Millennial recap of #CES2022 —by Ieva Gaigala

On January 2nd, together with a bunch of French startups, we boarded a plane from San Francisco to Las Vegas. After a long 2-year pandemic-related pause from tech events, we were excited to see what announcements and tech product upgrades were to be showcased compared to?our first CES exploration in 2020.

As many people don’t get the chance to access such environments, here are some key takeaways from the CES 2022 preview of what the future holds.

Happy reading!

1. Augmenting our environment (work from anywhere, future of mobility)
2. Enhancing our self-care (health tech, food tech, sex tech)
3. Making tech replace us (5G, AI, Humanoids)
4. Gradually escaping from our world (XR, NTFs, metaverse, space tech)
5. CES 2023?

Augmenting our environment

For the past years, the one device that was mostly seen as an augmented extension of who we are was the “smartphone”. Today, way more people have accepted and explored the enhancement of their surroundings through frictionless voice command or automations.

• Will standardization matter with?Matter??Matter?is a protocol created by the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) to?make all smart home devices interoperable, regardless of the brand they come from. So far, the standards of all devices we use, have been established through competition, where the most adopted one prevailed.
• Apple, Amazon, Google and Samsung have all agreed upon smart tech around the same standards, with the goal of making smart home adoption grow overall. Now what seeems left to do is convince third-party device and service providers, and eventually consumers to follow the agreement.

Ever dreamed of teleportation?

With the pandemic, the lines have become blurrier than ever between the personal an professional space. Here are some upgrades to the “work from home” lifestyle.

• How does?teleportation?sound to make it right on time to a meeting on the other side of the world??La Vitre?(“the window” in French) will almost enable you to do so. It is a life-size screen through which you can interact with colleagues as if they were standing right in front of you.
• Additionally to the hardware, they have developed a software that adds more superpower to it: over 60 languages immediate translation written on the screen as one speaks, instant PC / tablet / phone screen sharing, ability to draw over the screen from different locations. And, if you have it standing on a corner of your office or home, you can turn in it blur mode: other people using La Vitre with you only see a blurry screen until they knock. And once you “let them in”, they can see you clear as day.
• I could definitely picture this as a must-have item to have in every office. You can?discover it in AR here.

Work from anywhere, carry your energy— literally

• Talking about being able to interact on a real-life level with anyone makes me think of?Osol, allowing you to work from anywhere.?Might it be from the middle of the cafeteria with no electrical outlets, in the new agile and modular spaces of your workplace, at the beach, in an empty meadow or even the top of a mountain. Nowadays, all you really need to work is a laptop/phone + a place to sit + the internet + electric power. Knowing that, Osol is completely shifting the meaning of a “flex office” by designing a?“zero cable” nomadic energy solution: the?Pico.
• It’s a smart battery able to charge your tech devices up to 20 hours of autonomy in just 1 hour, and gather analytics about how a company’s employees use them in their offices spaces or outside of them. All those Pico smart batteries are stored into a beautifully designed base (see below), which creates a strong NPN (Nomad Power Network). As it is shared between all workers in all their workspaces, the silos between offices can be removed and offer a smooth work from anywhere experience.
• Fun fact: they created the?highest outdoor office in the world?at 1.2 miles (2000m) in altitude.

Future of in-vehicle experience according to?Samsung

When thinking about car industry innovation, this quote often comes to mind.

“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” — Henry?Ford

Today, the notion of “mobility” isn’t exclusively focused on faster engines, but also smarter and safer ones.

• Samsung?definitely got me excited about their?vision of the future in-vehicle experience: the car uses cameras and sensors to analyze its surroundings. It then harnesses AR to present road conditions, surrounding businesses and other information to the driver on the car’s front window. The driver is thus able to make use of that additional information without juggling between devices.
• Ex: a live countdown until the light turns green, a blood emoji where donors are needed along with the required blood type information, road signs including speed limitations present at all times, detection of wild animals crossing, directions to walk to the closest entertainment and shopping options present nearby.
• The question remains how competent will the cameras and sensors be. Since humans could strongly rely on those AR directions, what if a speed limitation is hidden behind a tree and doesn’t get detected?

Chameleon vs. your next gen BMW?car

• BMW presented the?iX Flow car that changes colors featuring E-Ink. They are using electrophoretic technology (just like the one Kindle has, basically) to adapt the car’s color to its environment or just twist it for fun/practicality purposes. The new form of personalisation can now be experienced not only inside, but also on the outside of the vehicle.
• Ex: some applications include switching to brighter colors when there’s hot temperatures outside (so the vehicle consumes less). Also, the color can change on parts of the car only, making it possible to display different QR codes or messages whenever and wherever. These can be used to show codes to open the car for car sharing at a distance.

