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Fein-Lines: CES Pre-Press Day—The Show Before the Show

This is the first real CES in three years and my first post-COVID trip to Las Vegas. Suffice it to say, things have changed. From the extreme traffic heading in and out of the city to the elimination of some of our favorite restaurants, and even many of the people working at the show, not much feels the same.

But isn’t that just like technology? Just when you get used to something, another innovation comes along to disrupt what we know and gets us to press forward toward (hopefully) something even better. I took this attitude into the pre-show activities on Tuesday, Jan. 3, where CES and ShowStoppers set up press events to give us a peek into the future.

Thus, I was able to sit in on announcements from Samsung, NVIDIA, LG, Panasonic, and more. It’s not possible for one member of the media to cover even half of what’s happening. I decided to attend Launch It @ CES and CES Unveiled, two opportunities to see what’s happening with smaller companies launching new and interesting consumer electronics. Interestingly, this is all before the official Media Day on Wednesday.

Now, I’ve been attending CES for many years and I’ve established some great and important friendships. One of those is Steve Leon, founder of ShowStoppers. We haven’t seen each other since before the pandemic and it was great to catch up with a long-time friend. He was really looking forward to getting back to doing what they do best.

This year, the main participant at Launch It was JETRO, the Japan External Trade Organization. Ken Yoshida, executive director, who sponsors many hundreds of Japanese startups, spoke to a full house of press and investors. Here is a sampling of the companies and their products.

1. Archelis FX: This device provides relief from back pain and disorders for those that must stand while working. The Archelis FX stick gives the effect of sitting while standing. Cost per unit is $3,000.
2. Aromajoin: Dong Wook, founder and CEO, demonstrated a unique digital scent controller that works with AR technology, rather than liquids and gas. It can set direction from the smell origin and mix scents. There are presently two available units: one for an area and one that is wearable, which provides a short range just around head. Battery life of the device is over five hours, and the cost is $400.
3. Asilla: Designed to enhance human behavior, a product called Resulves overcomes the need to fully check multi security cameras. It is an automatic security service that detects abnormal behavior on multiple cameras at the same time. Checking multiple cameras normally requires several operators and often they miss or overlook abnormal behavior. There are over 400 million security cameras globally, therefore the Resulves will increase monitoring accuracy and greatly reduce manpower needed. The largest customers presently are shopping mall developers.
4. Diver-X: From which part of your body do you speak? Voice? Body movement? CTO Kei Asano presented a haptic glove controller which combines the sound of a voice with its body movements to create a digital graphic. Cost is $496 for two gloves.
5. Graffity: CEO Toshiaki Moromoto showed advanced AR glasses that sense body movement and then change the view from the new position. This company writes and provides AR games that make use of this device. They have a patented multiplayer gaming technology.
6. ICOMA: This company displayed an easily transportable electric bike which folds into the size of a suitcase. It can act as a portable power source, providing three hours of 100+volts of AC power. They are looking for sales and manufacturing partners. It will be available in Spring 2023, with a $4,000 price tag.
7. LOOVIC: Voice landmarks for people who get lost easily. This technology eliminates having to walk around looking at a map on your phone. While you walk, you get verbal directions. Available in multiple languages, of course.
8. Pixie Dust: How would you like an ultrasound scalp stimulator? The SonoRepro handheld unit needs only to be used one minute a day to stimulate the scalp. It’s said to stimulate hair growth, but no evidence of that yet. This product is already available in Japan.
9. SoundFun Corporation: The Mirai Speaker helps those with hearing loss through a curved panel audible wave that greatly increases sound volume and clarity. It can be used with a TV or other sound producing device to improve a person’s ability to understand speech, for example. The demonstration was quite impressive.
10. Zeals: This company plans to take over the market for chat commerce. Their system lets you find and buy item on social media like Instagram, and allows businesses to communicate with their customers via the chat application.

Overall, there are 36 companies from Japan exhibiting at CES this year, and the ones I’ve mentioned were the top 10. Now, a panel will judge the presentations and the winner receives a cash award and the opportunity to exhibit and demonstrate at ShowStoppers later this week.

CES Unveiled
My second stop on Tuesday was CES Unveiled, where there were hundreds of new devices, processes, and systems on exhibit.

The consumer market covered everything from home electrical systems and power generators to medical devices and other systems all using the latest technology. We spent hours visiting many of them. It seems that XR (the combo of virtual, augmented, and artificial reality) has grown considerably in the last few years, evidenced by the many new cameras, headsets, and haptic devices being shown. For example, when you wear a haptic shirt, you have the virtual feeling of being in a battle or riding a wave.

I’m in Las Vegas all week, and if Tuesday’s offerings were any indication of what’s ahead on the official Media Day, you can be sure there is much more to come. CES officially opens Thursday, and then the fun really begins.

 Dan Feinberg is an I-Connect007 technical editor and founder of Fein-Line Associates.