by CES 2024 arrived in Las Vegas this week and brought a preview of the latest technologies developed for the home.
The annual event, which represents the Consumer Electronics Show, is a huge showcase of the latest technological innovations, some of which are destined to remain in our lives, while others will end up sinking without a trace.
AI was obviously the buzzword of the moment, with everything from bathroom mirrors to cat flaps imbued with machine learning.
Some of these home tech inventions may just catch on – we can see a see-through TV becoming the new hot item for fans of minimalist decor. But others are a little 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 chubby legs and googly eyes promises to be your perfect home assistant and companion all in one.
With all kinds of sensors and cameras, the robot can connect to other smart devices while patrolling and monitoring the house.
It can report on temperature, humidity and air quality, and if you’re away from home you can set it to patrol and alert you about unusual activities.
The robot can also alert you if you have left the lights on or the windows open. Hopefully LG will add a setting to let you know if you left your hair straighteners plugged in or not, for those with anxiety tendencies.
It can also function as a pet monitor, as a mobile nanny cam for your four-legged friends.
As for the company, the AI elements added by LG should help the Smart Home AI Agent communicate with its owners. In addition to the speech recognition of your standard virtual assistants, it can also learn context and intent.
This means that when you get home, the robot can approach you and gauge your mood from your voice and facial expressions, and then play music designed to match your mood.
Electronics company LG says it’s part of its vision to provide a labor-free home environment, although without arms to help you open stubborn jars, the Smart Home AI Agent can’t do it all yet.
Baracoda BMind
As if confronting your reflection in the morning wasn’t enough, this AI smart mirror is infused with an AI-assisted mental health coach.
Using generative artificial intelligence (the type of algorithm that powers ChatGPT), it will assess your mood from your expression and offer tips to improve it.
If you find yourself feeling a little down, the mirror can provide you with light therapy, a mindfulness training session, or give you some 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 visual elements,” promises Baracoda.
If you find affirmations and such a little fascinating, this may not be the mirror for you when all you want to do is brush your teeth. But it looks nice and if you’re already outsourcing some of your mental health care to apps, this could be a stylish, hands-free way to access them.
Ecovac Winbot W2 Omni
If you’ve ever looked at a contemporary home filled with floor-to-ceiling glass and thought “beautiful, but how am I going to find time to clean it all?” this could be the kit for you.
The Winbot W2 Omni is a robotic window cleaner that you can place on your windows and let it do its job.
A suitcase-style portable hub lets you transport it between sites. Once adhered to a glass surface, its three nozzles go to work on dirt and stains.
The robot is capable of reaching any hard-to-reach area that requires a human to get a ladder, and can disconnect from its hub and run on its own built-in battery.
It has cotton pads to muffle any annoying sound effects and several modes to choose from, including a spot cleaning option for particularly dirty areas.
It’s an expensive alternative to using Windex and working hard, but for the clean freak who has everything, this could be the perfect home addition.
flappie
The incendiary debate between indoor cats and outdoor cats aside, if you have a feline companion who enjoys the outdoors but also brings home unwanted gifts/guests, Flappie is a high-tech solution.
This is not a standard cat flap. Using AI recognition, Flappie can determine if her cat has a bird, a mouse, a frog, etc. in the mouth and prohibit him from entering until he releases him.
It’ll also send you an alert, so you can choose when to let your furry little demon back inside. It’s basically a Ring doorbell for drug trafficking cats.
As an added bonus, the free app will also track your pet’s data and give you fun data graphs on their hunting patterns (i.e. a kill count for cats).
If you pair Flappie with your kitty’s microchip, you can also prevent other cats from sneaking in.
It will also save photos and videos of your cat as it comes and goes, even at night. The comedic potential is intriguing and Flappie promises that the data is not sent to any remote servers, so your cat’s information is stored safely.
LG Signature OLED TV
One of the few products to come out of CES 2024 that doesn’t have AI as a selling point, this TV does, however, have a pretty interesting USP: it’s transparent.
In the past, interior designers have had to find all kinds of solutions to make a flat-screen TV look stylish in the home, from hanging it on frames to propping it up on easels.
The Signature promises to go completely unnoticed when not in use, meaning its 77-inch screen can blend into the background.
It comes installed in a sleek unit that can also function as a room divider and alert you that a TV is there so you don’t walk into it.
LG has also made it wireless, so there will be no unsightly cables cluttering up the place. When you’re not watching your shows, you can switch between a transparent and translucent screen to project art or other graphics onto it, like an animated fish tank.
Samsung Ballie
Another AI-powered home robot debuted in Las Vegas this year, Samsung’s Ballie.
Ballie, roughly spherical in shape and a pleasant canary yellow, buzzes across the floor to greet you when you return home, and even rolls out the welcome mat in the form of a message projected onto the floor.
It plays music and can control lights, and Samsung promises that it will learn your habits and change your settings accordingly.
The projector feature seems a little outdated on the floor, but if you prop it up on a table, Ballie will project your video onto a wall or other vertical surface.
It also performs pet patrol and tracking functions, and can answer phone calls.
Like the LG home robot, Ballie appears to work best when the rest of your home is connected to the Internet of Things. Or, like the promotional images, you can simply have it play videos on the floor for your dog.
Philips Home Access Series 5000 Smart Wi-Fi Palm Recognition Deadbolt
The name tells you most of what you need to know here. This smart lock scans the entire palm of your hand, not just a fingerprint, something Philips claims is a “paradigm shift in home security.”
This device reads not so much the palm of your hand, but the vein pattern of said palm, something that is completely unique to you and, apparently, much more difficult to replicate than a simple fingerprint.
It’s also designed to be a seamless experience, as the lock detects your palm when you reach for it and automatically slides the deadbolt back if it recognizes the user.
The wi-fi bit allows users to monitor all the smart locks in their home via the Philips Home Access app, and can also be linked with virtual home assistants like Amazon’s Alexa or the Google Assistant.
