Top Trending Tech from CES 2020

14 Jan

The 2020 CES (Consumer Electronics Show) took place in Las Vegas from the 7th to the 10th of January 2020. With over 17 000 people visiting the show, spanning across exhibitors, media, and industry attendees, it was easy to overlook the highlights. There was just so much to take in!

To summarise the top trending tech at CES 2020 we collated all the reviews, feedback and published articles to find out just where the spotlight was shining.

A City of the Future with no Human Drivers

Toyota revealed a surprising exhibit of a “prototype city of the future”. The company plans to create this city in Japan, near Mount Fuji, on a 175-acre plot of land. Here you will find a real city, with real people and an experimental laboratory where future technologies will be worked on including self-driving vehicles that run on hydrogen fuel cells. Toyota also plans to have robots and smart homes as the norm in this future city. None of the residents of Toyota’s conceptualised city will drive cars. Instead, Toyota plans to provide self-driven vehicles and other forms of sustainable transport. Certainly worth following!

Plant-Based Foods

A vegan lifestyle with plant-based foods has become a way of life for many, both globally and here in South Africa. With this in mind, an innovative ‘non-tech’ exhibitor – Impossible Pork, a creation of Impossible Foods, caught the eye of attendees to the show. The company, which focuses on the reduction of global greenhouse gases and the sustainable feeding of millions, has already brought products such as the Impossible Burger to the market. Now with Impossible Pork, food lovers can enjoy the very same appearance, taste, and texture of pork with the knowledge that it is plant-based…and therefore far better for the environment and of course, one’s own health. Impossible Pork’s presence at the show for the second year running only proves that the tech world is accepting food innovation as a respected and valuable part of the industry.

Less Techy Tech

Thinking about or discussing the latest tech advancements usually brings to mind avant-garde type devices, bright screens, and flashing lights – and other weird and wonderful gadgets. Three companies exhibiting at CES were toning tech down to make it look more natural.

Mui Lab presented smart displays that blended in instead of standing out. In fact, some of the tech displays simply looked like regular everyday items.

UltraSense and Sentons showcased a range of metal, wood and plastic casings with touch interfaces, similar to a smartphone. Both companies displayed a variety of items with one showing how future phones could take photos simply by being squeezed, how volume could be controlled by a simple finger slide and so forth.

The ScanWatch

This year’s CES saw new health tracking and wearable tech make its way to the front of the queue. One particular device that caught the eye of many was the ScanWatch, which does so much more than any other health tacking watch currently on the market. The ScanWatch can pick up on sleep apnoea, and even run electro-cardiagrams and photoplethysmography tests to ensure that a user’s heart rate is optimal.

Calorie Tracking GoBe3

Another health app that had a wow-factor was the GoBe3, which has the unique ability to detect just how many calories someone has consumed as well as determine stress levels. It does this by doing skin readings much the same as a lie detector test does.

The OrCam Read device, to help people with Dyslexia

OrCam, is a company specialising in artificial intelligence. At CES 2020, the company had a gadget called the OrCam Read on show. This handheld device will help people with reading problems and dyslexia to read a word or block of text more effectively. The user simply points the device at a chunk of text and hit submit. The laser beam then highlights the selected text and starts to read it out loud. The company also plans to take reading a step further with the introduction of another device called MyEye 2. The device clips on to the side of a pair of spectacles and when the user points at text, the device senses it and reads the relevant content. The user can stop the reading by holding their hand up in a “stop gesture”.

Take Away

This year’s CES was nothing short of impressive. Those who got to witness the show first hand were privileged to get a sneak preview of what the future has to offer us. We’re certainly looking forward to it!

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