A REAL AI OPENER...
Artificial intelligence dominated this year’s Consumer Electronics Show. Here’s our roundup of what’s new
IT SEEMS like only yesterday that we were marvelling at the madness of the 2023 edition of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES).
And yet here we are amid the hangover of this year’s annual convention of tech makers, who gather each January in Las Vegas to show off their latest devices.
CES 24 can be more or less summed up in two letters – AI.
If they could stuff some artificial intelligence into their new shiny things, they did.
It was everywhere, from smart pillows to smart cat flaps, and my personal favourite – a pair of smart binoculars that can identify hundreds of kinds of birds as you look at them from afar.
Aside from those marvels, and the million other AI devices on show, here are things that caught my eye on this year’s show floor.
Rabbit r1 assistant
Apologies for kicking off with – yes, you guessed it
– an AI-based device, but this one actually looks interesting and innovative.
The Rabbit r1 is a personalised AI assistant that can interact with apps on your behalf – you can supposedly ask it to do things like book a hotel, get restaurant recommendations or research a location. And it’ll just do it without you ever having to touch an app.
It must be trained to do these actions, but once it has learned them (and has the relevant log-ins for the online services it uses), it can complete the tasks independently on request.
Also, it looks quite cool. The world seems to agree – the first four batches of r1s sold out within minutes at £160 a pop.
See rabbit.tech
Withings BeamO
Withings has branched out from health tracking watches to provide all kinds of devices that aim to help you take care of your wellbeing.
CES 24 saw them unveil another powerful device – the BeamO. It’s described by the company as a “multiscope”, and it can measure four things associated with your health.
It can take temperatures, electrocardiograms, read blood oxygen levels, and also works as a digital stethoscope to help monitor heart and lung health.
There is, of course, an app where all the data ends up for processing and assessment. You can sign up at withings.com to be notified when the BeamO goes on sale.
LG’s transparent TV
Sometimes you come across tech that doesn’t just feel like something really new, but seems like magic – I think LG’s new transparent TV falls into that category.
This is in no small part due to the fact that I have no idea how it can possibly work, or why anyone would want one.
The LG Signature OLED T operates in two modes – as a digital picture frame showing off tailor-made art that seems to float in the space, or in regular video watching mode, during which a “contrast screen” is raised so it can operate more like a regular screen.
LG says the transparent element means you can place the TV in more places – like in the middle of the room or against a window – without blocking the view.
LG has not said if, or when, the OLED T will hit the market.
AI health gadets: Anura Magic Mirror, Minitailz Smart Pet Tracker, and Sennheiser Momentum Sport
In addition to Withings’ effort, a number of companies showed off interesting health tech at CES.
One of the most impressive was Anura’s Magic Mirror (AI-based naturally), which the makers say can run a scan on your facial blood flow and use machine learning to provide data including blood pressure, BMI, heart rate variability, pulse rate, breathing rate and facial skin age.
The scan takes 30 seconds, though, which is precisely 29 seconds longer than I can bear to look at myself in any mirror, let alone one that is actively judging me.
Elsewhere Invoxia was making sure your dog doesn’t have to miss out on the AI revolution with its smart pet tracker, the Minitailz.
It not only tracks your dog’s activity using GPS, but also monitors resting heart rate and breathing rate to give an early indication should anything be amiss. This, they say, maximises the effectiveness of treatment and helps your dog live longer – perhaps the best use for AI I have seen so far.
Sennhesier also took the CES 24 opportunity to show off its new earbuds with a health twist.
The Moment Sport sound great, but they also track your heart rate and body temperature and sync with sport devices and apps from Apple, Garmin, Strava, Peloton, and Polar.
See nuralogix.ai, invoxia.com/ en-GB, and sennheiser.com/ en-gb
Sony goes spatial
Sony’s presentation was, in fact, a bit of a tease and couched in so much tech language that it was hard to make out exactly what it was saying about its latest VR initiative. They talked a lot about a creative solution to help developers make “spatial” content – that, of course, is the word Apple is using to describe the experience of using its Vision Pro headset, out next month.
Sony’s effort in this space will be out “later this year”.
The most interesting thing to be said about it was that in teased images, as well as a fairly standardlooking headset and hand controller, a ring that is also a controller was shown.
That’s the first time I’ve seen anything like that in a VR system, and it’ll be interesting to see how it’s used…
Qi2 charges on
Finally we come to something that really is useful – new charging systems from a number of the big names, including Anker and Satechi to name but two.
These are not ordinary wireless chargers, though, they are the first to adopt the latest Qi2 charging standard – which is faster than the previous generation.
Anker’s MagGo line-up, for example, will be able to charge at 15W instead of the previous speed of 7.5W.
At present only Apple’s iPhone 15 range supports Qi2, but with more and more chargers coming to market now, it’s only a matter of time before Androidmakers get on board too.