Smart clothes, AI camera among early CES favorites
LAS VEGAS – A connected shoe that can send a message to your relatives if you fall down is cool – it brings function to the concept of connected footwear and can help save lives.
This new kind of shoe tops our list of the five coolest things we saw at CES (formerly known as the Consumer Electronics Show), at least so far.
Here are the highlights from the show that opened with a press preview Sunday night:
Smart belts and shoes: The shoes with built-in sensors come with a different pricing model. They’re available on a subscription basis, at $35 monthly, or just over $400 yearly from a French firm named E-Vone. The company says consumers get a new pair every year for the price. That compares to $400 as the entry-level pricing for the Apple Watch, Series 4, which also has fall detection.
More affordable smartwear comes from Welt Corp., the company selling a $200 smart belt. It can detect your potential falls by analyzing your walking patterns and can also help keep you on track, diet-wise, by sending you push notifications to stand up or scolding you for eating too much. The belt has just been released.
The mailbox for people worried
about porch thieves: Parcel Guard by Danby ($400, March release) is a 40-pound slab of steel that lets your mail carrier slip in the package on top. Inside is a connected camera that will let you check in from work to confirm the package arrived safely. When you get home, you can unlock the Guard with a digital code from an app on your phone. The unit is “as strong as steel. Its waterproof and rust-proof design keep your parcels dry,” the company says.
Cameras that follow you around: Facebook’s Portal video chat device has a cool camera that can track your every move, a feature many critics raved about – if only it didn’t come from the
social network that has been hammered over its privacy and security violations. At CES, two companies showed off similar cameras. Plus, you can record on them, something you can’t do with Portal.
The $140 Pivo is a tiny device that connects to a tripod and allows YouTubers, Instagrammers and other content creators to shoot video of themselves and be followed without the need of a camera person. On the higher end of the spectrum, the Osbot is a $500-plus “world’s first AI camera” that will be out later this year. It also can follow you around, and has 10 lenses, a microphone jack and records to micro SD cards.
The automatic sorter machine:
The Foldimate is a $1,000 device from Israel that can sort and fold your clothes after you run them through the laundry. You insert your duds into two clips, and they roll through the machine to get folded. The unit is expected to be released later this year.
Air Bags for cyclists: A French company called Helite makes air bags for motorcyclists and horse riders. And now it has produced air bags for those of you on bicycles. This “smart” bag, selling for $650 when it comes out in March, has built-in sensors that promise to detect when to inflate the bag – meaning, not when you ride over over bumps, but rather when you are in an actual accident.