TOP 30 Tech Innovations from CES 2020
Las Vegas, the place of entertainment and all the crazy Hollywood comedies, recently has also become the most important hotbed of technology, because from January 7 to 10, a lot of people gathered there, just to discuss tech Innovations, present incredible concepts of future inventions and surprise with the limitless possibilities of the recent innovations industry. And they got together for CES 2020.
What is CES?
CES (Consumer Electronics Show) is the largest trade show for technological innovation, bringing together the biggest companies as well as small startups since 1967. Through stands, presentations, public panels, and demonstrations, companies are encouraged to try out their latest technologies, present concepts for future products, and demonstrate how they see the future of the technology world.
It was at CES that the first iPhone model, Xbox console, first tablet, laptop, OLED TV, 3D projector, and Intel Core i7 processor were first presented to the world.
Thanks to the exhibition, many startups receive funding as well as support from large companies.
What happened at CES 2020?
This year the exhibition was visited by over 175 thousand people from 79 countries of the world, including the media, participants, and staff. CES 2020 featured 4,400 exhibits from Fortune Global 500 companies as well as startups. Traditionally, the largest of the shows took place on Monday, with LG, Samsung, and Sony showing their booths.
CES 2020 was huge and took up most of the Las Vegas Strip as well as the surrounding streets.
All 160,000 hotel rooms that Vegas has, this year they were filled. Fortunately, the CTA (the company that hosts the show) offered free transfers and thus increased the number of visitors.
The big news this year was that Apple is back at CES for the first time in 10 years. The brand did not showcase a booth or showcase new products, but Apple Product Privacy Manager Jane Horvath participated in a roundtable on digital security.
Also, at CES 2020 came Ivanka Trump, who devoted an entire panel discussion to promoting women in the world of technology.
Highlights at CES 2020
CES 2020 proved more than worthy, showing the world the most amazing technologies of household appliances, cars, computer industry, as well as gaming technologies, from which we have collected our TOP-30.
1. Mercedes concept car inspired by Avatar
If there were cars on Pandora, they would look like the Mercedes-Benz “Vision AVTR”, which was inspired by the 2009 movie “Avatar” directed by James Cameron.
This amazing car showed up at CES on Monday night after Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Kallenius laid out all the ways Mercedes wants to make its cars less resource-intensive. From Ola’s stories ‒ Mercedes wants to cut costs and resources for each car produced by 2030, and also use 30% less water to create each car.
Also, on stage with Mercedes was director Cameron himself, who presented footage from the second part of Avatar, which will be released on December 17, 2021.
While the Avatar car will never be realized, the ideas inside it ‒ like a biometric scan measuring your heart rate or a floating digital touchscreen in the palm of your hand ‒ are amazing and show the power of modern technology.
2.Samsung’s Ballie Robot Assistant
Samsung’s small, simple, amazing Ballie Robot has not only received a lot of attention at CES 2020 but has created a whole line of people looking to acquire this technology in the future. And all since Samsung has created a universal small assistant, which in the future will be able to perform a lot of different tasks, such as alarm clock, video recording, babysitting, and pets, controlling smart home devices, and creating a list of tasks for you.
The technology of the future is very similar to the concept of BB-8 from “Star Wars”, where the robot helped to perform simple work and became a friend to humans.
3. Soundbar JBL Bar 9.1
At first glance, this is an ordinary, slightly boring gray soundbar, but if you take a closer look, you will notice that the JBL 9.1 Bar is quite different from its counterparts thanks to the nifty detachable rear wireless speakers.
This high-performance soundbar supports Google Chromecast and Apple AirPlay 2 and can play music over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. In terms of connectivity, you can take advantage of 2 HDMI ports that are compatible with 4K.
Among other things, this soundbar is very powerful in terms of sound. According to calculations, only 2 such panels can be used to equip a small cinema, providing good sound. Also, this invention is not just a concept, because the company has already been selling them for $999.
4. Kakao Friends ‒ the best smart gadgets for kids
Kakao and Nendo, design studios with offices in Tokyo and Milan, have used cute animals to create an entire collection of smart home devices. In total, seven of them were presented: a smart thermometer, a humidifier, an air purifier, scales, a lamp, an alarm, and a children’s camera.
As Nendo explains, each element of the Kakao Friends home kit (not compatible with Apple HomeKit), has its control application, as well as a symbolic meaning: the alarm clock has a small bird that chirps in the morning; the thermometer is equipped with a teardrop, and the air purifier is invented in the shape of a flower.
Even though there is almost no innovation in them, these products stand out from the crowd of CES 2020 technologies with their unusual design and are almost the only ones who have presented goods for children.
