New Innovations from CES 2022
The Consumer Electronics Show (CES2022) was in full swing last week in Las Vegas – and GameChanger was there to bring you the highlights. Here are some of the biggest new innovations likely to change the world – and possibly your business – in the coming years:
1. Offices in Outer Space – Spurred by Amazon, Tesla and others, private space travel is a hot new area of investment. Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) is leading the way with a new inflatable Sierra Space Life Habitat – an outer space office for 4-12 people. The workstation is three stories tall and 27 feet in diameter. It is made of a strong fabric – more durable than metal – and inflates, so can be launched compact, and then expands when in orbit with pressurized air. The Habitat includes full power and data, living space, kitchen and an Astro Garden for growing fresh vegetables. Some of the planned applications include zero-gravity precision manufacturing, pharmaceutical and medical research, food science, movie production and tourism. The company has raised $2.4 Billion and partnered with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin with a target launch date of 2025.
2. Commercial Self-Driving Vehicles – There are plenty of vehicle innovations on the ground, too. The notable new products include the John Deere self-driving smart tractor. It includes GPS with a one-inch precision level to ensure those rows of corn are straight. It can be controlled with a smartphone and automatically stops and sends a photo to the farmer if an animal or another object gets in its way. Commercial floor cleaning is also going robotic with the Moonstar Robotic Floor cleaner. Snow removal just got easier with the Snowbot Robotic Snowblower. And for underwater work, there are now Chasing Underwater Drones.
3. Health Monitors – The pandemic spurred several new health innovations. Most notably: The Withings Body Scan – a foot scale that uses electrical pulses to measure body fat, cardiovascular metrics and a range of possible health conditions. Next up is the Vivoo Wellness Tracker. Just pee on a test strip every few days and scan the strip with the Vivoo App on your smartphone to get readings on your liver, kidney, calcium, pH and other nutritional metrics. For people with health problems that need continual monitoring, there is the Xandar Kardian Resting Heart Rate and Respiratory Rate Monitors that use Radar for continuous tracking. And for germaphobes, the Optevee Company has developed VirusWarn, an electronic device that scans the air for viruses – kind of like a smoke alarm for germs. It also detects COVID.
4. Mental Health – With mental health issues on the rise, more new technology is coming to help identify and treat mental health issues early. The new iSynchBrain is a new brainscanning device from Korea-based iMediSync. The device looks like a cycling helmet, and scans the entire brain in just 10 minutes, identifying potential brain health issues, including clinical depression, ADHD, early-stage Parkinson’s Disease and other potential brain-health issues. The company has developed a working model and is partnering with neurologists and health care professionals for rollout.
5. Sexual Health – Yes, technology is working to make sexy-time even better, too. MyHixel and Virility Medical have developed new technologies to help men solve their problems in bed. Satisfier offers a new line of high-tech gizmos for women designed to do what the brand name suggests.
6. Sleep Technology – In the future, we’ll all be sleeping better, too. A full range of new products to measure and promote better sleep are on their way, aided by technology. Notably, Sleep Score technologies, a leading sleep-monitoring company has partnered with IFF (International Flavors and Fragrances) to identify specific fragrances that promote sleep, and has validated them biometrically through its research. Sleep Me Inc., which makes heating and cooling mattress pads, is launching a new device called the Doc Pro sleep system, which tracks individual sleep cycles and adjusts the mattress temperature to optimum levels for each sleep cycle to better promote high-quality sleep.
7. Augmented Reality GPS – The GPS in your car is about to get a whole lot easier to follow. Several manufacturers are working on an Augmented Reality system that has the GPS Route superimposed on your windshield, with blue and yellow lines showing the actual places you’re supposed to drive and turn and red warnings to highlight obstacles. By overlaying the images on the actual streets, this system makes it virtually impossible to miss a turn. Most of the systems incorporate Google Maps Live View and source the content through a smartphone, so maps will always be current.
8. Laser Headlights – The road at night will soon be a lot easier to navigate. Japanese manufacturer Kyocera has launched SLD Laser Headlights. The lights are smaller and 100 times brighter than standard LED lights. They also provide a narrower beam of light at 10X the distance. Adaptive Headlights, another innovation by several manufacturers, are also coming soon. Adaptive Headlights automatically sense oncoming traffic and adjust the level and direction of the lighting (toggling between high and low beam) to maximize visibility for the driver while minimizing light directed at other drivers.
9. Color-Changing Paint / Flexible Art – Who says technology can’t be artistic? BMW is introducing a color-changing paint for its cars. Using E-Ink, the same technology used in the Amazon Kindle Reader, BMW owners will be able to change the color of their car from Black to White to Grey, by just pressing a button. In the future, this technology may also be used to add temporary logos or messages to the vehicle. Also on the art front, Samsung has developed a new, more realistic digital frame, with a matte finish that makes images look just like real oil paintings. Samsung partnered with many leading museums to allow owners of its Frame to display famous oil paintings at home from famous museums, such as The Louve in Paris, Madrid’s Prado Museum, Vienna’s Albertina Museum, London’s Tate Modern or Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum, for $5/month.
10. Take your own photos from Outer Space – Soon anyone will be able to take photos of the Earth and stars from outer space. Sony Corp. will be launching the STARSPHERE Satellite later this year fitted with Sony cameras. The STARSPHERE will allow users on the ground to remotely manipulate the lenses and take photos and videos of the Earth or other stars. Sony hopes to partner with museums and entertainment venues to make this broadly accessible.
11. Better Pet Care – For dog lovers, the new Invoxia Smart Dog Collar will help ensure your dog is always healthy. It uses miniature radar sensors to track your dog’s respiratory and heart rate. It also has GPS, so you will never lose track of your dog’s whereabouts.
12. Massage Robots + Chairs – If absorbing all this new technology is wearing you out, do not fear. Many new advanced technology massage devices are on their way. The new Phantom Pharaoh O2 Bodyfriend is a massage chair from Korea that has sensors adjusting the massage levels for each part of the body separately, measures blood pressure and electrocardiogram, provides fresh oxygen, and plays music. The Human Touch, another massage chair company, is launching the new Virtual Therapist Chair, a massage chair that is voice controlled – so you can tell it which parts of the body to work harder, just like a real masseuse. Finally, for the truly serious massage-lovers, Massage Robotics has developed a lifesize Massage Robot, with powerful arms and a wide range of “End Effectors” (hands) to provide different types of massages.
