Because it seems, a completely different sort of AI made a giant splash at CES 2024: AI companionship. We have been anticipating generative and predictive AI, however this one threw us for a loop.

Are we actually that lonely? How dangerous has it gotten that distributors are searching for to provide us non-human companionship in a world crammed with, effectively, people? And that is not the one weird pattern I have been seeing. Listed below are the highest 5 traits I’ve noticed on the world-famous Las Vegas showcase.

1. AI companionship

As I discussed on the outset, greater than every other expertise, AI companionship was, by far, the preferred pattern I noticed at CES 2024.

Mashable’s Matt Binder interacting with Mirokai
Credit score: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable

Check out Ballie, for instance, Samsung’s new rolling yellow ball that’s, partly, designed to maintain customers firm. I additionally checked out an anime-inspired robotic known as Mirokai, which has a use case for lonely sufferers within the medical sector. And eventually, there’s WeHead, a weird 3D construction that places a face to ChatGPT.

WeHead caught plenty of eyes at Pepcom.
Credit score: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable

Hell, even at Lenovo’s CES suite, it showcased an idea of a robotic companion that may be snapped to the lid of your laptop computer.

Credit score: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable

I can not assist however surprise, are distributors searching for to fill some form of companionship void that’s plaguing us people?

2. Wearable rings

The Oura ring, which had a presence at CES 2024, is a rising star within the compact wearable house. However this 12 months, it appears like a swath of distributors are vying for Oura’s throne.

Rinconn’s Sensible Ring at CES 2024
Credit score: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable

From RinConn’s Sensible Ring, a wearable that claims to “perceive your physique and maximize your well being” to the Amazfit Heli Ring, a sports-focused wearable that may be paired with a efficiency watch of your selection, rings appeared to take over CES this 12 months, outpacing smartwatches like Garmin.

3. Air gestures

Mashable’s Cecily Mauran checked out a sensible mirror at Unveiled, a CES 2024 pre-show for the press, and it is not simply its wellness advantages that caught her eye, however its interactive capabilities.

Cecily Mauran interacts with a sensible mirror
Credit score: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable

You should utilize air gestures to swipe by the UI on the funky good mirror. The Mudra band is one other putting tech product we noticed at CES 2024. It allows you to navigate by your whole iDevices utilizing air gestures, too.

4. Sleep tech

Many adults endure from sleep points, together with myself. Quieting one’s thoughts to get a very good evening’s relaxation is rather more difficult than it appears. As such, I’ve seen a number of distributors try to resolve this problem with expertise. One among them is the Frenz Brainband, which I occurred to evaluate for a few months forward of CES 2024. (Keep tuned for whether or not that was useful for my insomnia.)

Mashable’s Kimberly Gedeon sporting the Frenz Brainband.
Credit score: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable

This rubbery crown, which is supposed to be worn across the brow, makes use of AI to find out which binaural beats and voice teaching to make use of for essentially the most optimum, customized sleep.

myWaves can reportedly allow you to sleep
Credit score: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable

I additionally stumbled upon myWaves, a tool that may reportedly learn your delta waves earlier than utilizing them to feed again sleep-inducing sound waves customized for you.

5. Reside captioning with good glasses

TCL’s RayNeo X2 Lite glasses, billed because the world’s lightest full-color AR glasses, makes use of true AR, making use of interactive, digital overlays on high of a real-world surroundings.

Mashable’s Cecily Mauran testing the TCL RayNeo X2 Lite glasses
Credit score: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable

You possibly can interact with an AI-powered avatar together with your voice, use contact gestures to work together with a digital menu, and extra. However a pattern that I have been noticing, beginning with the RayNeo X2 Lite glasses, is stay captioning. These quirky glasses may translate languages, stay captioning the whole lot that’s being stated to you in your native language. (For instance, in our demo with the RayNeo X2 Lite glasses, the rep spoke Korean and we might see the phrases being transcribed — earlier than our very eyes — into English.

XanderGlasses permitting person to “see” what’s being stated.
Credit score: Xander

Nonetheless, the RayNeo X2 Lite glasses aren’t the one spectacles that may do that. The XanderGlasses additionally made an look at CES 2024. In contrast to the X2 Lite, the XanderGlasses goal the accessibility market. It’s made for customers who’re onerous of listening to. The XanderGlasses can ship strains of scrolling phrases to customers, permitting them to depend on their visible senses (i.e., studying) to know others who’re chatting with them.