The annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) was held last month in Las Vegas and, as usual, innovation abounds.
We scoured the home-oriented tech that’s coming out soon and found some we thought you might be interested in learning more about.
We just want to know, which one is Alexa?
Neon, the artificial human chatbot, was unveiled at January’s CES convention and to say it’s amazing would be an understatement.
Neon’s purpose is to put a face and body to the faceless, bodiless virtual assistants we now use in or homes – you know, Alexa and Siri and the like.
It’s better explained in a YouTube video we found online, posted by Good Tech.
The narrator of the video is spot on when he says it’s impossible to tell the difference between Samsung’s computer-generated “people” and the real deal.
It turns out, none of them is Alexa. Neon isn’t an AI assistant, according to Shara Tibken at Cnet.com.
Unlike AI assistants, Neons do not know it all, and “they are not an interface to the internet to ask for weather updates or to play your favorite music,” Tibkin quotes from a company spokesperson.
Learn more about Neon, when it is expected to be released and more at Cnet.com.
Take a shower with Alexa
Kohler showed off its new Moxie Showerhead at the 2020 CES in Las Vegas and picked up an Innovation Award in the process.
Built in to it is Amazon’s smart speaker and the voice behind it, Alexa. We don’t know about you, but we do some of our best thinking while showering and now you can have Alexa right there to take notes for you, set reminders, set alarms, etc.
You can also catch up on the news, check the weather, get a stock update and use other Alexa skills you have enabled.
There are actually two showerheads, one is Blue Tooth enabled and the other A.I. (Alexa). Learn more about it at Multivu.com.
Hydraloop
Winner of the 2020 CES Innovation in Sustainability, Eco-Design, and Smart Energy award, Hydra Loop “promises to help you conserve water in the home.” How?
By “recycling and cleaning about 85 percent of water use at home,” according to John Breaux at sdentertainer.com.
What this means for homeowners is that they’ll most likely recoup the $4,000 price tag for the Hydraloop:
- Reducing the amount of water used by 45 percent
- Reducing the amount of “sewage emission” by 45 percent
- Reducing energy bills
Learn more about Hydraloop and how you can order one (later this year) at Electrek.co.
Arlo Pro 3 Floodlight Camera
If you’re keen on home security, you’ll love this one. Presented by Arlo, it’s an outdoor smart camera “with a massive floodlight slapped on the front,” according to Hugh Langley at TechRadar.com. In fact, this “massive floodlight” provides 3,000 lumens.
Recordings are in color (unusual for basic night-vision smart cameras) and you control the timing, the brightness and whether the light flashes when something triggers it.
Langley says that in addition to this, “you’ve got a 160-degree field of view, two-way audio, and six months of battery life.” Available this spring, it’ll retail for $249.99. Learn more about the Arlo Pro 3 Floodlight Camera and sign up for availability notification at Arlo.com.
4moms® mamaRoo sleep
Bassinet
While it isn’t cutesy, it is incredibly innovative and something that moms and dads of especially fussy infants may love. The bassinet snagged CES Innovator Honoree award.
If you already own the mamaRoo infant seat you’re familiar with some of the tech-enabled motions (that mimic “natural motions of parents,” according to the company) you’ll find in the bassinet:
- Car ride
- Kangaroo
- Wave
- Tree swing
- Rock-a-bye
In addition, the bassinet offers five vibration speed options and four choices of white noise, all controllable with the 4moms app.
The retail price is $329.99 which is a bargain for parents of colicky babies. They also offer a payment plan. Check it out, watch the different motions and more at 4moms.com.
