The 2022 edition of CES, the biggest technology event in the world, has already taken place. With it, we had the announcement of several products and news, and of course, some stood out, either for their innovation or even for their strange nature at least.
With so many big companies in the market taking the opportunity to show their best, a lot of people are interested in knowing what happened at CES. So you don’t miss out on what was different at CES 2022, we at AdNews have separated the main highlights of the event.
Check out the main news from CES 2022:
Clothes made for games – and the metaverse
The Metaverse era is getting closer and closer. The novelty announced by Mark Zuckemberg last year will create a virtual reality where everyone can interact, but what’s the point of living in this space if you can’t feel the world around you.
That’s where Owo’s smart clothing comes into play. Each of the Spanish company’s skin-tight vests comes equipped with electrodes at 10 locations on its torso and arms, all controlled by an app running on your phone.
Why electrodes? Obviously, to stimulate your muscles to simulate the sensation of falling through the air, bugs buzzing around your back, and even a little more extreme things like… getting stabbed? According to CEO Jose Fuertes, the company plans to make the clothes Metaverse compatible soon.
Augmented reality glasses that don’t look (so) ridiculous
Augmented reality glasses are usually not styled that suits the real world so well. Often making the wearer ridiculous in public, TCL saw this as a problem to be solved and created its own prototype eyewear that looks more wearable in public.
The device works with a technology called “holographic waveguide”, which allows something to be displayed in your eyes without anyone seeing. As the lenses of this prototype are practically transparent and the product is not so extravagant in design, it really looks like an ordinary glasses with the special function.
The prototype software we saw was far from complete, but it did mention the ability to control phone calls, view photos, and even display text on a virtual teleprompter. The company that brought the novelty to CES plans to better develop the prototype in the coming years, something that should take some time to complete.
A fitness meter for cats
Some may even find pet owners ridiculous to use heart rate tracking devices to check how often their cats or dogs sleep or do their activities. However, Korean company PurrSong tried to prove otherwise at CES 2022.
The brand has unveiled a “fitness tracker” for cats. The device is part of a special line from the company called IoT (Internet of Things)-enabled “lifestyle design” for cats. The main function of the product is as a preventive measure, biometrically evaluating the animal’s routine and behavior.
Products for the health and lifestyle of pets did not stop there. French company Invoxia also announced a dog collar with built-in artificial intelligence at CES. The company’s CEO spoke about how we love our animals to have better lives.
In her words from French CEO Amélie Caudron:
“The pet’s place in the family is changing,” he added, “It’s no longer a dog-owner relationship. We think of ourselves as parents and our dogs as family members.”
An image projector that works in very unexpected places
Even at a CES with disclosures as strange as this year’s, a pattern still follows: brands showing their huge televisions to the public. Samsung however entered a much smaller branch, literally. The Korean company made a big announcement involving projectors.
Weighing less than 2 pounds, you can carry Samsung’s new Freestyle projector from room to room without much fuss. And despite its compact size, Freestyle can project a 1080p image up to 100 inches onto a screen, wall or the side of your home.
Now, small home theater projectors aren’t exactly new – what makes the Freestyle interesting is what it can do with the help of a few accessories. Samsung plans to release a battery add-on that should keep the Freestyle away from outlets for up to two hours at a time.
A robot that nibbles your fingers and warms your heart
This one is very unusual, but for those who like cute things it will definitely be one of the best items on the list. Developed by Yukai Engineering, this robot can keep biting your fingers for that moment when you need a little peace of mind.
Called the Amagami Ham Hamm, the little robot can look like a cat or a dog. To take bites on the fingers, just bring them close to the mouth of the mechanical animal. The company even bothered to put different patterns of bites made through a technology called (believe it or not), “HAMgorithms“.
For Yukai CEO Shunsuke Aoki, the answer to why this product was created is simple: give people a little happiness when they need it. The Amagami will be funded by a crowdfunding campaign in a few months and, if all goes well, be marketed for around $30.
A robot that will probably annoy you
Humanoid robots are getting more and more realistic. However, this approximation of reality only really counts when we compare them with their predecessors. In real life, these devices still fall into the so-called “weirdness valley”, when we know that something is not human even though it seems and that naturally bothers us.
Engineered Arts’ new robot, Ameca, is a perfect example of this. The device that was presented at the event was made to be worn at events and interact with people. The device, made of metal and plastic, tries to reproduce human expressions as faithfully as possible, counting on grimaces.
The Engineered Arts video shows Ameca performing facial and hand gestures that are indeed natural, albeit markedly slow. The company is careful to describe it as “non-threatening”, although the robot’s threat level is in the eye of the beholder.
And Engineered Arts isn’t the only company selling human lookalikes at CES. DeepBrain AI is introducing its new software called AI Studios: just type in a video script and the program will instantly generate a human deepfake to execute what was presented initially.
A foldable screen that doubles as a laptop
After a long time of development, devices with folding screens are finally reaching the hands of the general public. With this, Asus, a giant in the field of computer manufacturing, developed its own product with a folding screen to advance in the market.
Its new Zenbook 17 Fold is a massive tablet — it’s a little heavier than Apple’s new 14-inch MacBook Pro — and it has a 17-inch touchscreen, as the name suggests. The great advantage of the device is being able to transform from a laptop to a tablet in seconds with the folding technology.
But do we need a foldable screen on our computers? ASUS rival Lenovo tried a similar approach with the ThinkPad X1 Fold PC released over a year ago, and reviewers almost universally criticized the thing.
An air purifier that is also a headphone
As you can see from some previous products on this list, CES is full of items that try to be functional and at the same time used as accessories. Perhaps in this group, Ible, a Taiwanese company, was the one that launched the most random product this year.
The Airvida E1 is, at its core, a negative ion air purifier that wraps around your neck. And since it’s 2022 and we always need a quick way to avoid interacting with others, this new model has a set of built-in noise-canceling Bluetooth headphones.
Like similar air fresheners, Airvida is intended to help you breathe more easily when pollen or smoke starts to hang in the air. The company claims that laboratory tests in Taiwan and Japan show that Airvida can be effective in removing covid particles from the air, and of course, what better than listening to music while the air is being purified?
Translated article from the website The Washington Post, written by Chris Velazco and Tatum Hunter.
The post CES 2022: The news, from the best to the most bizarre appeared first on DNEWS.
