Last week, the Consumer Electronics Show 2023 ended in the United States. This time, the participants decided to go beyond the usual genre and showed not only regular TVs with unlimited resolution, powerful laptops and strange gadgets like a smart birdhouse with a webcam or a hanging cleaner for toilet combined with a urine composition analyzer that transmits the analysis transcript via Bluetooth to a special application on the phone. Visitors were introduced to new technologies in the automotive industry, cosmetics, and child care, just as a visitor can buy everything in a single mega mall without leaving it.
Through two winters, through two springs
For the first time since January 2020, the annual Consumer Electronic Show (CES) took place in a non-virtual (January 2021) or truncated and semi-virtual (January 2022) format. The lifting of coronavirus restrictions in the United States last year allowed companies to lay out everything they have accumulated in their research labs over these two years. The show was attended not only by manufacturers of consumer electronics, but also by such automakers as BMW and Honda, the French cosmetics manufacturer L`Oreal, manufacturers of baby strollers and fitness equipment.
One of the most unusual for a consumer electronics show, which turned CES into a kind of international auto show, was the booth of the German concern BMW.
The Bavarian company showed the world’s first car that can completely change its color in a few seconds. The body of the BMW iVision Dee concept model is covered with panels using E-ink technology, which is used, for example, in e-books. A total of 266 such panels are installed. With the help of a special application on a smartphone, the user can, like in a computer game, change the color of the entire car with a few finger movements. The panels will “repaint” it before your eyes. The cost of the car is not reported. Therefore, it is not clear how much a car body repair with so many interactive panels can cost even with a minor traffic accident.
Another auto concern that took part in CES-2023 is the Japanese Honda Motor. Together with Sony, she presented the Afeela concept car, which is positioned as a “next-generation electric car”. The car is so smart that it can enter into “emotional contact” with the driver and passengers. Hence the name, referring to the word “feeling, feel” (English – “feel”). When creating this car, Honda focused exclusively on automotive functions, and Sony turned it into a real multimedia center with their signature design – only on wheels.
In addition to 45 external radars and sensors located around the entire vehicle to ensure maximum safety and predictability of manual or autonomous driving, the vehicle is equipped with an external multimedia panel above the front and rear bumpers. On these panels, the driver can display current weather data, sports results, pictures, video broadcasts and other content, thus entertaining everyone around and entering “emotional contact with them.” Inside the car, the entire front panel of the passenger compartment is one large multimedia screen – something like a hybrid of a large Sony TV with all the features of the PlayStation console integrated into Afeela. It is understood that the driver and passengers can enjoy games, videos, streaming, listening to music and other features of such a panel when the car is driving in unmanned mode, of which there are three in Afeela: urban, highway and mixed.
Not the most familiar participant for CES was the French company L’Oreal, better known for its cosmetics than technology. She presented devices that attracted the attention of even the most sophisticated visitors to the show.
The first such device is the Motorized Lipstick Applicator. The gadget is intended for people with disabilities who have weakened or impaired movement or hand coordination functions. It holds lipstick, allowing you to quickly and calmly bring it to your face and apply it precisely on your lips. The built-in stabilizers and mechanisms of the device analyze unnecessary vibrations and inaccurate movements of the wearer’s hands, correcting these movements and holding the lipstick in the optimal position.
The second device, called the Brow Printer, is designed to tint or cosmetically correct the shape of the eyebrows. It consists of a special application that analyzes the wearer’s face using the smartphone’s camera and selects several shades and shapes of the eyebrows. After that, the application transfers the data to a portable device, which “draws” the eyebrows instead of a traditional pencil.
Simple difficulties
Of course, traditional devices such as huge flat-panel TVs, powerful laptops, advanced game controllers and other normal representatives of consumer electronics were also presented at CES-2023. One such device that has drawn particular attention from reviewers is LG’s all-wireless TV. All signals to your TV, be it cable or satellite TV, movie, streaming content, video games, etc., are transmitted wirelessly from a small set-top box that operates within a radius of 10 m. The set-top box can be installed in an inconspicuous place, such as under table or behind a cabinet, and coils of twisting wires will not stretch to the TV. The only remaining wire is to power the TV from the mains. But it is also recessed into the stand, which is equipped with a huge screen with a diagonal of 97 inches.
One of the main competitors of LG – another South Korean giant Samsung – also found something to surprise visitors. He presented several innovative displays at once, which can be bent in various directions and even stretched. For example, by expanding the device into a 10-inch tablet, it can be stretched to increase the screen to 12 inches. The other display can be folded to one side or the other, so the image is shown on two opposite sides of the device. This can be useful for those who want to watch a movie and not sit close to each other, but, for example, on opposite sides of the table.
But CES-2023 would not be so unusual if it featured only such – albeit very innovative and technological – devices from companies involved in consumer electronics themselves.
The Canadian company Gluxkind introduced the unmanned baby stroller Ella. Using autonomous driving systems with sensors and scanners, which have long been used in cars, the electric stroller drives itself, navigating in space and avoiding obstacles. Thus, the parent or nanny can no longer push the stroller in front of him and go about his business, giving a rest to his hands for a while, while the child is peacefully napping. The stroller’s sensors also analyze the movements of the child and, if necessary, can turn on the motion sickness mode or the sound of “white noise”.
After taking a break from pushing the stroller, parents or anyone else can do some fitness while charging their tablet. Acer eKinekt BD 3, a hybrid exercise bike and desktop from Acer, will help with this. The principle of operation of the bike table is simple. Kinetic energy from pedaling generates electricity, which charges one or more gadgets via USB ports on the built-in table top. One hour of pedaling at a cadence of 60 rotations per minute produces 75 watts of electricity. If a home or office athlete wants to take a break from work, he can fully focus on fitness, watching in real time the parameters of his occupation and the process of his physical improvement: speed of movement, distance traveled, calories burned, etc., as in a normal exercise bike.