5. Smart shoes from Asics
Japanese footwear brand Asics unveiled a prototype of the first smart shoe at CES 2020 ‒ Evoride. The as-yet-unnamed model uses technology made in collaboration with Japanese sensory company No New Folk.
The sensor, which sits between the outsole and the upper of both Evoride boots, has a six-axis motion sensor, as well as barometric pressure and vibration sensors inside the shell. It is controlled by an STM32L4 microcomputer, which provides low power consumption motion detection.
With Evoride, runners can see how much energy you’re using, when and how many times and how hard your feet hit the ground, how far your ankle spins or straightens when it lands. The system also analyzes your left and right legs separately, as well as your stride length and frequency. All data is entered into the shoe app.
These smart shoes are currently only available in Japan and cost around $300, but we hope they will make it to us too.
6. Virtual reality glasses from Panasonic
Panasonic showed off the first VR glasses that support HDR video. With micro-OLED lenses, Panasonic has created a design that fills the space of your eyes by 180 degrees. Thus, a feeling of complete absorption by the picture is achieved and it “comes to life” in your eyes.
A working prototype that was exhibited at the show was tethered to a computer with an RTX 2080 GPU, and simulations of a temple in Japan and a sunny beach were shown for demonstration. The company equipped the virtual reality glasses with a headset with vacuum in-ear mounts, which made it possible to obtain 3D sound and improve the perception of the projection. They also took care of the design of their product, which makes it look much better than all the virtual reality glasses we know today.
And although this whole structure turned out to be quite massive and because of this a little inconvenient for use, Panasonic has assured that it is working on improving the technology and the product that will be released on sale will be lightweight.
7. Razer Kishi gamepad for iOS and Android
Razer has unveiled the Kishi universal mobile game controllers, which are available for Android and iOS connectivity. They offer built-in support for most controller-compatible mobile games. Kishi was developed in collaboration with Gamevice, which specializes in console-quality controllers for mobile devices.
The advance is that the device connects with Lightning and USB-C and is also very compact.
8. Samsung’s Robot Chef
Samsung’s booth at CES 2020 was full of gadgets this year, but Bot Chef surpassed all expectations. The Bot Chef demo at the Samsung CES kicked off with a simple voice command: “Hi Bot Chef, let’s make a salad.” And as soon as the recipe was announced, he started cooking.
The chef’s small hands can be installed in the kitchen and prepare you a delicious dinner or breakfast on command from a smartphone.
Samsung Bot Chef can independently download recipes via Wi-Fi, take food out of the refrigerator, cut it, and control smart home items such as an oven, ventilation, or faucet. At the presentation, the robot was able to demonstrate how it works with the Internet to obtain data for making coffee using a smart coffee maker.
From the outside, it looks very impressive. And while Samsung hasn’t given an exact date or price, we hope that these technologies will be available to everyone very soon.
9. Nvidia G-Sync display with 360Hz refresh rate
Nvidia has decided to shift its focus towards Esports fans and rival gamers whose need for refresh rate is vital to winning the game and has launched G-Sync displays that boast an incredible 360Hz refresh rate.
By comparison, the previous maximum refresh rate was 300Hz, and many gaming monitors and displays on the market still run at 60Hz and 144Hz.
These 360Hz G-Sync monitors refresh game frames every 2.8ms. And of course, they have Nvidia’s Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) technology, which synchronizes the display’s refresh rate to the GPU’s frame rate for smooth gaming that eliminates headaches or tears.
10. Dell Laptops: Dual Screen and Gaming
Dell unveiled a dual-screen concept device at CES 202 while showcasing a few more concept hardware as well as a G5 15 Special Edition gaming laptop powered by AMD’s Ryzen 4000 mobile chips.
The Dell concept duo, as the name suggests, is a prototype for a concept that gives insight into what future dual-screen devices might look like. And in this case, the Concept Duet consists of a bold combination of two large 13.4-inch displays.
In addition to concept laptops, Dell also unveiled the new G5 15 Special Edition (SE), a gaming laptop that switches to one of AMD’s new Ryzen 4000 H-Series mobile processors (maxed out at 8 cores). 16 threads.
This is backed up by AMD graphics in the form of a Radeon RX 5600M, a 15.6-inch Full HD screen, and the ability to tweak 144Hz refresh rates with FreeSync. Storage options cover one or more drives, and you can also work with up to 1TB PCIe SSD and up to 2TB hard drive.
11. Lenovo ThinkBook Plus with touch screen in the lid
Lenovo got tired of making laptops that flip out like their YOGA, so they just made another screen on the lid of their ThinkBook Plus. The device was announced at CES 2020 and received an E Ink display on the laptop lid, which allows you to view necessary notifications, read e-books or PDFs, and take notes or sketch with a stylus while your laptop is in sleep mode.
