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Fein-Lines: CES 2024—A Tech Gadget Lover’s Dream

“Open sesame” is a magical phrase in the story of "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" in Antoine Galland's version of One Thousand and One Nights. In the story, this phrase opens the mouth of a cave in which 40 thieves have hidden a treasure.

Attending CES was like opening the mouth to a cave of treasures. As soon as the show floor opened, I quickly realized that the two days available to me were not nearly enough. There were truly many hidden treasures now being revealed.

The show floor was opened on Tuesday to a general audience, and the attendance, as well as the number, variety, and quality of the exhibits I have seen so far at the LVCC and the Venetian, were truly amazing. There is no way that one can see all or even get to all the show locations in a few days but the way the exhibits were organized into categories allowed visits to focus on areas that were of most interest to them. For example, cars and other vehicles outside the automotive area focused on new technologies that are now being incorporated into new vehicles.

For the show, the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) and the Venetian were divided into multiple halls. The LVCC has an area focused on advancing technology in vehicles, ranging from battery charging technology to advanced self-driving capabilities. We can expect to see some of these amazing advances on the market very soon.

Some examples include Volkswagen integrating ChatGPT into its IDA voice assistant; Qualcomm and Robert Bosch GmbH with the automotive industry’s first central vehicle computer to host both infotainment and ADAS capabilities in a single system-on-chip; BMW’s i Vision Dee that focuses on connected services that really get your attention with the ability to change the color of the car among 32 shades. “Dee” stands for Digital Emotional Experience. Also on the list was Mercedes announcing several in-car tech upgrades, including an AI-powered assistant.

BMW states its new internet-connected AI assistant is "natural, predictive, empathetic and personal" and will personalize interactions between drivers and their cars. The update will pair AI with added functions for infotainment, automated driving, seating comfort, and communications. Many automakers have now started showing their cars at CES because cars are so loaded with technology-dependent gadgets, that the cars themselves have become gadgets. The use of AI in cars is increasing at an accelerating rate.

It seems that so many of the new trends included AI (and AI, and AI ad nauseum). AI is everywhere and in everything. I did not have time to look for the latest high-tech in toothbrushes (or toothpicks) but I bet they also claim some kind of AI capability. Based on what I saw, it’s obvious that AI will be a big driver of new products and services in the coming months and years.

One example for techies is the first significant upgrade in many years to a standard computer keyboard. This additional capability makes the use of a computer easier and allows more to be done with even some voice commands/ Your computer is starting to become a true (artificial) intelligence companion.

Microsoft added its new “Copilot” capability to Windows 11 and made it easily accessible by the addition of a new keyboard key which we can assume will soon be on all new keyboards. I expect that the upcoming Windows 12 will be a highly intelligent and communicative beast even if intelligence is artificial. A key on both sides of the space bar (next to the alt key) will launch Copilot and let you use AI for anything that you now use it for and what you do not even know yet what you can do with it. Some examples are being able to automate work on Microsoft's Office Suite, including AI generating entire Word docs and Excel spreadsheets. It’s just like asking an AI-enabled search engine a question but you will be able to do it by just talking to your computer.

PC Mag explained “that as of now, Copilot runs on the cloud via Microsoft's servers, but industry chatter indicates that the company is working around the clock to build out a version of Windows that could carry out the processing locally.” This potential shift from AI's mighty huge computing power being accepted and added by computer companies will, in my humble opinion, help Microsoft keep its costs down as it works on staying the American leader in all things AI with the help of Chat GPT powered by OpenAI.

This may seem like a drop in the bucket to the obvious and growing AI boom, but if this new keyboard key and its connection to AI capabilities packs the power and capabilities that Microsoft claims, it could become a really big deal.

GPS company TomTom announced that “it's teaming up with Microsoft to equip cars with a generative AI assistant named ‘Tommy’ that will, for some reason, let people converse with their cars.” It seems that you will soon be able to talk with your computer, your car, your TV, and just about anything else as if it were a real rather than an artificial companion.

Using various Microsoft AI services, including its Azure OpenAI large language models (LLM), TomTom's new offering sounds like it will be like a very advanced Siri or Alexa for your vehicle that enables drivers to look up directions and other "infotainment" tools. It is on the way as with Volkswagen and others add ChatGPT as a standard feature to their vehicles later this year. In the not-so-distant future, you will literally be able to talk to your car and, it seems, just about anything else.

While there is a lot of talk about AI, I expect to see much more on display next year.

What else caught my eye at CES?

If you have a sprained back or suffer from arthritis you might want to try the IR heated healing couch.

Do you snore or have trouble breathing at night? If so check out Motion Pillow, an AI-powered anti-snoring pillow that won the Best of Innovation award at CES 2024. It addresses many sleeping concerns with a range of features, including noise reduction and highly sensitive snoring detection. The pillow has three main parts: an AI motion system, a sleep management data app, and airbags and memory foam that adjust to your comfort level and head position. It uses sound and pressure to detect your snoring and inflates the airbags to gently move your head and open your airways. It tracks your sleep quality and snoring patterns and its AI algorithm learns from your snoring and adapts to your needs.

If you have to take your temperature multiple times a day you might want the HiitCHECK, a tiny smart thermometer that takes your temperature in one second without even toughing you.

Other amazing areas were the gigabyte data center servers, a number of portable power generators, backpacks that show graphics on the back, a very high quality of an ancient vacuum tube audio amplifier, and a 21st century soccer game where you take control of your team that moves images in virtual reality floating in the air, There is actually a league called “Drone Soccer” that uses this technology.

Solar energy generation is advancing. New glass windows are fully transparent but they use solar power to generate electricity. New houses that include these windows are providing significant solar power.

Appliances are getting upgrades. Computers and all their components (such as graphics, monitors, and sound) have come a long way in the last few years. Televisions now include extremely high definition amazing quality pictures on huge 150-inch screens.

Overall, compared to what we saw at the last full CES three years ago, the advancements are amazing, and the rate of progress has accelerated. Keep in mind that I have only seen a fraction of the devices, I have not even mentioned robots and I attended only a portion of the presentations. I happened to see John Mitchell, president and CEO of IPC, who was involved in the show and the support seemed welcomed.

Stay tuned as I will be covering the NAMM show in a few weeks and then of course we look forward to seeing you at IPC APEX EXPO in Anaheim.

Dan Feinberg is a technical editor at I-Connect007. Photos by Racheal Feinberg.