Hyperloop Tesla?riding

• One of my highlights was trying out?Elon Musk’s Hyperloop?that opened in July 2021 to beat traffic jam near LVCC (Las Vegas Convention Center). The $52.5 million project includes 62 Teslas driving in loops over a 1.7 mile (2.7 km) range, with stops at the South, North and West halls. It’s hard to imagine if this type of transportation system would be efficient for longer distance trips, especially since the maximum speed allowed in The Boring Company’s tunnels is 40mph (65km/h). However, I have to admit the overall experience was quite smooth and comfortable. Wouldn’t mind having it implemented in Europe.

Is the carcopter the new?F1?

• It will take around 10 years until flying taxis are common. Until then,?MACA?is aiming at preparing people to socially accept new types of vehicles like the?carcopter flying racing car.
• After spending 15 years in the French army as an attack helicopter pilot and working at Airbus for years in the training and product policy strategy, the?founder and CEO of MACA?is focusing on a sustainability. They are building the first hydrogen-powered flying racing car. Theoretical speed is 155mph (250km/h), 0% CO2 emission, carbon/linen/wood composites.

Enhancing our self-care

Covid really boosted rapid innovation empowering customers to directly take care of their health and well-being, and bringing “smart” doctors into homes. With new sensors and apps, managing your health and pleasure can be cool and not so secretive anymore.

Health tech right by our fingertips

• If most of us had worn the?Circular smart ring?back in 2020, it could have prevented Covid-19 from spreading this much… possibly.
• Rather than a tech fun gadget or Alexa alternative, see this ring as your?personal health companion. Additionally to being a fashionable item (with different color shells), it?continuously monitors your bio-signals?during your sleep and daily activities, to help you keep track of your well-being.
• Blood oxygenation, body temperature, heart rate variability (HRV), respiratory rate, steps tracking, energy level, cardio points, VO2 max, sleep cycles… you name it. These dozens of data points captured by the dual PPG sensor of the ring can enable you to understand and listen to your body better than ever and adapt your routines around it.

• Quantiq?is transforming any camera into a medical device. They are developing a technology that enables you to record a 20-sec video of your face and get instant info about your respiratory rate and heart rate. They aim at improving telemedicine for more accessible home care since you won’t need to buy additional medical devices for regular health checkups. Other data points to be included in their detection soon are blood pressure and blood oxygen levels to prevent cardiovascular diseases and abnormal hemoglobin levels..

• Lod’air?created an air purifier able to kill 99% of virus and bacteria (yes, Covid-19 included) in 20-60 minutes for spaces up to 1300 sq ft (120m2). They are using UV-C ultraviolet rays that destructure the RNA of the virus and suck it up in turbines (see screenshot below). This method has been scientifically proven for its efficiency on such use cases for more than 50 years. Thinking about getting an office lamp in the near future? Check out theirs.

• Anatomage?is the world’s first only virtual dissection table?that has the most advanced 3D anatomy visualization system for anatomy and physiology education. Established in both education and healthcare industries, they are transforming standard anatomy learning, medical diagnosis and treatment planning through its products. No magic wand can be waved to ensure that a segmentation algorithm can accurately identify the pixels of an organ, but their technology has done so more than 2 million anatomical structures from 3D volumetric images since 2004.

Digitizing taste from the best chefs — food?tech

• Let’s talk intellectual property… for food. It is common knowledge that the most prestigious chefs charge quite an amount for their meals — both because of their quality, but also because they can only cook a limited amount of meals every day.
• Beyond Honeycomb?created a way to digitize taste. Chefs are artists, so they should be able to own the rights of their gustative creations… and share licences to distribute them at a larger scale. This company is able to?reproduce taste at a molecular level. In 48 hours, its AI scans the molecular condition evolution over the cooking process, and is then able to reproduce the exact same taste and texture of the original dish.
• On the longer-term, this would mean chefs could introduce their dishes on the platform and distribute their creations worldwide without necessarily having to be in the kitchen cooking the food. Question remains: to what extent are chefs willing to “mass-produce” their recipes vs. keeping an exclusive cooking experience for high-end restaurant guests.
• Here?is the kitchen plan and delicious menus we tried out at CES.

• Ever been on the go and needing to eat (something other than a sandwich), but not having time to stop anywhere? We’ve seen vending machines evolve from snacks to coffee to groceries...?Yo-Kai?can cook you a warm gourmet meal if you’re in a hurry… under 1 minute prep time. They have integrated the talents of Michelin Chefs into creating their?autonomous restaurant?that serves up to 30 recipes (ramen, popa vieja, chicken terriaki, etc…). And I can agree that it did taste great.

