Amazing connected devices at CES 2017

From self-driving cars to an umbrella that calls out to its owner, and from a spy camera hidden inside a lightbulb to a smart hairbrush that senses when your brushing technique is damaging your hair, the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas features all the smart devices you can dream of — and then some. As one observer put it, the 50th edition of the most popular event of the year for showcasing tech products is all about smart devices and would be more aptly called ‘The Internet of Things Show’.

Here are some of the coolest smart products introduced at the show, which takes place between January 5 and January 8.

Robots

Artificial intelligence starts to look more and more like the robots imagined by sci-fi authors. The Hub Robot from LG Electronics works as a smart home gateway as well as a personal assistant — like Amazon’s Alexa, Google Assistant or Mark Zuckerberg’s Jarvis. Actually, it uses Alexa’s voice recognition technology, but unlike all the virtual assistants mentioned above it can move around the home and express emotions (think EVE from Pixar’s Wall-e).

According to ZDNet, the robot’s face/display can also show information — for example, what you have in your fridge. It can also respond to human body language, and generates some robot body language: it nods its head to answer simple questions.

LG has also announced mini robots that complement the Hub Robot. They can be placed in different rooms in the house to take care of various tasks.

 

Smart hairbrush

You may be familiar with internet connected toothbrushes complete with timers to make sure you clean your teeth thoroughly. But how about a hairbrush that comes with sensors to help you take care of your hair like an expert?

The Hair Coach, produced by professional luxury hair care company Kérastase in partnership with smart device maker Withings, was developed in collaboration with L’Oréal’s Research and Innovation Technology Incubator.

It includes a microphone that listens to the sound of hair brushing (so it knows if you have split hairs and when your hairs break), cells that measure the force applied to hair and scalp while brushing, an accelerometer, a gyroscope and a set of sensors that determine whether the brush is used on dry or wet hair. The brush will vibrate if your strokes are too vigorous.

Users can also download an app on their smartphones which will tell them how to better take care of their hair based on the data collected by the brush.

Self-driving cars

It’s no surprise that autonomous cars have taken the center stage at CES 2017. Faraday Future made quite an impact with a car that supposedly outruns Tesla. The 1,050 horsepower car, FF 91, can reach 200 mph and comes packed with 30 sensors, which help it find its own parking space, among other cool things. It can also be summoned through a smartphone app, and uses facial recognition to allow the owner to enter without a key.

It can go from zero to sixty miles per hour in 2.39 seconds — hence the claim that it outruns Tesla.

Video lightbulb

Smart lightbulbs have been popular with consumers for quite a few years now, but have you heard a lightbulb that can stream video to the internet?

French company Bell and Wyson makes a low energy wifi-connected led bulb with a built-in camera plus a microphone. It’s basically a home security device. Remotely manageable via a free app available for iOS and Android, the lightbulb/surveillance camera will alert you on your smartphone in case it detects unauthorized movement.

Users can also see and record a live video stream from the camera.

Connected umbrella

Most smart devices shouldn’t be left in the rain, but BBC has spotted one connected device that’s actually meant for wet weather. The connected umbrella, which also made an appearance at last year’s CES, sends weather alerts to your phone, and sends you a text in case you leave it behind.

Don’t forget about security

And because many smart devices are more vulnerable to hackers than computers, smartphones and tablets, we’ve brought to CES 2017 the next generation Bitdefender BOX, which employs machine learning and other advanced technologies to secure all connected devices in a household.

We’ll continue to bring you more from CES 2017, so come back to the blog to see what the future has in store.