This year’s CES trade show, produced by the Consumer Technology Association and held in Las Vegas, was its largest ever, with more than 4,300 exhibitors.CES
Annual CES show impresses more than 135,000 attendees from around the world with the latest tech innovations
CES is the primary showcase for what’s new in products in the consumer electronics industry – the Super Bowl of trade shows for what to expect on the technology front in the year ahead, across the globe.
For one week every January, CES, which is produced by the Consumer Technology Association, is held in Las Vegas. This year was its largest show yet, with more than 4,300 exhibitors, including a record 1,400 startups. There was more than 2.5 million square feet of exhibits, which was 15 per cent larger than CES 2023, and more than 135,000 attendees from 150 countries, regions and territories. This year, 60 per cent of Fortune 500 companies attended.
The numbers this year were impressive, a further sign that the industry has emerged from the pandemic period. For Steven Hummel, a producer of CES at the Consumer Technology Association who was attending his fifth CES, the sheer size and scope impressed him, as did the variety of future-age technologies he saw, led predominantly by smart home technology and devices.
This year, CES “went full Jetsons,” Hummel says, referring to the Hanna-Barbera cartoon from the 1960s about the misadventures of a futuristic family in the year 2062.
“A lot of what we see at the show tends to bubble up to the surface with what future tech offerings the builders plan to include,” says Hummel, whose role is market research, managing such initiatives as what smart home products and technology home builders will be installing in homes.
Hummel says electrification and battery technologies will be leading the charge in 2024. The Tesla Powerwall, for example, generated a lot of buzz at the show around energy usage, battery backup systems and electric vehicle (EV) charging systems in the home.
“How are you going to harness energy?” Hummels says. Home battery backups and energy storage from solar systems – which are ideal should the electricity grid goes down – are two options and Tesla’s the biggest name brand in that area. Many solar installers recommend installing two or three powerwalls (Tesla’s runs at a cost of around $11,500 including installation), a number that can be determined by homeowners by calculating their typical energy consumption.
At CES, Samsung introduced a new SmartThings Energy/Telsa Powerwall collaboration, deploying SmartThings Energy to Tesla’s Powerwall home batteries, solar inverters and EV chargers to manage the power status of a home. This includes syncing capabilities with Tesla’s Storm Watch function, so that Samsung devices can alert homeowners to impending severe weather and, while in AI Energy Mode, intelligently and proactively extend remaining backup energy for when an outage could take a home off the grid.
EcoFlow has scaled up its energy storage devices for whole home battery backup systems that don’t run on fuel. EcoFlow’s system can optionally recharge if a homeowner has solar panels. Its largest configuration is capable of powering an entire home for one month. And Jackery debuted a robotic vehicle called the Solar Generator Mars Bot. Imagine wanting to take your recreational vehicle somewhere off the grid and you want all your appliances with you. The Mars Bot is a rover that will find the best spot for sunlight and position itself accordingly, open up the solar panels and come back and dock when it has harvested enough solar energy.
“That one had a wow factor [at the show],” Hummel says.
“Smart home was an interesting one overall. I wasn’t thinking it was going to be a big year for smart home tech. I feel like all the products that I would see in a typical home were already revealed in the past. But what we saw was a lot of incremental upgrades from what was currently available.” Robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) were apparent across the gamut of smart home products, he adds.
Over all, appliances of the future will do multiple things at a time, faster and more efficiently, than ever before. Hummel says the price points for these products are coming down as well, making them more accessible to more consumers.
“I think we’re in the phase of technology now where if you can dream it, there might be a real implementation for it,” Hummel says.
CES 2024 showed the very latest in high-tech devices for the home, such as Lockly’s smart door lock, Kohler’s smart showering system, Baracoda’s smart mirror, DeRucci’s anti-snore pillow and Hisense’s 110-inch TV.IMAGES COURTESY OF THE MANUFACTURERS
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS OF CES 2024
Lockly Visage smart door lock
Visage only needs to scan your face to unlock a door and is compatible with Apple’s Home Key. Visage uses a pair of 2MP-resolution, infrared sensors to detect your face within a range of 2.6 feet. It can store up to 100 profiles and takes just 1.5 seconds to unlock the door. Visage works on WiFi and supports Matter, an open-source connectivity standard for smart home and IoT (Internet of Things) devices.