#SatisfyerEffect — sex?tech

• Stopping at the?Satisfyer?booth was one of my favorite moments from CES this year. Not because they were handing out free sex toys as CES souvenirs, but because it was an opportunity to freely talk and learn about innovative concepts that enhance people’s sexual wellness journeys (that boost blood flow and skin glow among other beneficial things)

“Some of the best moments in your life are the ones you can’t tell anyone about” — Sarah?Nader

• Around what would appear as “regular” sex toys, this brand created a?multi-sensory experience?that has convinced 25 million “Satisfied” people in +100 countries.
• The experience includes connecting your toy to your personal or partner’s phone to control it live with the swipe of your fingers, alternating the intensity of vibration and air pulses. You can?save any of your past live control sequences as a “program” to reuse?for your next intimate time, or share with the app’s community so others can benefit from your creation (see screenshot below). The app will also connect to your Spotify account and?sync vibration and air pulse variations directly with the sound waves?of your favorite song, a selection of erotic stories (Remotyca audio porn with toys), or the ambient sound around you (ex: your partner in your room talking to you, or a movie that you’re watching).

Making tech replace?us

Enterprise adoption of?5G

• Starting this year, there will be a shift from customer-centric use of 5G (ex: faster phone connectivity, smart cars, homes…) to industrial IoT (ex: increasing cloud infrastructure, manufacturing warehouse automation, construction, agriculture…). 5G will provide the connected tissue for innovation in this decade.
• Verizon and Meta recently joined forces?around a strategic partnership to explore a range of?5G-enabled metaverse?opportunities. What Meta is looking for is intensive extended reality (XR) cloud rendering and low-latency streaming. This “new world” could be made possible tanks to Verizon’s Ultra Wideband network and mobile edge computing (MEC) capabilities.

“Creating the metaverse will require a global effort and we invite partners to collaborate with us on this new journey.” — Dan Rabinovitsj (VP,?Meta)

AI is migrating and might start to own?us

• A couple of years back, tech products using AI were often performed by invisible humans in the early days. Today, it is seen as the “next big thing”, as it can be utilized across just about any industry. AI is rarely used alone, but associated by machine learning and deep learning, which has allowed it to become more powerful than ever.
• By combining all of these disciplines, computers can actually operate like humans by trying out algorithms and learning from mistakes. Use cases include: recognize objects (partly thanks to you — when trying to log into a webpage and selecting photos that look like bridges among a selection of random shots), deconstruct and analyze problems, make rational decisions (that don’t involve human emotions).
• As far as we (consumers) are concerned, it seems we are increasingly more open to?letting AI-powered tasks control part of our lives: making shopping purchase recommendations (like?Anamod technology?below), providing nutritional advice, telling us which path to drive (Waze)… Should we be worried or excited?

“We are surrounded by algorithms that know us better than we know ourselves.” — Yuval Noah Harari (see?keynote)

Meet Ameca, the most advanced humanoid?robot

• One of the most iconic robots to see/“meet” this year at CES was?Ameca: the first demo of a very human-like robot with powerful intergrated?AI and AB (artificial body). It is able to understand anyone’s questions (despite the noise all around), and answer accordingly, while using adapted tone of voice, emotion in speech and different facial expressions. Some of its tricks include singing, making jokes, performing tai chi movements, and many more…
• During this demo, a hybrid system was used meaning AI did part of the work, but there was a real human listening (remotely in the US) and sometimes helping the robot answer accurately. However, this is just a phase until making it completely autonomous in the future. The creator’s future applications of Ameca don’t directly include having such a robot at home, but more as a concierge at a airports, malls or hotels for example.

Gradually escaping our?world

• It is expected that 84% of XR (mixed reality) engaged businesses will spend more time on their AR/VR initiatives over the next 2 years (ex: virtual meetings, simulations, digital twins, remote collaboration, immersive design, marketing and sales).

WTF is an?NFT?

Unless you live in a cave away from the Internet and social media… chances are you have probably heard about NFTs and maybe even explored this new trend’s use cases. If you’ve?gotten the basics of what NFTs are, but still struggle at making sense of its usefulness, here are some thoughts:

