AI Robots, Brain Implants, Air Farms and other innovations at CES 2024

CES 2024

The annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2024) wrapped up in Las Vegas last week. GameChanger was there to find the biggest new innovations likely to impact the Consumer Products world in the coming years.

Here are the Top 10 Innovations we found:

1. AI Robot Assistants –Artificial Intelligence (AI) made a big splash this year. While still in its infancy, AI is already impacting many of this year’s products. Everything from refrigerators to automobiles to cat litter boxes are beginning to incorporate AI, so that today’s “smart devices” really are smart, learning their users’ preferences and adapting to them.
   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were also a few pure AI products – mostly robots – that can talk, gesture and interact with humans to perform household tasks. One of the better ones is the Samsung Ballie, a robotic ball with wheels (kind of like R2D2) that can answer phone calls, adjust settings on home appliances or go find your cat and send a picture of it to you.

LG has launched the Smart Home AI Agent, a short, two-legged creature that wheels around the house doing similar tasks. It can also talk to you and tutor the kids.  And Moxie AI is an $800 Robot Companion for kids ages 5-10 that sits on a table and talks to them, acts as a companion and teaches them important life skills.

2. Smart Glasses – Augmented Reality (AR) Glasses are going mainstream. The glasses superimpose important information from your Smartphone on the lenses, so you don’t have to keep looking down at your smartphone while you do daily activities. Some of the cooler versions of these include the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses. They sell for $299, are voice activated and incorporate AI, so they adapt to the user. You can take photos and instantly upload them on Instagram. You can even livestream video.

 

XReal and TCL RayNeo make similar versions that are more entertainment oriented. Xanderglasses puts the text of spoken words right on the glass lenses for hearing impaired. BMW Motorad Glasses provide a heads-up display for driving. Chinese start-up Guangli is launching athletic AR glasses with important performance data such as time, distance and stroke speed. The lineup includes Holosnow ski goggles, Holocycle cycling glasses, Holorun runners’ glasses and Holoswim swim goggles.

 

 

3. Virtual Chef – Cooking is about to get a whole lot easier and better. Several companies are making smart cooking appliances that automatically cook foods and perform multiple steps to emulate chefs’ recipes. The Dreo Chefmaker works as a grill, an air fryer and a convection oven. It has 44 pre-set cooking programs that adjust temperatures and humidity levels mid-program to mimic an experienced chef. For example, the cooker will initially sear meats and then slow cook the inside, spraying atomized water on the meat as needed to keep it from drying out. The cooker also has a food probe to track how fast food is cooking. It sells for $359.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other automated cookers included the Sevvy Smart Cooker, which uses Ohmic heating, allowing it to retain 40% more food nutrients, use 90% less power and require less salt, sugar and fat.  Then there is 1-Click BBQ, an automated BBQ grill that uses AI for optimal cooking. Seergrills Perfecta is another AI-powered grill that can be used indoors without smoke. Then there is the GE Profile Indoor Smoker. It replaces your outdoor smoker grill with a box that sits on your countertop and keeps all the smoke inside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For Asian restaurants there is Techmagic, a stir-fry cooking robot that can make dozens of custom dishes with different seasoning combinations automatically. The device is also capable of linking orders from mobile or tablet devices to the cooker.

4. In-Home Health Monitors – Home health monitoring is getting simpler, easier and better. The Withings BeamO looks and operates like a contactless thermometer, but in addition to measuring body temperature, it is also a digital contactless stethoscope that listens to your heart and lungs and identifies abnormalities. Smartsound AI is another digital stethoscope that measures body sounds to detect potential diseases.  FaceHeart Vitals works with your smartphone and uses a series of selfie pictures to measure heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation and heart rate variability. Bodylog by Luxnine is a chest patch for monitoring old people. It monitors the cardiovascular system, nervous system and musculoskeletal disorders.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For infants there is now the BebeLucy AI Smart Crib. It monitors the baby’s heart rate, temperature and respiratory system. It also monitors air temperature, humidity and air quality, has urine and stool detection, and works with speech detection. For pets there is Invoxia Minitailz, an AI dog collar that measures heart health, activity level and has GPS tracking.  Carepet is a pet mat for pets to sleep on that collects pet health data.

