Top tech: what happened in Vegas

From walking cars to smart earbuds to waterproof notepads, this year’s Consumer Electronics Show gave us a glimpse of the weird and wonderful tech that’s on the horizon

It’s billed as the Consumer Electronics Show, but much of what’s on offer at CES is also of great interest to the business world. So in case you didn’t make it to Las Vegas this year, here’s what you missed. 

Bots, voice assistants, VR, AR, robots and other artificial intelligence (AI) applications were all out in full force at the show.

Less predictably, one of the biggest headline grabbers was Hyundai’s walking car, a vehicle that can grow legs to clamber over rough terrain. The Hyundai Elevate is being pitched mainly at NGOs working in disaster zones and is unlikely to figure as a company car any time soon. It can climb a 1.5m wall, but only moves at a snail-like 3mph – so not the vehicle to get you to the airport in a hurry. 

Bendy screens of various kinds were a distinct theme this year. Probably the most eye-catching exhibit was LG’s giant organic LED (OLED) Falls installation, featuring 260 individual digital screens in an undulating array, including 76 concave, 72 convex and 112 flat 55-inch screens. In total, Falls is 6m x 20m in size and was used to display desert, waterfall, ocean and light scenes. 

Roll-up screens

On a much smaller level, businesses may well be interested in LG’s roll-up version of the same technology, the OLED TV R, which would be a handy means to hide away the screen in the boardroom. This will be for sale on the US market in 2019. Prices haven’t been announced yet, but commentators are speculating it will be in the $10,000-plus range – so it’s unlikely to appear in that budget hotel room any time soon. 

Going smaller still, Royole showed off the world’s first flexible phone, the FlexPai. This device fits in your pocket like a phone, but folds out to become a tablet. You can flip the screen view in any direction, but it’s only available in a developer model at the moment, so pricing is unknown.

At the affordable end of the price scale, if you’re worried about dropping your notes in the hotel pool, the Nuka notepad and smart pencil – developed by a Ukrainian start-up of the same name – is so waterproof it can be used underwater, and will set you back just $60. You can use the Nuka notepad again and again, giving new meaning to ‘recycled stationery’. 

And for road warriors, a glimpse into the future was the next generation satnav developed by UK company Envisics, which beams your dashboard information onto the windscreen in front of you, like a hologram. The system shows your speed and distance to destination and place labels, highlights hazards in front of you, and can even show you where to park. 

Also catching attention in the automobile technology realm was Qualcomm’s C-V2X technology (cellular vehicle-to-everything, since you ask) which can do many things. Using 5G mobile, it will enable cars to talk to other cars, cyclists and pedestrians, potentially making driving much safer. For now, one of the key applications is telling your car when traffic lights are about to change. 

Translation and relaxation

Another application of interest to business is real-time translation. Among the key products on show, Waverly Labs demonstrated its Pilot smart earbuds, which enable you to translate 15 languages and 42 dialects, stream music and make voice calls. 

Google was showing off the Google Assistant interpreter mode, which enables real-time translation of conversations. And iFlytek showed its portable live translation and voice-to-text devices, with translation for 63 languages.

Finally, if work is making you stressed, CES had something for that too. Doppel, a UK-based watch company, showed a pulsating wrist system that can calm users in real time. "Doppel works by creating a silent vibration on the inside of the wrist, which feels like a heartbeat,” explained brand representatives.

Finally, Umay’s Rest, a thermal meditation mask for managing anxiety and stress, gained an innovation award. It uses a combination of heat and pulsation to guide users in meditation, and allow them to relax from excessive screen time.