The external E Ink display on the ThinkBook Plus is 10.8 inches and, as is the case with all such displays, is monochromatic. Lenovo adds a Precision Pen to it, and the ability to attach a stylus to the side of the laptop.
Other specific specs have been hidden, but we know it will be powered by 10th Gen Intel Core and use SSD for storage.
12. SanDisk and 8TB storage
SanDisk showed its vision for the future at CES 2020 by showing us an 8TB portable SSD prototype for smartphones. Portable hard drives are designed to offer the highest capacity flash storage devices for storing content created on the go. The company says its prototype supports 20Gbps USB speeds using the SuperSpeed USB protocol.
Along with its 8TB device, SanDisk also announced a sleek silver 1TB Ultra Luxe dual-drive designed to work with the latest smartphones, tablets, and laptops.
13. OnePlus Concept One Smartphone and Hidden Camera Technology
The new OnePlus Concept One phone unveiled at CES 2020 showcases disappearing rear camera technology that is not visible on the body. For this technology, OnePlus used electrochromic glass (EC glass).
The concept was reportedly motivated by the fact that many smartphones are now being impaired by the camera, and the emergence of “disappearing” camera technology could allow designers to go beyond the usual phone concept. It took the company 18 months to develop this project so that the back cover glass alone would function well enough for use in a phone.
OnePlus has created a unique glass that’s thin enough to let light through, but thick enough to be durable, with the ability to change from opaque to clear in 0.7 seconds.
14. Royole: Speakers and flexible displays on wood
Royole is a company that innovates and markets flexible displays that can be easily rolled or folded like a sheet of paper.
This year, they introduced a speaker with Alexa support and an 8-inch flexible OLED display. Mirage has a circular design with a display that wraps around the front. It also has a built-in 5MP camera that can be used for video calls. The device is expected to go on sale later this year and will retail for $899.
But everyone at the exhibition was surprised not by this innovation, but the stand created by the company. It consisted of trees, the leaves of which were made from flexible screens that changed color and broadcast video.
15. OLED aircraft displays from LG
LG has announced flexible 55-inch OLED displays designed to be mounted on aircraft walls, which tend to create a wall away from your seatmate.
According to an LG press release, displays that can show clouds, open skies, and other peaceful scenes should allow people to feel more relaxed while traveling.
Most likely, such displays can be installed in the first-class cabin of the future. The company may also offer a 55-inch OLED display with 40 percent transparency as partitions for homes.
16. Artificial People Neon from Samsung
Star Labs, which is actively supported by Samsung, presented its creations of “artificial people” Neon.
3D projections of people created using large screens and connected to AI have their history, appearance, name, work, and can answer any questions. Their image appears on the big screen, but it seems as if a real person is interacting with you.
Neon is designed to make it easier for journalists, marketers, teachers, and nannies. They can feed information from the internet, generate questions quickly, and use some human emotion to analyze subsequent reactions.
17. Routers for Wi-Fi 6
2020 holds great promise for improving data transmission technologies such as mobile networks, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi.
Netgear unveiled a router that supports 5G (mmWave and Sub-6GHz) and WiFi 6 technologies.
Linksys also unveiled next-generation 5G modems and WiFi 6 routers that support transfer rates up to 6000 Mbps.
18. Oral-B Smart Brush
Oral-B unveiled the new iO smart electric toothbrush at CES, which features a redesigned innovative brush head as well as an accompanying app that uses AI to teach how to brush properly with 3D guidance.
Also, if using the smartphone app in the bathroom seems too risky for you, the iO has its built-in smart display that allows you to switch between the seven cleaning modes and, according to Oral-B, it provides training and motivation.
Like most other Oral-B electric brushes, the iO also features a pressure sensor that glows red if users press too hard on their teeth.
19. Taxi Uber Air
Uber takes off in 2023. The company has unveiled a prototype air taxi with California-based Joby Aviation, which plans to use an all-electric aircraft known as e-VTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) to carry up to four passengers at low altitude over short distances.
It is planned to launch such a function for flights from city to city, for example, from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. The principle of the joint trip will be retained, but now it will be airborne. The 30 km journey is expected to cost around $100.
20. “Beauty Technology” by L’Oréal Perso
In our time, it is difficult to imagine something where technology has not yet reached, which is evidenced by the presentation of L’Oréal at the CES technology exhibition. The French company has introduced a smart dispenser that can independently select your skincare cosmetics, thanks to an application that can recognize all the imperfections on your face: from enlarged pores to acne.
