CES 2024: Day 1 Recap
The must-see innovations from each show floor! Plus, news and keynotes
Editor’s note: as we usually do with our CES recaps, we send them out as special editions of our Lab Weekly newsletter first before making them publicly available here on Medium. For more timely insights into consumer tech’s biggest event, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter here. Thanks for reading!
The following CES recap was sent out on the morning of Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2023.
Welcome back to our CES 2024 coverage! On Tuesday morning, the show floors officially opened to attendees, and judging by our on-the-ground observation, this year’s attendance feels roughly on par with last year’s. If you happen to be in Vegas this week, here are the top highlights from each convention hall that we’d recommend you check out:
LVCC — West Hall
The western wing of the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) is typically dominated by mobility tech, and this year is no different. Hyundai has a huge presence that spans four sizable booths, with the highlight being the Hyundai Mobis concept EV, whose wheels can rotate up to 90 degrees and enable it to move sideways like a crab.
In related news, Hyundai announced its latest EV models will soon be getting an AI voice assistant courtesy of MapGPT, and that its cool four-passenger eVTOL, aka the “flying car” concept vehicle, will be ready by 2028.
LVCC — North Hall
The north part of the LVCC is typically a catch-all territory for all the exhibitors that are not in the auto or smart home industry. This year, the north hall is divided into five sections: digital health, AI & robotics, smart city & sustainability, IoT infrastructure, and lastly, vehicle tech and advanced mobility — a spill-over from the west hall. For our money, save your steps and focus on the digital health section.
Stop by NuraLogix’s booth to check out the Anura MagicMirror. The mirror (which is basically a 21.5-inch tablet) uses a camera to detect the blood flow activity beneath your face’s skin, so that it can diagnose, in less than a minute, whether you have an irregular heart rate or hypertension or a fever. You can then send that data straight to a doctor if you want.
Nearby, Nuvilab’s food AI vision tech is capable of analyzing users’ dietary habits and reporting on nutritional intake directly to their mobile devices. This is a solution that is particularly beneficial to those with chronic diseases, growing children, and for senior citizens living in assisted care facilities.
Also in digital health is Invoxia’s MiniTailz — health-monitoring wearables for pets! You think only humans need to track their biometrics? Well, now you can see how many zoomies your cat got when you’re not home.
LVCC — Center Hall
Congrats, you’ve made it to the last one of the three gigantic exhibit halls of the LVCC. Chances are, the minute you walk in, you will be wowed by the huge moving panels of LG’s transparent OLED TVs that become totally see-through at times. But make sure to check out the transparent MicroLED TVs that Samsung is demoing in their booth as well, in order to make a fair comparison.
And because cars have become the new frontier for media time, some TV makers in the center hall are also showcasing their mobility display solutions. From TCL to Sony’s Afeela, the cutting-edge displays are no longer confined to just your living room.
The “Wonderland” theme park activation by Korean chipmaker SK, especially the “Magic Carpet” ride, which we mentioned in our daily recap yesterday, is certainly worth walking all the way to the back of the show floor for. But for a more cutting-edge immersive entertainment experience, make sure to stop by Sony’s booth for a Ghostbuster-themed interactive experience, complete with three LED display walls and a haptics-quipped floor that responds to your feet’s movements. Sony is showcasing this as an example of its many “location-based entertainment experiences” around the world.
The Venetian Expo — Level 1
The ground level of the Venetian Expo center is also known as Eureka Park, and this is where all the small tech companies and startups from around the world congregate at CES every year, vying for eyeballs and potential investors. This year, a lot of them are slapping the AI label on their products, so it’s best to be a bit discerning about that. That said, there are some hidden gems here, and our favorites are three entertainment use cases, including Stepin, an app that uses AI vision to teach your K-pop dance moves, Twinit, which uses generative AI to create 3D digital humans by the image from a mobile device within minutes, and Gaudio in the Korean tech section, which promises to enhance your karaoke experience by adding and removing ambient sounds with generative AI.
The Venetian Expo — Level 2
The upper level of the Venetian Expo is arguably one of the most fun floors at CES. The majority of the floor is dominated by smart home companies showing off their latest smart appliances and home gadgets, while the “lifestyle” section on the side brings out some of the most unexpected innovations at this CES.
Case in point: did you know Swarovski, the jewelry brand, makes binoculars? Turns out, its optics branch, Swarovski Optik, has created a pair of smart binoculars specifically for bird-watchers Priced at $4,799 (it’s Swarovski after all), the binoculars leverage computer vision to identify over 9,000 species of birds, and doubles as a digital camera as well.
AARP’s AgeTech Collaborative exhibit spreads across both sections with two huge booths to show off its growing cohort of startups working on senior-oriented tech products. But the most innovative fall-detection solution we saw was at the Nobi booth next to the AARP one. Nobi created a ceiling light with built-in sensors for fall detection and a system for alerting the caregivers, so that your grandma doesn’t have to always wear a wristband at home. Also next to the AARP booths is the 3D-printing company Formlabs, which is showcasing 3D-printed dentures made with its new resin that look like real teeth.
To top it all off, stop by the fitness & sports section by the main entrance to watch a drone soccer match. Yes, you read that right — It’s a soccer game in the air, played via drones. It’s like Quidditch, just with less magic and more technology.
The CES Keynotes
Speaking of drones, Walmart took the keynote stage and announced that it is expanding its drone delivery pilot program in Texas to over 1.8 million more households. It also announced a few AI initiatives aimed at reducing frictions in the shopper journey. For example, the company announced a new feature of its InHome replenishment service that aims to automatically order the right stuff at the right time, and hand it off to a delivery person who can drop things off in a fridge in your house.
In the morning, L’Oréal took the keynote slot to shine a spotlight on beauty tech, including its AI-powered advisor Beauty Genius that can analyze your skin and recommend products in a conversational manner, as well as a futuristic hair dryer that uses infrared light to reduce heat for smoother, more hydrated hair.
Coming Up Tomorrow…
CES 2024 continues on Wednesday with keynotes from HD Hyundai and Best Buy. At this point, most of the big announcements have already been made, but one could never rule out any late-breaking news at CES.
Wednesday also marks the first day of IPG Mediabrands’ CES content sessions, including both the Lab’s vertical-specific sessions in the morning, and the retail media sessions led by the IPG Commerce team in the afternoon. Stay tuned for more CES insights and trends to come!
