The future looks bright
LIKE a second Christmas for the tech world, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) had Las Vegas all lit up this week with everything that’s coming next.
It happens every January, and all the big names bar Apple are there, showing off their latest ideas.
Last year it was all about Alexa and the smart home. This year it was much the same. But if you listened really closely below the big noise, there were some interesting things offered up. Much of it was wildly cutting edge, and without firm release dates or pricing. But it gives a glimpse of the future we could be living at some point in 2018...
Here are 10 that caught the eye.
1 BLACK BOX VR GYM
VIRTUAL Reality will be nothing without decent applications for the technology – it’s no use investing in the hardware if you can’t do anything with it. Which is what makes Black Box interesting. It’s essentially a fully kitted-out personal gym room that’s wired up to a VR system.
So you can work out in a virtual gym, get competitive with your virtual gym mates, and play virtual games to keep things interesting.
It’s one of the more rounded and useful applications of VR I’ve seen, and shows at least one way the tech may take off...
The system is currently in limited beta testing.
2 MARS EARBUDS
MARS Earbuds are one of a number of products either already out there (like Google’s Pixelbuds), or scheduled to come to market, that promise to take us into the utopian world of real-time in-ear language translation.
Mars are different, though, because one pair can be used by two people when translation is required (you get one each). And they can work with any phone.
State of the art translation software should ensure as near to real time translation as is currently possible, plus they double as nice noise-cancelling earbuds when you’re not trying to order dinner in Korean.
They should be available this summer, but we don’t know the price yet.
3 BYTON SMART CAR
IF your designers cut their teeth at BMW and Apple, you might well just have something special in your DNA.
Byton is an entirely new company that revealed its concept electric smart car at CES this year (unusually, with the Detroit Motor Show just a week later), but I suppose the makers felt Vegas was more their audience. It was well received, despite not offering performance to get anywhere near a Tesla, the striking full-dash touchscreen made some waves.
You can register at Byton’s website to be notified about when pre-orders become available.
4 ONEWHEEL+ XR
ONEWHEEL is the innovative single-wheeled electric skateboard, which is just about as Californian as a single product is allowed to be. It seems like fun to ride, and can go uphill as well as down. It’s so great, the marketing spiel goes, that one satisfied customer sold their car...
I’m not sure about that, but that reality certainly comes a step closer with the latest model, the Onewheel+ XR, revealed at CES. The big difference is the range – the new model can do 12-18 miles on a single charge, and hit almost 20mph.
You can order one now for $1,799 for delivery in a couple of weeks (there’s a $125 shipping charge to get one to the UK).
5 SAMSUNG THE WALL
I DON’T know about you, but I don’t think you can get a TV that’s too big. Or at least I didn’t until I saw the monster that is The Wall. It is a 146in 4K TV. Yes – 146in. That’s just over 12ft. It doesn’t stop there either – you can link more than one together to make a modular display many times bigger. And now I need a bigger house. No word yet on price or release date.
6 E-VONE SMART SHOES
SOMETIMES you see a smart product that just makes sense and renders the frivolities of being able to turn your heating up with your voice little more than a joke. These shoes are one of those products.
The E-Vone smart shoes pack a load of sensors and connectivity into the sole. They are smart in the sense that they know what you’re doing while you’re wearing them. Crucially, they know if you fall and don’t get back up again.
Aimed at both the elderly and those who like to get out and about in the wilderness, their connectivity allows them to notify someone if you’re in trouble, and get help to you as quickly as possible.
The shoes should be available over the next six months, and should cost between £100 and £150. There’ll be a monthly charge for the alarm service, and there’s also some talk of being able to buy a pair for a monthly fee option, just like a mobile hone.
7 SGNL WRISTBAND
THE Sgnl wristband is an odd bit of tech – its USP is that it allows you to hear phone calls through your fingers. You just touch your finger to your ear, and the strap transmits vibrations down your arm and to the tip of your finger. By all accounts sound quality is pretty good. It features notifications and fitness tracking features, too.
It works with any watch or can be worn on its own, and there’s a smartphone app for iOS and Android. It should be out by March, but we don’t yet know what it will cost.
8 MOODO’S SMART FRAGRANCE BOX
YOU say fragrance box, I say air freshener. Not just any old air freshener though – this one’s smart.
It has four fragrance capsules built in, and you can mix them to your taste using a smartphone app. You can actually get one of these now – it costs $189 with 12 capsules included.
9 L’OREAL UV SENSOR
THIS is another one of those smart gadgets that realises the true potential of technology as a force for good. It’s a simple little tag that you stick to your nail, or clip to your sunglasses, and it monitors the amount of UV light you’re exposed to. Once it’s sent its data to your phone, it’ll be able to measure whether you’ve spent too much time in the sun, thus reducing your risk of developing skin cancer. It should be out by the summer and cost less than £50.
10 LG’S CLOI ROBOT
ALL did not go well when LG introduced its smart robot Cloi at CES during a centrepiece presentation.
LG has developed its own AI system, which it calls ThinQ, and the event was intended to showcase the tech, which drives Cloi. But demos of Cloi managing the smart home via voice commands fell flat during the demo – three attempts at getting the robot to help out were met with no response save some bewildered blinking... LG later revealed three other new home-help robots, but wisely declined to demo their abilities.