• Are they about money? No. As we grow, we have a higher esteem of past memories and collectibles have been a way to hold onto them, but quite in an oldschool way. This is where NFTs come in for the new generation with a couple of twists. While many people have (successfully) jumped onto the NFT trading opportunity to generate cash, its purpose is more?centered around community and art.
• How did they grow so fast? Discord servers around NFT collections created a whole new paradigm of organizing communities. More than ever, people want to express themselves and their feelings in new ways. Creators do so and have easy access to like-minded people to share their art with through smart contracts.?As an artist, you can see people who are transferring your art and that means a lot.?Celebrities joining this space definitely contributed to getting more people to follow. Being part of a community and/or owning a specific digital asset from a collection is also about?belonging?in different groups to reinforce one’s self image.
• How can art be digital? Traditional art pieces shown in museums or private house collections can have very high value since they appear as tangible and “unique” vs. NFTs might appear as “an image that I can just copy/paste and own as well”. Now when you think about it, famous paintings like La Joconde have been forged as well. Everyone knows the original piece is exposed at the Louvre Museum in Paris, and if you have one in your house, everyone will know it’s a scam. However, another less famous painting could be successfully forged. I think when it comes to digital art, common knowledge about people’s digital possessions will develop as well and some?NFT owners will be recognized for possessing the original copy of a digital asset.
• Are they addicting? As NFTs are created into collections, some people really do fall into a high FOMO level. They can spend months checking a Discord channel to see if that one rare piece missing from their collection will be up for sale.
• Are they a new kind of “social media”? The levels of speed and transparency have been unbeatable. Feedback circulates instantaneously in Discord channels and is very raw between community members. It seems to be bringing together people from around the world who will understand one another based on a special artistic or even spiritual level. The?possession of some NFTs even give special access to some get togethers or events, which is a new way to connect with like-minded individuals (and is especially needed post-pandemic).
• How to get started? While there are hundreds of people who would be able to onboard you into this way better than me, NFT “experts” seemed to agree that you / your brand should take the time to support the community first before trying to create and sell your own thing right away. Evolving in this space is actually NOT about generating a bag of cash, but about showing up authentically.

What if the metaverse wasn’t so virtual after?all?

Within 10 years, it will become our reality. We could expect setups like Ready player one by 2045. But the chances are, the “real metaverse” will result in being something nobody has predicted, since some of its components haven’t been invented yet and will see the light of day along with future research in that space.

• However, today,?CoolSo?has developed a bracelet that accurately recognizes finger and hand movements and sends signals to the laptop to turn them into actions within a potential metaverse. (Ex: if I hold my index finger and thumb together for 2 seconds, my avatar will take the closest virtual object in the room. If I turn my fingers into a fist, it might turn of the lights in that same room.)
• Its core technology uses biosensors to recognize hand muscle activity, multiple finger gestures and its strength levels. This information is then translated digitally to connect our real world to virtual world use cases. Yet, since the metaverse days are far in front of us, the technology’s current use cases are focused on full-range human-computer interaction (such as?industrial AR controlling?for construction site workers).

Honeymoon in space,?honey?

• You have probably seen recent Jeff Bezos or Richard Branson videos launching their spaceflights aka ??billionaire fun activity in space??, but in a few years it could be possible to extend such offers to a wider range of public consumers. Could you imagine booking a honeymoon stay in space? This type of trip sounds very futuristic, but we are way closer to making it happen than you might think.
• But space tech isn’t just about travel. It can be defined as technology used in exploration or other activities beyond Earth’s atmosphere. And it could be a way to promote sustainability on our own Earth, better communication services (Starlink), biotechnology (NASA biosciences) and more (see video below). According to?Morgan Stanley, the global space industry could generate $350 billion revenue today, and at least $1 trillion by 2040: “the most significant short and medium-term opportunities may come from satellite broadband Internet access”.

CES 2023?

Mark your calendars! CES 2023 will happen in January?5–8th.

• This year, many big corporations (Google, T-Mobile, Mercedes, Twitter, Intel, Procter and Gamble…) decided to withdraw their in-person attendance — a great opportunity for?startups to take over affirming their value and tech sovereignty. Eureka Park (the CES startup arena) gathered 800+ of them coming from 19 countries (including 150 #FrenchTech?startups).

• In 2023, we can expect to see a rise of consumer-oriented startups, enhanced connectivity, complex cloud infrastructures, mixed reality, greater home makeover, more AI applications, DAOs, smarter electric vehicles… and probably new tech trends we have not heard of yet!

Join our delegation! ??

If you are thinking about going to Vegas for CES 2023, we are here for you! With our team we will be offering:

1. Workshops to help you prep for CES?= understand the dynamics of the event and its multiple locations + checklist of things to prepare before going + strategic tips to make it?ROI positive for you.
2. Connections with our experts?= to help you get a sharp pitch, a bomb PR campaign, efficient US sales reps, and potential intros to big corp and VCs in France or the US if you are?fundraising.
3. Guidance in Las Vegas?= to access the right side events/parties for your business, connect with other delegation members, have some fun, and make sure to be aware of the main trends.

Note: you do NOT necessarily need an exhibitor booth to join us!

To be updated on our next delegation events, you can sign up?here.

Any questions??[email protected]