CES 2024 is in full swing in Las Vegas. We’re on the ground providing you with essentially the most talked about news and announcements from the event, however a lot of the enjoyable is to be discovered within the weirder margins of the present flooring. In an period of CES the place firms are all-in on the AI hype machine, there are sure to be devices and claims which might be slightly odd, to say the least.
Listed here are the eight strangest devices, tech and claims from CES 2024 to date.
AI-powered birding binoculars
For the birder with a limiteless price range, Swarovski unveiled the AX Visio 10×32: a $4,799 pair of AI-powered binoculars. The binoculars use AI that will help you shortly determine greater than 9,000 birds and different species, in addition to present the power to take photographs and movies of your discoveries to share.
An app that permits you to pay to pee
Picture Credit: Flush
Have to go and keen to pay? Web-based app Flush permits companies to hire out their bogs to folks for extra income. The oddest factor about this app, outdoors of its existence due to the dearth of maintained and public restrooms within the U.S., is its ranking system that companies use to approve or deny a reservation.
A BlackBerry-style keyboard in your iPhone
Picture Credit: Clicks Technology (opens in a new window)
Do you miss the times of getting a tactile keyboard in your iPhone? Revealed at CES 2024, Clicks Technology’s creator keyboard turns your telephone right into a BlackBerry-era relic for $139. The keyboard acts as a telephone case attachment and offers you entry to extra of your iPhone’s display with out the digital keyboard. It’s positive to make your telephone loads longer, however perhaps that’s the value you pay for nostalgia.
Dynamic sound mixing primarily based in your driving
Picture Credit: Tim Stevens
Sound Drive, a startup from singer-songwriter turned entrepreneur Will.i.am, goals to match the music you’re listening to with the cadence and vitality of your commute. The know-how reacts to your pace and matches music to it, with lyrics coming in and dropping out intelligently whether or not you’re ripping down the freeway or caught in visitors. Whereas we had been slightly skeptical, we got here away from the tech pretty impressed.
A router that appears like an image body
Picture Credit: GL.iNet
Matching your tech to your property’s aesthetic has been fashionable in the previous couple of years. Is your TV too boring? Make it seem like a gallery portray with the Samsung Body or have it mix seamlessly into your property with LG’s newly revealed transparent television.
And the newest tech merchandise to get the yaasification therapy is the common-or-garden router. The Marble Wi-Fi 6 OpenWrt Router from GL.iNet appears like a small framed piece of artwork that you may hold in your wall or prop in your desk.
An AI assistant that calls 911 for you
At LG’s press occasion, the corporate introduced its Smart Home AI Agent. The “two-legged” wheeled robotic acts as an assistant in sync along with your LG home equipment. Generative AI lets you chat with the AI Agent, and the corporate claims it may well show you empathy. Within the firm’s surreal, Pixar-esque promotional video, the bot can remind you to take your drugs or name 911 in a time of disaster.
A bidet you possibly can discuss to
Picture Credit: Kohler
Hey, Alexa? Activate the bidet spray. Kohler launched the PureWash E930 Bidet Seat with voice command assist for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. With voice help, you possibly can management the seat hands-free, activate the bidet’s spray and dryer capabilities, in addition to its self-cleaning UV characteristic. Simply don’t let anybody watch you speaking to your rest room.
A voice absorbing masks that appears like a muzzle
Picture Credit: Haje Kamps (opens in a new window) / TechCrunch (opens in a new window)
Goodbye, nosy eavesdroppers. Skyted’s “Mobility Privacy Mask” and “Hybrid Silent Mask” are designed to “absorb voice frequencies” in noisy environments like planes, trains and rideshares, so you possibly can talk with slightly extra privateness, according to founder Stéphane Hersen. The corporate goals to implement their Bane-like masks in places of work, name facilities and even in gaming environments.
An AI-powered stroller that rocks your child for you
Picture credit: GlüxKind
Parenting is tough. GlüxKind is hoping that’s sufficient to persuade you to place your youngster within the arms — er, wheels — of its AI-powered stroller, Ella. The stroller touts the power to push itself hands-free, cease robotically on inclines, and softly rock your youngster with out you needing to raise a finger. The stroller additionally features a built-in white noise machine characteristic.
An uncanny valley you possibly can brainstorm with
One of the crucial notable “Who asked for this?” merchandise unveiled at CES is the GPT version of WeHead. The AI-powered head brings a face and a physicality to ChatGPT, moderately than a purely digital AI expertise. The mannequin-like setup with a number of screens goals to behave as a confidant to bounce round concepts with, although we’re extra fixated on simply how weird it appears and feels to work together with than something.
A pocket AI assistant that scrolls by way of your telephone for you
Need to order a pizza? As an alternative of pulling out your telephone, unlocking it, discovering a supply app, opening it, and dealing your manner by way of the UI to finish your order (so laborious!), why not simply ask rabbit’s r1 to do it for you? Reasonably than voice-only AI assistants like Siri and Alexa, the Teenage Engineering-designed gadget works on a “language action model,” which permits it to hypothetically carry out the requested process.
Sensible molluscs that may look out for water air pollution
From telephones to TVs and even bogs, every part must be “smart” these days. What about molluscs? Impressed. MolluSCAN CEO and co-founder Ludovic Quinault discovered {that a} easy, non-invasive sensor connected to a clam or oyster’s shell can monitor every part from feeding to copy and stress responses, which will be glorious predictors of water high quality and potential air pollution.
