From ‘virtual queuing’ to ‘artificial humans’: six new technologies from CES 2020

Foldable laptops, sit-in Segway pods and AI-enabled washing machines are the trends introduced for this year

San Francisco-based start-up Neon shows their "artificial humans", AI composited animations displayed at human scale, at CES in Las Vegas. AFP

CES 2020, one of the biggest consumer electronics trade fairs in the world, has brought together not only tech giants, but also some of the industry leaders in aviation, health and automobile.

The National takes a look at the innovations presented on the first day of the five-day event.

Better flying experience

US airline Delta will implement technologies such as "virtual queuing" and "parallel reality" in the coming months. Ed Bastian, who became the first airline chief executive to present on the CES stage, said virtual queuing will send alerts to passengers when their seating zone is ready for boarding.

“That means there is no need to cluster at the gate … waiting for your boarding group,” Mr Bastian said.

Parallel reality will be a huge display screen where passengers would be able to scan their boarding passes and get information related to their trips.

Self-balancing S-Pods

Segway, a US manufacturer of two-wheeled personal transporters, unveiled an egg-shaped vehicle, S-Pod.

Riders can sit in them and cruise through malls, theme parks and airports. The self-balancing pods, which can go to speeds up to 38.6 kilometres per hour, is controlled by a small knob on the right-hand side of the seat.

S-Pod will debut in the third quarter of this year and the company plans to sell it to the public in early 2021. Price was not disclosed.

Artificial humans

Virtual human beings were on display, developed by Samsung-backed start-up Neon, which makes video chatbots. Neons are unlike virtual assistants and are capable of having real-life conversations with users.

They can also learn skills, adapt to situations, amass memories and act as a personal assistant, health adviser and life coach. Users can have a video chat with the bots on large displays and can see them sitting beside them like another person.

Winston for online privacy

Every time you connect to the internet, hundreds of companies are watching you. Winston, a pocket-sized device installed between WiFi router and modem, strips away corporate tracking and surveillance that invades privacy and makes the internet slower.

It promises to deliver true online privacy in a way that a virtual private network and ad blocker cannot. It will also speed up the internet by barring many unwanted online trackers and ads from loading.

Dual-screen laptops

Technology company Intel shared significant updates to its laptop innovation programme, code-named “Project Athena”, designed to deliver a new class of advanced laptops, including “foldable” laptops with screens on each side of a display.

Since its debut last year, the initiative has verified 25 laptop designs against the programme's first specification and key experience targets. The company aims to verify approximately 50 more device designs and deliver a target specification for the emerging dual-screen laptop category this year.

AI-powered laundry

South Korean company LG unveiled its

AI washing machine that can detect the volume and weight of each laundry load and also identify fabric types.

Through machine learning, the washer compares this information against more than 20,000 data points to programme the optimal wash cycle for best results. It improves cleaning and extends the life of garments by 15 per cent, the company said.