Prior to hitting stores, much of popular consumer tech is debuted at the annual Consumers Electronic Show (CES)
As we enter the next decade, everything electronic is at the forefront of society like never before. Vehicles, homes and even our pockets are now full of various gadgets helping to make our everyday life more productive and convenient.
Prior to hitting stores, much of popular consumer tech is debuted at the annual Consumers Electronic Show (CES), which wrapped up at the Las Vegas Convention Centre in early January. In excess of 4,400 exhibitors set up shop in 2020, and Darpan has highlighted five of them and their offerings to watch out for.
BeBop Sensors
Consumer grade virtual reality (VR) has already been out for a good while, although the element of touch remained elusive. Until now. At CES, BeBop sensors unveiled the Forte Data Glove, providing wearers haptic feedback in the VR world. Compatible with a long list of contemporary hardware — Oculus Quest, Oculus Link, Microsoft Windows Mixed Reality, HTC Vive Cosmos, and many others — the Forte is perfect for training applications or gaming. Donning the one-size-fits-all glove allows people to have a more tangible and realistic experience in the virtual world, for instance when opening a door, or pressing a button. The glove features 10 smart fabric sensors embedded above each knuckle, and six actuators on the four fingertips, thumb and palm. Connection is established over Bluetooth or Micro USB, the latter once plugged in also providing a full-day charge in two hours.
Tile
Tile, the brand behind smart products helping people find misplaced items, was an official honouree of the CES 2020 Innovation Award for its robust and versatile Sticker tracker. Not only is the Sticker the smallest finder to date, it’s waterproof and 3M adhesive-backed so you can slap it on pretty much any item you don’t want to lose: remote controls, power tools, cameras, the list goes on.
As opposed to the earlier group of trackers, the single-use battery lasts three times longer for a service life of three years. To locate, simply load up the proprietary app to bring up a map, or activate the ring function, following the initial Bluetooth pairing.
myGEKOgear
Dashboard camera specialist myGEKOgear for the first time showcased its complete lineup at the event encompassing updated favourite existing models, as well as next-generation devices that will incorporate functionality like the aforementioned Alexa assistant. One cutting edge dashcam deserving mention is the Orbit 950. In addition to full front and rear 1080p wide-angle recording, low-light capability and GPS logging, the 950 has built-in driver assistance features. These include a lane departure warning system (alerts drivers drifting out of their lane at speeds greater than 40 km/h) and front collision warning (alerts drivers if they get too close to a vehicle in front). Rather than having to remove the supplied 16 GB microSD card to review footage, send videos straight to a phone or tablet over Wi-Fi and the companion myGEKOgear app.
Resideo
A recent spin-off of Honeywell, best known for thermostats and fans, Resideo’s domain is heating, ventilation and air conditioning controls. Indeed, at CES, Resideo received an award for its upcoming M5 Series, an intelligent home management system capable of monitoring air quality, water leaks, energy management and security. Affordable and compact, it detects water and extreme temperatures that can cause unwanted freezing or humidity, potentially causing expensive damage. Simply place the 78-millimetre box near a sink, washer, sump pump or somewhere similar. Once the sensors at the base of the unit and throughout the included cable are triggered, a 100-decibel alarm will be sounded and
a message sent to a user’s mobile device.
Amazon
Amazon created buzz at the show announcing an intention to make Fire TV services available in automobiles (think models from BMW and Fiat), allowing users to pinch, swipe and zoom on the build-in display similar to a cellphone o tablet.Consumers can experience high resolution-streaming anywhere they are with the newest tablet in the company’s portfolio: the Fire HD 10. The flagship machine boasts a gorgeous 10.1-inch display, lightweight, thin form factor, USB C charging and 10 hours of battery life. A powerful octa-core 2.0 GHz processor ensures watching videos and accessing favourite apps and games is a seamless experience, and 32 or 64 GB of onboard storage, expandable up to 512 GB via microSD card, means running out of space shouldn’t be an issue for most. Being launched on the Fire HD 10 is a picture-in-picture mode.