The week after the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) always feels like one big tech hangover. For one week, conventioneers were thrust into the very-near (and often ways-off) future. We saw the world’s first color-changing concept car (thanks, BMW). We marveled at LG’s gigantic 97-inch OLED TV, one of the first wireless models of its kind. We did what folks at CES tend to do: get lost in possibility together.
After a rough 2022, full of COVID fears that forced many leading exhibitors to pass on in-person attendance at the convention, the show needed a year like this. Microsoft returned in full force, as did others like Google and Lenovo (with a head-turning dual-screen collapsible laptop).
After the exhibit floor languished from light foot traffic last year, every square inch felt alive this time. Congested halls full of international travelers kept exhibitors busy. The Boring Company’s Las Vegas Convention Center Loop ran around the clock, Teslas weaving through tunnels underground to the West Hall and Resorts World through a connecting path.
It rained a lot the first day, cloaking the city in an eerie dystopian darkness like a deleted scene from Blade Runner 2049. It fit the mood for some of the Black Mirror-esque tech I saw.
I’d never taken the warnings about artificial intelligence replacing us very seriously … until I saw Xorbis’ Sketcher X robot draw a person in real time. The disembodied “artistic performing humanoid” bears a strong resemblance to the bots in 2004’s I, Robot. And if it wasn’t for the large robotic arm protruding out of its side, you’d swear it had a heartbeat. Its eyes blink naturally, its lips part and shut believably. “I’ve finished analyzing you now,” it told an attendee who sat down to have her portrait drawn. “Now, let’s begin our pleasant conversation.”
The robot responds to what’s being discussed through eyebrow raises and even smiles as it draws. The portraits created were thin-lined croquis sketches that still factored in facial expressions, structure and items such as eyeglasses. But Sketcher X can create more advanced drawings through various methods.
Nuvilab’s AI food scanner
Virtual humans were another big ticket at CES this year. The floor featured plenty of holograms and virtual shopping assistants, and DeepBrain AI’s hyper realistic 2D and 3D AI humans astounded. The startup can make a virtual replica of a person’s body, mannerisms and voice through deep learning, video and voice synthesis technology and motion capture of the subject at an in-person studio. Scripts can be programmed into the AI, as DeepBrain showcased with the virtual twin it created of comedian Howie Mandel, which answered questions from the CES crowd.
What’s more, DeepBrain has ReMemory, a service that allows the company’s technology to work off pre-captured video interviews with elderly loved ones to create a human AI of them after they die. We’re definitely catching up to science fiction here.
Everyone raced to find the next big thing on the show floor, from Sony and Honda’s new electric car, Afeela, to a $3,300 self-driving stroller. My personal favorite gadgets skewed toward tech I could foresee the world using very soon.
Nuvilab’s AI food scanner immediately stood out for its potential in our personal diets, school cafeterias and restaurants. The scanner analyzes and identifies what’s on your plate in real time, displaying calories, nutrients, volume and potential allergens. It can also reduce food waste in restaurants by showing how much produce—and money—is being wasted when leftovers are discarded. Nuvilab operates in Korea but is working with Microsoft and Nestlé to expand.
Agrist offered more neat food tech with its autonomous pepper-picking robot called “L.” The harvester, designed to address the agricultural labor shortages in Japan and the challenges of the aging farmer, would free up a significant amount of time for them. Perhaps our U.S. farms could also someday benefit from the fruits of L’s labor.
Robots as a service seemed to be a common thread this year. Aeolus Robotics’ debuted its dual-arm robot Aeo as the next potential addition to hospitals. Autonomous and essentially tireless, Aeo has the ability to make deliveries and patrol areas to which it has been mapped. It can open doors, disinfect them with UV light and even ride in elevators. It’s also programmed to check on patients, send out alerts about elderly people who have fallen and detect anyone not authorized to be in an area. Aeo’s built-in 360 degree cameras also allow operators to tap into what it sees, much like a livestream.
Bird Buddy
By the end of my CES, I’d had my fill of robots. So when I discovered Bird Buddy, a smart bird feeder one rep described as “like Pokémon Go for birds,” I was intrigued. Bird Buddy captures footage of every visiting bird and, using its AI, identifies its species and generates a dossier for your phone. You can listen to its song call, review photos and videos of it, learn where it came from and more.
Eventually, you’ll have a collection of birds in your gallery and a way to review other people’s birds through a community feature. It’s bird-watching without leaving your backyard. And in this quickly transforming world, sometimes something that simple is what we need.
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