5. Airfarm – Vertical farming has been taking off recently as a better way to grow fresh produce locally indoors without chemicals. However, building the farms is still fairly expensive. South Korean Agritech Company Midbar is launching a new, less-expensive inflatable indoor vertical farm called Airfarm uses hydroponics with no soil to grow lettuce and other vegetables. Because it’s inflatable, an Airfarm can be set up anywhere in just a half-day. Lettuce and other plants grow in plastic pockets within the farm. Airfarm pulls moisture from the air and delivers it back to the plant roots, reducing water usage by 99% vs. traditional farming.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6. Transparent TV – Several companies are launching transparent TV sets. When the TV is not turned on, the screen is clear, like a sheet of glass. So rather than having a big empty box against your wall, it doesn’t interrupt the room décor. One of the more interesting versions is the LG OLED T, a transparent TV that operates as either a regular TV when turned on or in transparent mode, which allows you to turn it into a decorative item – that can make it look like a fish tank or a bird cage or a window with a view.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7. Big Electric Vehicles – Electric Vehicles (EVs) continue to expand, and a number were featured at the show. These new vehicles are stylish with additional new features and coming from a variety of new manufacturers/ countries (including Turkey and Vietnam) as well as traditional manufacturers.  Hyundai has a new vehicle called the Mobius with wheels that rotate 180 degrees, allowing you to drive sideways to get in and out of tight parking spots.  Bigger vehicles that were previously not possible due to limited battery power are also coming onto the market, including the Caterpillar R1700 XE, an all-electric bulldozer, Mercury Electric Outboard boat motors, Peterbilt Semi-trucks, Mullen Delivery Vans, and a number of large electric SUVs, such as the Mercedes-Benz G-Class Off-Roading EQG launching in 2025, Rivian Adventure Vehicles (already on the market) and Bollinger Electric SUVs and Trucks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8. Smart Vending Machines – Vending machines are getting way better, and rather than just dispensing packages, they can make and serve more complicated foods. Yo-Kai Express is a fully-autonomous restaurant that makes fresh-cooked ramen. Just tap your credit card and select which ramen you want, and it cooks up a fresh bowl of it to go. The company has restaurants in Korea and Japan.  CaliExpress has opened a similar new fully-autonomous hamburger restaurant using Miso Robotics Flippy technology to cook fresh hamburgers.  There is also Frazy, a robotic beverage machine that makes up cocktails, coffee and boba drinks. And for those with a sweet tooth, there is the Sweet Robo Ice Cream Robot that serves a variety of flavors of soft-serve ice cream with custom sprinkles and the Cotton Candy Robot that serves different colors and shapes of fresh-made cotton candy on a stick.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9. Brain Implants – Science fiction is coming to life. There is now a new technology that allows victims of spinal injuries that have lost functionality of their limbs to walk again.  The implants record brain waves and send a signal to the limbs. The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), a leading technology research group, developed the technology and successfully completed a clinical trial in 2023. In addition to helping injury victims, it is possible that the technology may be used in the future to allow people to move objects outside their bodies just by using their brain waves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10. AI Appliances – Many boring household appliances are about to become less boring through the power of AI. Some of the more interesting applications include the Samsung Optiwash, a single machine that both washes and dries your clothes, so no more transferring wet laundry to the drier. It automatically detects fabric type and soil levels and adjusts wash and dry setting. The new LG TV Magic Remote, uses voice commands and with AI recognizes different users in the same household to suggest programming specific to that user.  And for coffee lovers, there is the new Bosch 800 Fully Automatic Smart Espresso Machine.  It’s a bean-to-cup machine with integrated grinder, milk system, and water tank. It also enables beverage customization for each user.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10 Other Notable Innovations

 

 

 

1. Flash Freezing – Flash freezing is getting easier with the new Daybreak Artlock Freezer. Flash freezing freezes foods 10X faster than a conventional freezer and reduces dryness, cracking, oxidation and discoloration, as it results in finer ice crystals. The unit currently rolling out to restaurants.

 

 

 

 

2. Food Calorie Scanner – Nuvilab has introduced a new AI Food Scanner that can calculate calories in a plate of food simply by taking an image of it. The device also measures food waste at the end of the meal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Smart Bird Feeder – Chinese company Xinvo is launching HiBirds, a smart bird feeder that has a night-vision camera, so you can watch birds remotely all of the time. It also can detect the presence of squirrels and sound an alarm to ward off squirrels.

 

 

 

4. Rideable Luggage – Luggage wheels were a great invention, but now you can put them to even better use to get you through the airport with Airwheel Rideable Luggage. Just hop on your suitcase, press a button on your smartphone and scoot through the airport.

5. Music through your power lines – Now you can transform the electric wires in your home to speaker cable. Audio Cu allows you to simultaneously run sound and electricity through your home electrical wiring, so you can install stereo speakers in any room.

 

1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 6. Kohler Sok Infinity Bathtub – This new Kohler bathtub is like those infinity pools at your hotel. The water fills to the top of the tub and when it overflows goes into a catch basin and recirculates. The benefit is the water is continuously circulating, so the bath water stays fresher, effervescent and at the correct temperature.

 

7. Valet Parking Robot – Parking valets are getting replaced by robots. South Korean company HL Mando is introducing, Parkie, a robot that lifts cars from underneath and rolls them to a parking spot, then retrieves cars for the owner. It allows small parking garages to fit more cars, and for cars to be moved and retrieved more easily.

 

 

 

8. Head and Hair Analysis – New from Samsung’s C-Labs, there is the Beacon Scalp and Skin Scanner. It measures hair follicle density, dead skin, skin sensitivity and other attributes of your head to recommend shampoo and other personal care products to improve scalp health.

 

 

 

 

9. Foot and Body Driers – Just what you need for your bathroom is a foot and body drier. It’s the size of a bathroom scale. Step on it and warm air blows up, drying your feet and body. The products are made by Vovo and Viatek and are available for sale for $300-700 online.

 

 

 

10. Drone Soccer – A new game is coming straight out of Harry Potter. It is called Drone Soccer, and there is already a Drone Soccer League (FIDA) and organized teams. Instead of kicking a ball, each team tries to navigate drones shaped like balls through a hoop in mid-air using remote controls.