.Accessibility products have high hopesAt a conference where abundance and opulence manifested itself in almost everything, it was heartening to see great progress being made in developing assistive technology for the disabled.Boston-based medical technology startup GyroGear introduced a hand-stabilizing glove at CES 2024 designed to help Parkinson's patients and people with hand tremors regain control of their lives. Dutch startup Whispp uses audio-to-audio-based AI to give people with voice disabilities the ability to have real-time conversations in their own natural voice. OrCam introduced a range of devices designed to help people with hearing loss cope with hearing overload. And Sony has reserved a prime spot at its booth to showcase its Access controller for PlayStation.MAKING CONNECTIONS BETWEEN ALMOST EVERYTHINGUsing software and AI to create cross-device connections between smart devices, your home, and even your car was central to many of the biggest tech companies at CES 2024.Samsung's new mantra of "AI for everyone" meant integrating its smart home devices and appliances to perform tasks together - like selecting recipes and automatically preheating your oven. The South Korean tech giant also announced a collaboration with Hyundai to develop home-to-car and car-to-home services for all Kia and Hyundai vehicles. Google is expanding Chromecast to more apps and devices. And Amazon has supported the Matter Casting standard to create more interoperability between smart devices.Meanwhile, Mercedes-Benz unveiled a new AI-powered virtual assistant to personalize interactions between drivers and their cars.Vehicle progress was fully displayedCES 2024 was full of new electric vehicles, remote-controlled construction vehicles, hydrogen engines and other mobility advancements.Honda unveiled two concept cars called “Saloon” and “Space Hub” for a new global electric vehicle series. Kia has opted for modular design with three electric vans, where body modules can be quickly swapped to change their functionality. And Vietnam-based electric newcomer VinFast presented an electric truck concept.Both Bosch Mobility and Hyundai are increasingly relying on hydrogen as an energy solution. And Hyundai introduced its AI-based autonomous construction excavator.I hope you're hungryCooking-like robots, AI-powered appliances, and other high-tech kitchen gadgets promise to eliminate the need for people to cook or mix drinks themselves.GE wants you to start smoking food indoors, while generative AI powers a smart Brisk grill that aims to make the art of grilling easy.Freezing your own ice cream at home takes hours, but ColdSnap's new ice cream maker prepares your frozen treat in two minutes. And with the Bartesian cocktail mixer you can prepare up to 60 different types of drinks for yourself.For much younger consumers (and their parents), Veba Baby's smart baby bottle monitor monitors the expiration dates of breast milk and formula. The product – which also doubles as a bottle locator – monitors the temperature of when a baby drinks from the bottle and more to detect freshness. And everything is registered via an associated app.WHAT’S NEW ON TV?OLED, Micro LED, 8k... what does it all mean? That means you'll see an extremely sharp picture, but the most interesting TVs shown at this CES were barely visible.Consumer electronics giants LG and Samsung introduced transparent televisions at the trade fair.LG's 77-inch transparent OLED screen is nearly invisible when turned off and can switch between transparent mode and a more traditional black background for normal TV mode. Samsung's transparent LED-powered MICRO display worked in a very similar way, but was exhibited as a concept.When you're not watching TV in a traditional way, both can be used as a digital screen, for example to display works of art.