The small box contains three dispensers and it gives you the right amount of cream, selected especially for you. While this is only a prototype, the company seriously intends to present this device for sale.
21. Cat-waiter
The Chinese company PuduTech offers cafes and restaurants that lack waiters to use the services of the BellaBot robot cat. The device can carry four trays around the room at the same time. When the robotic cat drives up to the table, it meows for the client to take his order from its paws. The visitor can pet it, but not for long, otherwise, the cat will “get angry” because the person interferes with its work.
22. “Recycler” of water
Given the shortage of drinking water in the world, companies are looking for ways to reduce its consumption. US company Hydraloop has created a device that allows homeowners to recycle 85% of their water use.
The refrigerator-sized Hydraloop product of the same name connects to the home’s water system. Once installed, it receives wastewater and treats it in several ways: sedimentation, flotation, dissolved air flotation, and foam fractionation.
Then the purified water is processed by an aerobic bioreactor and disinfected with ultraviolet light. The resulting clean water is recyclable in the toilet, washing machine, pool, and garden.
According to the developers’ calculations, a family of four can save up to 76 cubic meters of water per year. There are about a hundred such devices in operation now. The price of one is $4,000.
23. Frameless TV
Another novelty from Samsung is the Q950TS flagship TV with an Infinity Design bezel-less display. It still has a frame, but you can see it only in the immediate vicinity of the device. Moreover, it is only 15 mm thick. The TV allows you to watch movies and videos in 8K quality. There is no information about the cost and timing of the goods on sale yet.
24. Neuro Interface for TV and computer
French developers from NextMind have presented a neural interface with which a person can mentally control a TV or computer. A small, circular computational innovation is attached to the back of the head and reads signals from the visual cortex of the brain and converts them into digital commands. With their help, the owner of the gadget can, focusing on the TV, select a channel, or increase the volume. It is also assumed that NextMind can be used in virtual reality games.
25. Treadmill with a smart mirror
The “home” set of Amazfit HomeStudio from the Chinese company Haumi includes a treadmill, a JBL speaker system, and a 43-inch interactive mirror. It has a built-in library of thousands of exercises, including yoga. While the virtual trainer on the screen will show you how to do the exercises correctly, the built-in camera will evaluate the technique of their implementation. The system will go on sale in two versions: standard (maximum track speed reaches 14 km/h) and premium (maximum speed 19 km/h).
26. Digital “visor” for cars
The Bosch Virtual Visor replaces the standard sun visor that normally blocks the driver’s view of the vehicle. A built-in camera detects the head tilt and eye position of the driver, after which the “smart” transparent panel will darken only the area through which the sun’s rays enter the eyes. While the company has presented only the concept of the device, there are no specific plans for the product to enter the market.
27. Smartphone on electronic ink
The Chinese company Hisense has unveiled the world’s first smartphone with color e-ink. Any technical characteristics of the device are still unknown except for the loading speed of the screen that is much higher than that of its predecessors.
28. Smart Pajamas for Seniors
The Japanese company Xenoma has introduced pajamas for monitoring the health of the elderly or sick people. It monitors a person’s blood pressure, pulse, and respiratory rate, as well as body temperature. During the day, clothing evaluates the activity of its wearer, and at night it monitors the quality of sleep. In the event of a fall or other incident, the suit automatically sends an alarm signal to relatives.
29. Assistant for the hearing impaired
The Hear from Israeli developers OrCam will allow hearing-impaired people to cut off unnecessary noises on the street so that they can hear their interlocutors better. The device attached to the clothes will determine by the lips who exactly is addressing the owner of the gadget, after which it will transmit exclusively his voice to the hearing aid via Bluetooth. The device can be controlled using gestures ‒ for example, the camera can be indicated which of the interlocutors should be “listened to”.
30. Adhesive plaster to prevent premature ejaculation
The organizers of the CES 2019 exhibition were criticized for being puritanical and not allowing the participation of developers of gadgets for the sex industry. Everything changed in 2020: the event was rife with technological innovations for adults.
One such device is a prototype adhesive tape that can prevent premature ejaculation.
According to Harvard urologist Dicken Koh, who represented Morari Medical, premature ejaculation occurs in 30% of men and is the most common male sexual dysfunction.
To solve this problem, the company has developed a miniature device with a battery, Bluetooth transmitter, smartphone app, and wireless electrical neuromodulation unit.
The device sends small electrical impulses to a sensitive area, simulating signals from the human brain designed to delay ejaculation.
Product testing is scheduled for Q1 2020. If all goes according to plan, the product will go on sale in 2021.