The gadgets of the future were showcased at the recent Consumer Electronics Show. David Phelan reports
Every year in January, some 175,000 gadget geeks from across the globe descend on Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the world’s biggest tech gathering. Some 4,500 companies use the exhibition to show off their newest creations – here are some of the best to have been unveiled this year. Some are hitting stores already, but most will arrive by the summer.
Cleer Mirage speaker, £799 (pictured top, right)
On sale: spring
One day, perhaps, there will be a screen on every gadget. This Cleer speaker has an eight-inch one supplied by collaborator Royole, whose skill is in making flexible displays (it beat Samsung and other rivals to create the first foldable phone). Here, the screen wraps around the cylindrical speaker and can be used for video visualisations alongside the music. A camera on board means video calls are possible, and microphones help it to work with Amazon’s virtual personal assistant, Alexa. Cleer’s audio excellence ensures it should sound great, too – as you would expect at this price. cleeraudio.com
Motion Pillow anti-snoring pillow, £322 (top, left)
On sale: now
You don’t snore – of course you don’t – but maybe someone close to you does. Enter the Motion Pillow, the second-generation model, which was revealed at CES and aims to restore quiet nights. A small white box, optimistically called the Solution Box, sits next to the bed and connects to the pillow by a cable. Then, when you snore – sorry, when your significant other snores – airbags inside the pillow inflate to move the head, but gently enough so as not to wake you. motionpillow.com
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold, £2,499 (below)
On sale: summer
The flexible display of this 13.3-inch tablet means it can fold in half. You can set the bottom part up as a virtual onscreen keyboard to create a super-portable Windows laptop, but there’s also a Bluetooth keyboard accessory with physical keys that can attach magnetically if you value the sensation of keys moving under your fingers rather than the unyielding glass of the tablet. Fold it in half and the keyboard charges automatically. It’s not cheap, partly because of the complexity of the design and the leather folio cover. lenovo.com
JBL Club One headphones, £329.99
On sale: spring
CES was awash with in-ear headphones, but over-ear pairs such as these were much rarer. The Club One headphones have exceptional noise-cancelling, using a system that monitors outside noise 50,000 times a second and adjusts to the user’s chosen level. They’re also designed to compensate for sound leakage caused by the user wearing glasses. The Silent Now feature is especially appealing for in-flight use – with one tap of a button, it promises complete isolation, even from music. The battery lasts up to 50 hours. jbl.com
Y-Brush toothbrush, from £92
On sale: now
Brush your teeth effectively in ten seconds – that’s the claim made by Fasteesh, makers of Y-Brush. The device is a U-shaped tray on a handle. You add toothpaste and fit it over your lower teeth. The dental bristles that fill the tray brush your teeth from different angles. Then, after five seconds, you repeat on your upper gnashers. It vibrates to brush all sides of your 16 lower or upper teeth. It’s claimed that it brushes each tooth for four times longer than a two-minute session with a regular toothbrush. y-brush.com
Nikon D780 DSLR camera, £2,199
On sale: now
The newest digital SLR from Nikon is powerful enough to satisfy professionals as well as amateurs. It has a 24-megapixel sensor – and, yes, smartphones can have more than that, but the difference here is that the sensor is full-frame; that is, the size of a 35mm frame of film, so the pixels are much bigger and more effective. It records video at 4K resolution and has a multi-point autofocus for sharper shots. nikon.co.uk
Withings Scanwatch, from £229
On sale: spring
Withings makes a great range of health-related tech and this is its most attractive and advanced wearable gadget. Unlike most smartwatches, it has an analogue face, while a secondary dial monitors your steps and an OLED circle at the top displays further data. The watch can monitor your heart rate to flag up issues, such as an irregular or abnormally fast heart rate. When worn at night, it tracks oxygen saturation levels. It can also record an ECG measurement. withings.com
Technics EAH-AZ70W in-ear headphones, £239
On sale: June
Technics is famous for high-end audio products but hasn’t made any true-wireless in-ear headphones until now. True wireless means that there is no cable to connect the headphones to the music source – Bluetooth handles that – but also that there’s no wire between the buds. Their design is neat and attractive, with a case that recharges the buds. Like Apple’s AirPods Pro, these have noise-cancellation, whereby an external microphone listens to the outside world and creates noise that is precisely opposite to it to cancel it out. There’s also an internal microphone that listens to the noise inside the ear and cancels that out, too. technics.co.uk
Reliefband for motion sickness, from £150
On sale: now
The second-generation Reliefband slips on to the wrist and treats motion sickness by emitting programmed pulses at a carefully controlled frequency and intensity. It aims to stimulate nerves on the underside of the wrist to block the waves of nausea that the stomach produces in response to motion. But its uses aren’t just limited to motion sickness, although that’s the main appeal to travellers – it also helps with feelings of nausea induced by virtual reality, for instance. The battery lasts up to 17 hours – enough for the longest and bounciest car ride or the most topsy-turvy turbulence. reliefband.com
The prototypes
CES is always brimming with products that are far from being finished (or that ultimately may never come to market), but give a glimpse of what’s coming next, or the direction of travel for an individual company.
Samsung Ballie
The Ballie robot is a smart sphere, the size of a large baseball, that has a built-in camera and can recognise you and follow you around the house (if that’s not too creepy). It can control your smart home appliances – turning on your robot vacuum cleaner while you’re out, for instance. Not so good on stairs, obviously. Samsung wouldn’t be drawn on a release date, which suggests it’s several years away at least.
One Plus Concept One
Chinese phone manufacturer One Plus has created a concept handset with invisible cameras. What this really means is that the lenses use special particles – organic, One Plus calls them – that can shift from completely clear to opaque black in a moment, so that when not in use the rear panel looks like an unbroken surface for a more elegant design. The particles also work as a polarising filter for the camera, which means it can take better photos in brighter light. One Plus has a close relationship with its community of buyers so expect their feedback to inform whether these electrochromic lenses move from prototype to finished product.
Panasonic battery-powered fire engine
Panasonic has partnered with Tropos Motors to create a tiny fire prevention vehicle. At two metres tall by 1.4 metres wide, it’s so small it can slip into tiny spaces – handy for a narrow alley in Mumbai or Tokyo where regular vehicles can’t venture. The one-person vehicle is powered entirely by battery (Panasonic is a world leader in battery design) and has a Panasonic Toughbook laptop at the driver’s elbow for relaying emergency information. The 125-gallon water tank dispenses its contents with a gas-powered water pump. Unlike a regular fire truck, which can cost up to US$500,000, this is one is just US$50,000.
Sony Vision-S driverless car
In the biggest surprise of CES, Sony unveiled a car to showcase its skill in making auto-friendly sensors. There are 33 in the Vision-S, including entertainment devices inside the car plus cameras and other sensors outside. Sony makes some of the best camera sensors already, so to combine them with other movement sensors makes for a safer driverless ride, the company has suggested. The electric car, which looks streamlined and sporty, may never see production, but Sony has proved that it can come up with the tech for it – and that it can keep a secret.
