Five key themes of CES 2023
Anyone who attended CES last year will confirm that it was certainly not business as usual, with over 60% less attendees than previous years and drastically stripped-back booths and product launches. In contrast, CES 2023promises green shoots in a post-pandemic world having benefitted from almost three years of reflection and development of ideas to address the key challenges faced by humans of the future.
Here are G-Hold’s picks for top themes emerging from CES 2023.
Autonomous Electric Vehicles
Although electric vehicles have featured at CES for a number of years, the offerings at CES 2023 take the convergence of technology and automotive engineering to a whole new level.
Perhaps the most significant collaboration in this area is that of Sony and Honda, launching their love child, AFEELA, with a total of 45 cameras and sensors, together with 800 TOPS (Trillions of Operations Per Second) for maximum computing power behind its ECU (Electronic Control Unit).
We have ‘AFEEL-ing’ we know who ate all the Qualcomm chips!
Another highlight of note is Dutch EV startup Lightyear announcing its second solar-powered vehicle promising an additional 43 miles on average between charges, due to go into production in 2025 and, if you’re willing to wait that long, it’s tipped to be available for less than $40,000.
And for something completely different… BMW’s somewhat bonkers take on turning your car into a deconstructed Memoji with their i Vision Dee concept car, capable of expressing your emotions to the outside world via an external display.
Digital Health
With the vast majority of healthcare systems having been overwhelmed at various points over the pandemic and ageing populations causing concern for many major economies, there has never been a more important time to develop new innovations in healthcare, particularly around remote monitoring, diagnostics and early interventions.
Top of our list in digital health technology at CES 2023 is Scottish startup Novosound who have developed a ground-breaking technique to mass-manufacture printable, flexible ultrasound sensors.
Although originally developed to detect faults along pipelines in the oil and gas industry, the wrap-around thin-film sensors have now been developed as wearable ultrasound sensors, including an intelligent, autonomous bladder monitoring device and a wearable lung device for remote monitoring and future diagnostics. The sensors can also be used to monitor blood pressure, dehydration and bionics.
Moving onto some bionic support for heavy lifters, German Bionic has launched an ‘ergonomic wearable’ exoskeleton, the Apogee, to support the lower backs of workers and give an extra boost of power as they lift heavy objects in warehouses or on and off goods vehicles.
Again on the theme of ergonomics, G-Hold continues to dominate mobile solutions that protect the hand and wrist with its range of G-Hold Tablet Holders and more recently G-Hold Phone Holders.
Despite many attempts by major brands to solve the mobile gripping issue, G-Hold’s patented, scientifically proven ergonomics and custom branding options have secured its position as the holder of choice for educators and enterprises alike, nine years after it launched its first tablet holder at CES 2014.
Robotics
Always a firm favourite for CES visitors, the robots featuring at CES 2023 continue to delight, offering innovative solutions to real-world problems.
First up is a new offering from tractor-maker John Deere, seeking to resolve the issues faced by farmers needing to maximise food production on every square inch of land for a world increasingly concerned with food shortages.
John Deere’s new sensor-driving robotic technology ExactShot is able to precision-plant seeds, reducing fertiliser use by up to 60%, saving farmers money and reducing the amount of excess chemicals otherwise used during traditional scattershot fertilisation methods.
One of the issues holding back robotic technology is… well… holding. Robots have historically lacked the ability to grasp objects with anything remotely close to the sense of touch experienced through human skin which has rendered them unable to complete certain pick and pack functions and more complex tasks in healthcare environments.
This looks set to change with some game-changing technology from X-Prize finalists Touchlab. Their patented ‘e-skin’ nano-sensor technology can be wrapped around hard or soft surfaces with the ability to sense 3D force, making it possible to identify objects through touch alone whilst identifying and compensating for slip before it occurs.
For some home-based robotics, if Daddy wouldn’t buy you a bow-wow, check out Dog-E by WowWee, arguably the world’s most adaptable robo-dog, with over a million potential combinations of sounds, lights and personality traits for a truly customisable canine friend. Even if you have a little cat, and you’re very fond of that, Daddy can pick up this high-tech bow-wow for just $80.
Metaverse, AR and VR
When we cast our minds back to CES 2014, headlines were dominated by the launch of Google Glass. Like so many inventions, Google fell victim to being the almost-right product at the slightly-wrong time. One ‘glasshole’ word in a tech blog later, the commercial success of the consumer model was doomed.
Nine eventful years on from Glass-Gate and we are eagerly anticipating the launch of Apple’s own AR glasses offering. In the meantime, CES 2023 has offered up a plethora of metaverse accessories for both VR and AR experiences.
Shiftall, owned by Panasonic, is on a mission to enhance the physical experience of metaverse wanderers with a range of new devices, including a noticeably lightweight VR headset; a device, Pebble, that controls the temperature of the body to enhance the virtual experience beyond the visual; and a muzzle-like sound-proofed mouth-covering with build-in microphone, Mutalk, which allows users to talk to others in the metaverse without disturbing anyone around them in the real world.
If you can forgive its appearance resembling something you might put on a rabid dog, we predict the Mutalk being a hit in busy family homes throughout the globe.
Innovations in AR mainly focussed on travel outside of the home. GPS neckband, Loovic, guides users around a city on foot without having to look at a map on their phone. This innovation could also be valuable for those who lack (or have lost) spatial cognition, such as those differing from Alzheimers.
TCL launched its new foray into AR with their RayNeo X2 smart glasses. Information displayed includes GPS navigation as well as translation of local languages. If you’re expecting photo-realistic images flashing in front of your eyes to augment your world, you’ll need to think again. And if you thought Google Glass was clunky, the comedian-sized frames of the RayNeo X2s are so large you can actually raise them up with a pout of your lips.
With advances in mobile handsets over recent years, it’ll take a huge leap forward in AR glass hardware to compete in any meaningful way with our familiar pocket-sized rectangles, but it’s certainly encouraging to see the industry’s commitment to meet somewhere in the middle of virtual and real life spaces.
