A see-through fridge, a roll-up TV: five exciting new gadgets from CES 2018

Our five favourite technologies at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas

People walk through a display at CES. The new rollable LG OLED TV looks the same as the original LG OLED televisions AFP

The roll-up TV

It’s currently only a prototype (LG seems to be hoping that another TV brand will pick it up as a retail product), but LG’s rollable OLED TV was certainly one of the stars of CES. Rollable, you ask? Yes, this is a TV screen that can roll up, just like a projection screen would. Best of all, the picture quality hasn’t been sacrificed - the image is as vivid as it is on any other OLED TV. (See picture above)

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A woman plays with Buddy the companion robot by Blue Frog Robotics. AFP

The robot friend

Buddy is a personal robot from French company Blue Frog that, admittedly, has a slightly nightmarish Manga-esque face. Its boon is turning the domestic-assist thrust of Alexa and Google Home into a mobile, almost-lifelike conversationalist. Its launch price is predicted to be about Dh5,500 when pre-orders open soon. Still creepy, though.

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The Nuviz heads-up display. AFP

The helmet that’s also a tablet

Motorcycle helmet NUVIZ has a heads-up display that led it to pick up an innovation award at CES. With its updated operating system dropping next month, it will provide access to information on traffic, your music collection and the suchlike. Whether bikers need any more distractions while navigating the infamously motorcycle-unaware traffic of the Emirates is another debate entirely.

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Courtesy Linksquare

The know-it-all ‘pen’

LinkSquare is a clever handheld spectromete that is about the size of a marker pen, and can determine the genuine nature of items, which is particularly handy when it comes to being able to spot pathogens in food and verify the authenticity of medication. With health-friendly tech this clever, we might all live to see CES 2118.

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LG's David Vander Waal introduces the InstaView ThinQ smart refrigerator. AP

The see-through fridge

LG has had a good week at CES, and while its roll-up TV turned more heads, its fridge with a see-through screen definitely deserves a mention. The InstaView ThinQ smart refrigerator features a 29-inch touchscreen that becomes transparent if you knock on it twice. Perfect for people that are particularly proud of their produce (or need to check if they've run out of milk).

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