CES is the largest Consumer Electronics Show hosted annually by CTA. Held in Las Vegas this time, the CES 2018 was full of astonishing innovative technology. We got to see some really cool new products and gadgets. Witnessed first-hand what upcoming technology trends would be like and what to expect from our favorite IT companies. From a huge pile of great products, here is our round up of 10 cool gadgets that wowed us away.
1: VIVO PHONE
The Chinese phone makers, Vivo, introduced a phone with an in-screen fingerprint sensor. That’s right, no physical button on the outside. The fingerprint sensor is under the screen and once you have unlocked your phone, it vanishes. Kind of like a virtual fingerprint sensor.
Although you do need to press it a bit more firmly but It’s fast and fairly accurate. Samsung’s galaxy phones and Iphone10 were rumored to have it but none did. It’s a pre-production working model. The sensor is localized on the point where you would expect a home screen button – meaning the fingerprint sensor is not everywhere on the screen.
2:NANO LEAF
Color changing Led light panels that react to touch. Integrate them with any personal assistant like Alexa, Siri or Google Assistant and enjoy a whole new relaxing experience at home or office. These Lights sync with music and respond to gestures as well.
Still in prototype stage, they come with a nano leaf dodecahedron shaped remote controller. Control the panel lights by rotating the sides of the remote. You assign functions to the different faces of the remote and whichever side is up, that function is activated.
Another cool thing in this already cool lighting experience, the remote is also a part of the Apple home kit gadgets. They do have a triangle version of this out, you can try those and get a sense of feel of what these panels would be like.
3: MOODO
The perfect scented candle substitute! These are your scent based home aroma devices. Developed by AGAN AROMA, an Israeli fragrance company in business for 50 years of developing fragrances and perfumes.
With Moodo, you can create, personalize and mix your own blend of a scent and enjoy. The device comes with 4 perfume capsules and a smartphone app. It allows you to mix and make different perfume combinations. You connect with the device over Wi-Fi.
The phone app contains a ‘scent equalizer’ where you can choose from a pre suggested combination or make one of your own. The capsules last for around a month used on full volume one hour every day. A perfect solution to wax-less candle scents at your disposal.
4: AR TOOTH BRUSH
Called as “the Magik”, this is an augmented reality teeth brushing experience. It’s a tooth brush, made by Kolibree, and comes with a phone app. Made for kids of age 6 years.
It works with you syncing your face with the app (by the front camera) and then brushing away the bad guys that show up on screen of the phone. It turns into a cool game for kids by finishing campaigns and unlocking new levels. Said to come out by September, Let’s hope it wows kids into keeping their teeth clean.
5: L’OREAL UV SENSE
L’Oreal is not known for their high tech products or anything, but man this little guy is amazing.
UV Sense is a small, 2mm thick and 9mm in diameter, electronic sensor. You stick it on your nail, glasses, shoes, watch anything you want to know UV levels of. It syncs in with the phone app , Android and iOS both, and you can find out different UV levels such as UV A, UV B.
It’s a battery free gadget and charges automatically with your Phone’s NFC antenna. You can use it up to 2 weeks and its re-adhesive and reusable. It’s been showcased in different designs and colors, we expect nothing less from L’Oreal. The company plans to make it publically available by next year through dermatologists, a great gadget to track UV exposure and avoid skin cancer.
6: THE MERGE BLASTER
Merge blaster or the “6Dof AR-ready laser tag gun” is a toy gun leveraging on augmented reality. Before I tell you more, 6Dof means 6 degree of freedom tracking.
This gun is compatible with the ARkit and ARcore of smartphones. The blaster is an amazing must have AR toy gun. With a very cool design, the gun uses smartphones as the AR playground and because of the 6Dof factor, you have complete movement freedom. Duck, roll, slide, you can move any way you wish while playing.
You can also play in multiplayer mode with great graphics. That’s right folks, the blaster will come with multiplayer support upon release. Go out and go crazy.
7: RAZER PROJECT LINDA
Project Linda is a Laptop smartphone hybrid. Yup, you heard me right. Razer always wows us with cool gaming tech and they still don’t disappoint.
Project Linda uses a laptop with a smartphone docking. You attach or ‘dock’ the razer phone where you would normally find a mouse pad. The phone turns into a touch pad and as well as a screen. So you have like two screens in one device. It’s a brilliant idea for playing high graphics phone games. You get a bigger screen and of course, this laptop has a Chroma backlit keyboard.
The laptop screen is also a touch screen with 13.3” Quad HD display. Surprisingly, the whole kit doesn’t weigh more than 1.25 kg and is thin also (15 mm thickness). It’s only a concept but it sure felt like a finished product.
8: HTC VIVE PRO
Yea we know, HTC VIVE is amazing and most of us haven’t had our fill of fun with it yet and there goes HTC with a VIVE Pro.
What’s different?
Well, for starters it has attached headphones with high quality sound. Kind of adds to the isolation, but who cares when you’re running away from zombies?
They made the headset lighter and added more screens. Not just one screen, SCREENS! 2880×1600 dual OLEDs with 618 ppi. They also come with new high-grade optics and a wider field of view (FOV).
Although the FOV was great in the original Vive as well, but the bigger the better right? The headset is made more comfortable with added back pads as well.
Yes, I save the best part for last, HTC is planning to make the headset wireless upon release. Imagine the untangled wireless fun with the HTC VIVE PRO. It is expected to be expensive, so hold on to your money if you.
9: BYTON
This list would not have been complete without the mention of a smart car. Byton is a fully electric concept car with the idea to replace horsepower with digital power.
This smart car is claimed to be as easy to operate, as any smart device ought to be. Yes, it has Artificial Intelligence embedded inside but let me tell you some other cool features that will be a part of this Electric SUV.
· Side view mirrors are replaced with cameras.
· The exterior of the car has lights that change color and show different connected patterns. They are calling it the smart surface.
· Byton is expected to interact with its driver. Meaning, it would greet you when you come, signal important information like battery levels and so on. It also has facial recognition, so it knows who is driving and adjusts according to individual preferences.
· span style=”font-family: Calibri;”>It also responds to external conditions, like adjusting light levels if it’s too bright outside. They added a touch screen on the dashboard and also on the steering wheel to give you that ‘futuristic feel’
Also, it comes with an integrated Alexa assistant. The CEO of Byton, DR Carsten Breitfeld said in the CES 2018, “I promise you, that Alexa will be smarter in Byton” Cant’ wait for that.
Apart from Intuitive gesture controls, Byton has integrated flat Antennas inside the roof of the car that allow the car to actually see inside. That way it can respond to possible threats or alarming situations happening inside the car. This is achieved by using machine learning techniques and is said to grow over use of time.
Byton is expected to be the most modern and smartest car of 2020 and that too on an affordable starting price of $45,000.
10: FENIX AR HELMETS
The Fenix AR helmets are brought to life by Skully. We have seen a lot of cool helmets around and Skully’s Fenix AR helmets are no less.
Built with a rear view 180 ° camera, a voice activated system for making phone calls and playing music. You couldn’t ask for a better helmet. The best feature is the semi transparent heads-up display on the bottom right corner of the helmet screen. It eliminated the need to look down for mirrors or anything. Pretty cool right? It also comes with a GPS system that guides you on every turn.
Can’t wait to buy it? Well you will have to wait till the summer of 2018 and pay a full price of $1800.99 to get it. Better start saving.