by CES 2024 came to Las Vegas this week, bringing a preview of the latest pieces of technology developed for the home.
Standing for the Consumer Electronics Show, the annual event is a showcase for the latest technological innovations, some to continue in our lives, while others will sink without a trace.
AI was, of course, the buzzword of the moment, with everything from bathroom mirrors to cat flaps intertwined with machine learning.
Some of these home tech inventions may come to fruition – we can see transparent TV as a hot new item for fans of minimal decoration. But others are a bit creepy or downright dystopian.
Read on for our roundup of the most futuristic home tech from CES 2024.
LG Smart Home AI Agent
This cute little robot with two stubby legs and googley eyes is hoping to be your perfect home helper and companion rolled into one.
With all kinds of sensors and cameras, the robot can connect with other smart devices while patrolling and monitoring the house.
It can report temperature, humidity and air quality, and if you’re away from home you can go on patrol to alert you of unusual activity.
The robot can also warn you if you have left the lights on or the windows open. Hopefully LG will put in a setting to let you know if you’ve left your hair straighteners plugged in or not, for the anxiously inclined.
It can also double as a pet monitor, like a mobile nanny cam for your four-legged friends.
As for companionship, the AI elements added by LG should help the Smart Home AI Agent communicate with its owners. In addition to voice recognition for standard virtual assistants, it can also learn context and intent.
This means that when you get home, the robot can buzz up to you and gauge your mood from your voice and facial expressions – then play music to match your mood.
Electronics company LG says it’s part of their vision to provide a home environment free of labor, although the Smart Home AI Agent can’t do this yet without weapons to help you open stubborn jars.
Baracoda BMind
As if you weren’t facing your morning meditation enough, this smart AI mirror is filled with an AI-assisted mental health coach.
Using artificial intelligence generation (the type of algorithm that powers ChatGPT) it will judge your mood from your expression and offer tips to improve it.
If it detects that you are feeling a little down, the mirror can provide light therapy, a mental training session, or provide positive affirmations.
“BMind collects information without any invasive technology, and helps users incorporate mindfulness practices into their daily routines or even curb feelings of loneliness through an immersive experience using light, sound and sights,” promises Baracoda.
If you find affirmations et al a bit woo-woo, this may not be the mirror for you when all you want to do is brush your teeth. But it looks good and if you’re already outsourcing some of your mental health care to apps, this could be a stylish and hands-free way to access them.
Ecovac Winbot W2 Omni
If you’ve ever looked at a contemporary house filled with floor-to-ceiling glass and thought “fantastic, but how will I find the time to clean it all?” this might be the kit for you.
The Winbot W2 Omni is a robot window cleaner that you can attach to your windows and let you do it.
A portable, bag-style hub lets you cart it between sites. Once connected to a glass surface, it is through nozzles to get to work on the grime and smear.
The robot is able to get to any hard-to-reach areas that would require a ladder for a human, and can be unplugged from its hub and run on its own built-in battery.
There are cotton pads to dampen any annoying sound effects, and there are several modes to choose from including a spot clean option for any particularly grimy patches.
It’s an expensive alternative to the Windex grease and breaking out the elbows, but for the clean freak out there this could be a great addition to the house.
Flappy
The indoor vs. outdoor cat debate aside, if you have a companion who enjoys the outdoors but also brings home unwanted gifts/guests, Flappie is a high-tech solution.
This is not a bog-standard cat flap. Using AI-recognition, Flappie can detect if your cat has a bird, mouse, frog etc in its mouth and prevent it from entering until it releases it.
It will also send you an alert, so you can choose when to let your little furry hell back in. It’s basically a ring bell for narcotics on cats.
As a bonus, the complimentary app will also track data on your pet and provide you with fun data charts of their hunting patterns (hence, your cat’s kill count).
If you sync Flappie with your kitten’s microchip, it can stop any other cats from sneaking in.
It will also take safe photos and videos of your cats on their arrival and departure, even at night. The comic potential is interesting, and Flappie promises that the data will not be sent to any remote server, so your cat’s information is stored safely.
LG signature OLED TV
One of the few products coming out of CES 2024 that doesn’t have AI as a selling point, this TV does have a pretty cool USP though: it’s transparent.
Previously interior designers had to come up with all kinds of workarounds to make a flat screen TV look chic in the home, from hanging them in frames to placing them on easels.
The Signature promises to be completely invisible when not in use, which means that it is a 77-inch screen that can blend into the background.
It’s set in a slim unit and can also double as a room divider – letting you know there’s a TV so you don’t walk into it.
LG has also made it wireless, so there won’t be any unsightly cables cluttering up the place. When you’re not watching your shows, you can toggle between a transparent and translucent display to project art or other graphics on it, such as an animated fish tank.
Samsung Ballie
Another AI-powered home robot debuted in Vegas this year, the Ballie by Samsung.
Almost spherical in shape and a pleasant canary yellow, Ballie spins around your floor to greet you when you return home – even rolling out the welcome mat in the form of a projected message on the floor.
It plays music and can control the lights, and Samsung promises that it will learn your habits and change its settings accordingly.
The projector function seems a little unusual on the floor, but if you prop it up on a table, Ballie will project its video onto a wall or other vertical surface.
It also performs patrol and pet monitoring functions, and can answer phone calls.
Like LG’s home robot, Ballie seems to function best when the rest of your home is connected to the Internet of Things. Or, like the promo images, you can play it video on the floor for your dog.
Philips Home Access Series 5000 Palm ID Wi-Fi Smart Deadbolt
The name tells you most of what you need to have here. This smart lock scans the entire palm, not just a fingerprint, which Philips claims is a “paradigm shift in home security”.
It’s not so much your palm that this device reads, but the pattern of veins in that palm – which is completely unique to you and also, apparently, much harder to replicate than a single fingerprint.
It’s also designed to be a seamless experience, with the lock depending on your palm as you reach for it and automatically sliding back if it recognizes the user.
The wi-fi bit allows users to monitor all the smart deadbolts in their home through the Philips Home Access app, and it can also be connected to virtual home assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa or Google Assistant.
