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 are somewhat odd, to say the least.
Listed here are the 14 strangest devices, tech and claims from CES 2024 thus far.
AI-powered birding binoculars
For the birder with a limiteless finances, Swarovski unveiled the AX Visio 10×32: a $4,799 pair of AI-powered binoculars. The binoculars use AI that will help you rapidly establish greater than 9,000 birds and different species, in addition to present the flexibility to take pictures and movies of your discoveries to share.
An app that allows you to pay to pee
Picture Credit: Flush
Must go and keen to pay? Web-based app Flush permits companies to lease out their bogs to folks for extra income. The oddest factor about this app, outdoors of its existence because of the shortage 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 cellphone right into a BlackBerry-era relic for $139. The keyboard acts as a cellphone case attachment and offers you entry to extra of your iPhone’s display with out the digital keyboard. It’s certain to make your cellphone so much longer, however possibly that’s the value you pay for nostalgia.
Dynamic sound mixing based mostly 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 expertise 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 have been somewhat 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 stylish in the previous couple of years. Is your TV too boring? Make it appear 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 would be able to dangle 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 together with your LG home equipment. Generative AI permits you to chat with the AI Agent, and the corporate claims it will possibly show you empathy. Within the firm’s surreal, Pixar-esque promotional video, the bot can remind you to take your medication or name 911 in a time of disaster.
A bidet you possibly can speak 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 function. Simply don’t let anybody watch you speaking to your bathroom.
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 somewhat 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 difficult. GlüxKind is hoping that’s sufficient to persuade you to place your little one within the arms — er, wheels — of its AI-powered stroller, Ella. The stroller touts the flexibility to push itself hands-free, cease mechanically on inclines, and softly rock your little one with out you needing to carry a finger. The stroller additionally features a built-in white noise machine function.
An uncanny valley you possibly can brainstorm with
One of the 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, reasonably 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 cellphone for you
Need to order a pizza? As a substitute of pulling out your cellphone, unlocking it, discovering a supply app, opening it, and dealing your approach by way of the UI to finish your order (so laborious!), why not simply ask rabbit’s r1 to do it for you? Fairly than voice-only AI assistants like Siri and Alexa, the Teenage Engineering-designed system works on a “language action model,” which permits it to hypothetically carry out the requested activity.
Sensible molluscs that may look out for water air pollution
From telephones to TVs and even bathrooms, every thing must be “smart” these days. What about molluscs? Impressed. MolluSCAN CEO and co-founder Ludovic Quinault discovered {that a} easy, non-invasive sensor hooked up to a clam or oyster’s shell can monitor every thing from feeding to replica and stress responses, which might be wonderful predictors of water high quality and potential air pollution.
A TV that folds right into a statue
Do you’re keen on your TV however want it might fold up into a bit of artwork? Boy, we’ve received excellent news for you. C SEED’s N1 folding TV is made up of 5 MicroLED panels, permitting it to go from a whopping 137-inch display to a brutalist-looking sculpture in your lounge in about 90 seconds. With its so-called Adaptive Hole Calibration, there are not any seen hinges between the screens, revealing a seamless viewing expertise when utterly unfurled. Additionally, it begins at $200,000.
A CPR dummy that breathes and pees
How reasonable is too reasonable? ADAM-X from Medical-X is a affected person simulator designed for a variety of medical coaching workouts: injecting an IV, utilizing a defibrillator, CPR and extra. The corporate boasts reasonable replications of a human’s skeleton anatomical construction, and provides you with reactive suggestions based mostly on the affected person’s wants and the way correct you might be. According to Engadget, the corporate plans to include a GPT-like function sooner or later to assist practice medics extra immediately. ADAM-X additionally incorporates simulated fluids like blood and urine for correct coaching observe. Go, science.
A sensible mirror that claims it will possibly sense in case you’re depressed
Magic mirror on the wall, why am I so confused? Baracoda calls BMind the world’s first AI-powered smart mirror for psychological wellness. The mirror makes use of AI and pure language processing to establish your temper based mostly in your gestures, expressions and tone. In flip, the mirror can chat with you, generate guided meditation workouts and self-affirmations and implement mild remedy classes by way of the mirror’s edge.
A CNC mill that appears straight out of the ‘90s
Coast Runner CNC mill, proven at CES 2024
This isn’t that bizarre of a product, actually, however its look is simply too eye-catching to depart out. It’s really a part of an admirable mission from Coast Runner to make computer numerical control (CNC) machines more accessible to professionals and hobbyists. For these much less accustomed to the house, a CNC machine is what permits for the standardization and automation of an in any other case handbook course of, like chopping by way of parts on an meeting line or 3D printing.
However simply have a look at that graphic referencing the 1992 disposable cup design “Jazz” (which has since had a life of its own online.) In an occasion that featured so, so, so many harrowing or complicated aesthetics, somewhat nostalgia is cool and refreshing.
