-Hey, I’m Chris Velazco, a personal tech reporter
at The Washington Post, and even though
I’ve been covering this show, CES, for years,
it still feels impossible to walk these halls
and talk to people and feel like you’ve seen and experienced
everything CES has to offer, so we’re not even going to try.
Instead, what we’re going to offer
is a first glimpse at some of the newest and strangest
and most interesting things we’ve seen at the show so far.
Hopefully, they give you some sense
of how your relationship with technology
will change this year,
but if nothing else, should be a lot of fun.
So I’ve got my backpack on, my comfy shoes.
Let’s go take a walk.
You can always count on Samsung
to bring some really interesting stuff to CES,
and there have been a few standouts already.
There is the world’s first transparent micro LED wall,
so basically a display that you can see right through
and something called music frames,
which are speakers you can stick on your wall
and double as art pieces.
But maybe the weirdest and most interesting thing
we saw this year was Ballie,
an AI-powered home robot with a projector
that’s meant to work as kind of a catchall home assistant.
Hey buddy.
It’s Samsung’s first attempt
at a serious home companion robot.
They say it’s going to ship this year,
and it’s got a projector built in
so it can communicate with you, show you greetings,
and even project stuff onto a wall.
Samsung really looks at this as a catchall home companion,
so theoretically you’ll be able to use this
as a secondary display for your PC,
a remote telemedicine tool for people
who are homebound like seniors.
Some of these features haven’t been fully fleshed out yet,
and in truth, there are some key details
Samsung just hasn’t worked through.
Those details, and other things like the price,
are kind of being worked out right now,
so it’s tough to say exactly how good a value this is.
But between announcements like this
and others we’ve seen from companies like LG,
which announced its own AI agent robot this year,
it feels like we’re finally getting to the point
where you maybe actually would want a little robot companion
toting around your house.
For the last few years at CES, I’ve seen a lot of these.
Smart rings that track your steps
and monitor your heart health to kind of give you
a better sense of your own well-being.
But this, the Lotus Ring from a startup called Lotus
in California is a little bit different.
It’s designed to give people with limited mobility,
so veterans, the elderly, and even people who just want
a touch of telekinesis in their lives,
more control over their device without having to get up.
Which is nice, especially if they can’t.
There’s a tiny IR blaster baked into the ring,
and when you point it at devices like this,
the switch cover, well,
it kind of does exactly what you’d expect.
The company plans to ship these later this year.
You’ll get the ring and a few of these switch covers,
which work for the classic flat switches
and those little toggles, too.
for about $299, there’s going to be a power strip
with a built in IR receiver,
so you can control things like coffee makers
and other appliances.
And in time, the company hopes to be able to build
a touch sensor into the ring.
So not only will you be able to turn a TV on and off,
you’ll be able to control the channels and the volume too.
[Rock music plays]
If you needed any further proof that I is the big theme
at CES 2024,
look no further than Flappy, the AI-powered cat door.
Long story short, it uses the microchip inside of the animal
to determine whether or not it is in fact your animal
and whether it should open.
But it also refuses to open
if the cat walks up to the door with prey
in it's mouth because who wants a tiny mouse
or a dead bird in the middle of all of your nice things?
I certainly don’t.
So unfortunately, I’ve been told that I
cannot strap on and try these.
The Skwheels, these electric ski shoes,
which is probably for the best.
The top speed is 50 miles an hour,
which sounds absolutely terrifying,
but if you’re cruising at a more reasonable
12 or so miles per hour,
you can expect to get about 20 miles of range.
Everything is controlled from this telescoping handle
that also doubles as your controls.
You’ve got your accelerate. [chuckles] Oh.
It’s accelerate... [Motor whirs]
Oops. Sorry.
You can accelerate and access your brakes.
And then once you’re done and you’re ready to kind of
pack things up and go away, you telescope this thing,
attach it to the wheels, and off you go.