Kohler multisensory showering experience
A spa appointment can be had at home with Kohler’s Anthem smart showering valves and controls that allow users to control up to 12 outlets of water. You can even set your experience using just your voice as the system is controllable via a connected app or your favourite voice assistant.
Baracoda BMind smart mirror
BMind utilizes AI and natural language processing to analyze the sentiment of whoever is looking into the mirror through expressions, gestures and tones. It then adapts to your current mood and provides light therapy sessions, guided meditations and self-affirmations with the goal of improving your mood and managing your stress.
Hisense 110-inch TV
The limits of LED picture quality have been extended with Hisense’s 110UX Mini LED display. With advanced AI-powered video processing and improved backlighting, the results are superior colour, brightness and contrast.
DeRucci Anti-Snore Smart Pillow
Sleep health company DeRucci showed off its innovative pillow as a part of its line of sleep tech products. This smart pillow uses smart tech solutions to determine the user’s optimal sleeping position and alleviate snoring. Using sensors and a built-in hearing device, this smart pillow detects snoring and movement, and adjusts the degree of pillow support best for the user. Air chambers within the pillow automatically inflate and deflate to the perfect size and position to encourage a snore-free sleeping experience. This smart pillow also connects to an app and remote for manual monitoring and adjustment.
ANSSil Smart String i4 mattress
For the latest in mattresses think string, not spring. CES Innovation Award Honoree ANSSil, which is known for its high tensile strength, string-supported mattresses, unveiled its latest in smart mattresses. The Smart String i4 model uses AI, IoT and smart sensor technology to identify and auto-adjust, in real-time, the perfect level of firmness for the user’s optimal sleeping position.
Samsung transparent Micro-LED display TV
At the show, Samsung held its annual First Look event, at which the company teased the world’s first transparent Micro-LED display. Two of the demo units featured tinted glass, which made it easier to ignore any potential distracting objects behind the panels, while another appeared to be as transparent as regular glass while also boasting a frameless design.
Panasonic HomeCHEF 4-in-1 Multi-oven
Panasonic has expanded its partnership with smart kitchen platform Fresco to deliver a revolutionary cooking assistant for Panasonic kitchen appliances, starting with the Panasonic HomeCHEF 4-in-1 multi-oven. Incorporating Fresco’s AI and smart cooking technology into its multi-oven products, Fresco’s cooking assistant will allow home cooks to customize recipes to fit dietary preferences, make ingredient substitutions based on what’s in the pantry and seamlessly adjust serving size and cooking settings. Whether convection baking a chicken, air frying sweet potato fries or creating a chocolate mousse using the microwave, home cooks can adapt any recipe to their unique needs while enjoying consistently good outcomes.
Seergrills Perfecta AI-powered grill
Feel like a steak? Seergrills is promising a perfectly grilled steak in 90 seconds. Called “the world’s first AI-powered grill”, the Perfecta model grill comes equipped with software and smart sensors – dubbed by Seergrills as “aiChef” programming – that engage food variables such as type, thickness and temperature, as well as the user’s meal preparation preferences to deliver the perfect steak or chicken in a fraction of the time (90 seconds for a one-inch ribeye and chicken breasts in under three minutes).
Flappie AI-powered cat door
Swiss startup Flappie showed off a cat door that automatically locks if your cat tries to bring in prey it caught from the outside. There are some manual switches on the inside of the door so you can lock and unlock it any time you want or turn off the prey-detection system. Flappie says that pets are likely to learn over time that they can’t enter when carrying something and that when they drop the prey, the door will promptly unlock so they can get inside.
Aiper Horizon U1 robotic mower
This cordless robotic lawn mower is optimized to automatically cut grass of all types in yards up to 32,000 square feet. Users can control the mower’s boundary setting with an app and the robotic mower automatically adapts to different grass types and conditions. Sensing its surroundings to avoid obstacles and to create a safer user experience, the Horizon U1 uses Aiper vision technology, which combines cameras and sensors with an AI-enhanced algorithm to capture real-time environmental information and precisely determine its current position. As a result, the smart robot can avoid common obstacles found in the yard, making it safer for users and pets.
Advertising feature produced by Globe Content Studio. The Globe’s editorial department was not involved.