CES 2024 is in full swing in Las Vegas. We’re on the bottom supplying you with probably the most talked about information and bulletins from the occasion, however a lot of the enjoyable is to be discovered within the weirder margins of the present flooring. In an period of CES the place corporations are all-in on the AI hype machine, there are certain to be devices and claims which might be a little bit odd, to say the least.
Listed here are the 14 strangest devices, tech and claims from CES 2024 thus far.
AI-powered birding binoculars
For the birder with an infinite finances, Swarovski unveiled the AX Visio 10×32: a $4,799 pair of AI-powered binoculars. The binoculars use AI that will help you rapidly determine greater than 9,000 birds and different species, in addition to present the flexibility to take photographs and movies of your discoveries to share.
An app that allows you to pay to pee
Picture Credit: Flush
Must go and prepared to pay? Internet-based app Flush permits companies to lease out their loos to individuals for extra income. The oddest factor about this app, exterior of its existence due to the dearth of maintained and public restrooms within the U.S., is its score system that companies use to approve or deny a reservation.
A BlackBerry-style keyboard on your iPhone
Picture Credit: Clicks Expertise (opens in a brand new window)
Do you miss the times of getting a tactile keyboard in your iPhone? Revealed at CES 2024, Clicks Expertise’s creator keyboard turns your cellphone right into a BlackBerry-era relic for $139. The keyboard acts as a cellphone case attachment and provides you entry to extra of your iPhone’s display screen with out the digital keyboard. It’s certain to make your cellphone lots longer, however possibly that’s the value you pay for nostalgia.
Dynamic sound mixing primarily based in your driving
Picture Credit: Tim Stevens
Sound Drive, a startup from singer-songwriter turned entrepreneur Will.i.am, goals to match the music you’re listening to with the cadence and power of your commute. The know-how reacts to your pace and matches music to it, with lyrics coming in and dropping out intelligently whether or not you’re ripping down the freeway or caught in site visitors. Whereas we have been a little bit skeptical, we got here away from the tech pretty impressed.
A router that appears like an image body
Picture Credit: GL.iNet
Matching your tech to your private home’s aesthetic has been stylish in the previous few years. Is your TV too boring? Make it appear to be a gallery portray with the Samsung Body or have it mix seamlessly into your private home with LG’s newly revealed clear tv.
And the most recent tech merchandise to get the yaasification remedy is the common-or-garden router. The Marble Wi-Fi 6 OpenWrt Router from GL.iNet seems to be like a small framed piece of artwork you could dangle in your wall or prop in your desk.
An AI assistant that calls 911 for you
At LG’s press occasion, the corporate introduced its Good House AI Agent. The “two-legged” wheeled robotic acts as an assistant in sync along with your LG home equipment. Generative AI means that you can chat with the AI Agent, and the corporate claims it could present you empathy. Within the firm’s surreal, Pixar-esque promotional video, the bot can remind you to take your medication or name 911 in a time of disaster.
A bidet you may speak to
Picture Credit: Kohler
Hey, Alexa? Activate the bidet spray. Kohler launched the PureWash E930 Bidet Seat with voice command help for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. With voice help, you may management the seat hands-free, activate the bidet’s spray and dryer capabilities, in addition to its self-cleaning UV characteristic. Simply don’t let anybody watch you speaking to your bathroom.
A voice absorbing masks that appears like a muzzle
Goodbye, nosy eavesdroppers. Skyted’s “Mobility Privateness Masks” and “Hybrid Silent Masks” are designed to “take up voice frequencies” in noisy environments like planes, trains and rideshares, so you may talk with a little bit extra privateness, in keeping with founder Stéphane Hersen. The corporate goals to implement their Bane-like masks in workplaces, name facilities and even in gaming environments.
An AI-powered stroller that rocks your child for you
Picture credit: GlüxKind
Parenting is tough. GlüxKind is hoping that’s sufficient to persuade you to place your little one within the fingers — er, wheels — of its AI-powered stroller, Ella. The stroller touts the flexibility to push itself hands-free, cease routinely on inclines, and softly rock your little one with out you needing to raise a finger. The stroller additionally features a built-in white noise machine characteristic.
An uncanny valley you may brainstorm with
One of the vital notable “Who requested for this?” merchandise unveiled at CES is the GPT version of WeHead. The AI-powered head brings a face and a physicality to ChatGPT, moderately than a purely digital AI expertise. The mannequin-like setup with a number of screens goals to behave as a confidant to bounce round concepts with, although we’re extra fixated on simply how weird it seems to be and feels to work together with than something.
A pocket AI assistant that scrolls by your cellphone for you
Wish to order a pizza? As an alternative of pulling out your cellphone, unlocking it, discovering a supply app, opening it, and dealing your approach by the UI to finish your order (so laborious!), why not simply ask rabbit’s r1 to do it for you? Moderately than voice-only AI assistants like Siri and Alexa, the Teenage Engineering-designed gadget works on a “language motion mannequin,” which permits it to hypothetically carry out the requested activity.
Good molluscs that may look out for water air pollution
From telephones to TVs and even bogs, every thing needs to be “sensible” these days. What about molluscs? Impressed. MolluSCAN CEO and co-founder Ludovic Quinault discovered {that a} easy, non-invasive sensor connected to a clam or oyster’s shell can monitor every thing from feeding to copy and stress responses, which may be glorious predictors of water high quality and potential air pollution.
A TV that folds right into a statue
Do you like your TV however want it may fold up into a bit of artwork? Boy, we’ve bought excellent news for you. C SEED’s N1 folding TV is made up of 5 MicroLED panels, permitting it to go from a whopping 137-inch display screen to a brutalist-looking sculpture in your lounge in about 90 seconds. With its so-called Adaptive Hole Calibration, there aren’t any seen hinges between the screens, revealing a seamless viewing expertise when fully unfurled. Additionally, it begins at $200,000.
A CPR dummy that breathes and pees
How lifelike is too lifelike? ADAM-X from Medical-X is a affected person simulator designed for a variety of medical coaching workout routines: injecting an IV, utilizing a defibrillator, CPR and extra. The corporate boasts lifelike replications of a human’s skeleton anatomical construction, and provides you with reactive suggestions primarily based on the affected person’s wants and the way correct you’re. In response to Engadget, the corporate plans to include a GPT-like characteristic sooner or later to assist practice medics extra straight. ADAM-X additionally incorporates simulated fluids like blood and urine for correct coaching apply. Go, science.
A sensible mirror that claims it could sense in case you’re depressed
Magic mirror on the wall, why am I so harassed? Baracoda calls BMind the world’s first AI-powered sensible mirror for psychological wellness. The mirror makes use of AI and pure language processing to determine your temper primarily based in your gestures, expressions and tone. In flip, the mirror can chat with you, generate guided meditation workout routines and self-affirmations and implement gentle remedy classes by the mirror’s edge.
A CNC mill that appears straight out of the ‘90s
Coast Runner CNC mill, proven at CES 2024
This isn’t that bizarre of a product, actually, however its look is just too eye-catching to go away out. It’s really a part of an admirable mission from Coast Runner to make laptop numerical management (CNC) machines extra accessible to professionals and hobbyists. For these much less conversant in the house, a CNC machine is what permits for the standardization and automation of an in any other case handbook course of, like slicing by elements on an meeting line or 3D printing.
However simply take a look at that graphic referencing the 1992 disposable cup design “Jazz” (which has since had a lifetime of its personal on-line.) In an occasion that featured so, so, so many harrowing or complicated aesthetics, a little bit nostalgia is cool and refreshing.
