Jan 8, 2024 7:00 AM

The 10 Coolest Things We’ve Seen So Far at CES 2024

Tech’s biggest show is just barely getting started. We’ve already gotten to go hands-on with some fun gadgets.

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Person sitting in front of a digital smart mirror

The giant spectacle known as CES hasn’t yet spread its wings and taken flight, but we’ve already gotten a preview of what to expect. The show officially starts on Tuesday, but at a media event on Sunday night, the tech press who have gathered here in Las Vegas to cover CES got to peek at some of the gadgets launching later this week. Here’s a selection of some of the neatest things we’ve seen so far.

Photograph: Alex Welsh
Horwin Senmenti 0
The Chinese EV company Horwin—the name is a mashup of “horizon” and “win”—is moving into the US market in 2024 with a trio of urban-focused electric motorcycles. This one—the chunkily styled Senmenti 0—is the company’s first model to go on sale here after claiming road space in Europe and Asia. It puts out 100 horsepower, has a top speed of 125 mph, and does zero to 60 in 2.8 seconds. The 16.9 kilowatt-hour battery gives the motorcycle a range of up to 186 miles, and it can plug into the same DC fast chargers that cars use. Fast charging takes the battery from zero to 80 percent in half an hour. It’s a two-seater; pegs above the back wheel and a scoop at the back of the seat let a passenger ride along. Stateside buyers can preorder a Senmenti 0 for $16,800, and the company plans to deliver the bikes before the end of the year. There are two other Senmenti models coming soon: the long distance X and the high-performance 11. Those will be released in 2025 and 2026, respectively. —Michael Calore
Photograph: Alex Welsh
NuraLogix Anura MagicMirror
Most of us deal with a health care system that limits access to thorough health testing until something serious happens. So imagine sitting down in front of a mirror and, in less than a minute, learning you have an irregular heart rate or hypertension or a fever, and then being able to take that data straight to a doctor. NuraLogix hopes that becomes commonplace with its Anura MagicMirror. The mirror (which is basically a 21.5-inch tablet) uses a camera to detect the blood flow activity beneath the surface of your face’s skin, then sends that reading through an algorithm to calculate 100-plus health parameters. It builds on the brand’s existing Anura app that can read certain vital signs through your phone’s camera. NuraLogix CEO Marzio Pozzuoli stressed that the camera is not using facial recognition and that only your blood-flow data is sent to the cloud for analysis, while the video the mirror captures stays local. Pozzuoli said he could see it becoming a home health care appliance eventually, but it will start out being installed in places like gyms, pharmacies, or clinic waiting rooms. He predicts that a few measurements will be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration this year, with more to follow. —Medea Giordano

Photograph: Alex Welsh
HL Mando Parkie
First it was the self-checkout line, now it’s … robot valets. HLmando, a South Korean automobile manufacturer, showed off an autonomous parking solution, aptly called Parkie, at CES. This flat and huge piece of tech looks like someone cast an Engorgio charm on a graphics card. If you’re at a mall’s parking garage, get out and summon these autonomous bots. Two of them will head over and slide underneath your car; legs will extend and slide around all the wheels. The bots lift the car slightly, then roll it to the nearest available parking spot. When you’re ready to go home, summon the bots again and they’ll go find your car and bring it to the designated area. It’s a solution that’ll work in most garages already without the need for any drastic changes to the infrastructure. The company expects it to be available in South Korea by the end of the year. Just don’t toss your keys at the bots. —Julian Chokkattu
Photograph: Alex Welsh
GE Profile Smart Indoor Smoker
Smoked meat can't be beat, but smokers require a lot of space and a lot of fuss. A pellet grill, kamado, or dedicated smoker has to sit in a spot (like in the backyard) where it can huff and puff for hours without bothering bystanders. That's the old way. GE has a new way to smoke. This device is the GE Profile Smart Indoor Smoker. It's a countertop device about half the size of a mini fridge. Place your meats, veggies, salt, or whatever you're smoking on the racks in the main chamber, then pour your wood pellets into a hopper in the top. The smoke that fills the main chamber and comes in contact with your food is filtered before being ejected, so all that comes out is a hot breeze. You can use the smoker in your kitchen without worry, and it uses the same pellets you'd put in your grill. Control it with a companion mobile app, and use the preprogrammed routines for smoking common comestibles like chicken wings, brisket, and ribs. The smoker is already available for $999, so you can buy one now and enjoy a smokin' Super Bowl Sunday. —Michael Calore

Photograph: Alex Welsh
Withings BeamO
Have you ever taken time off work to go into the doctor for your routine checkup and found out that … yes, you were fine? The Withings BeamO checks your vital signs quickly with a small, convenient, handheld device that's not much bigger than a television remote. The BeamO works as an electrocardiogram monitor, an oximeter, a stethoscope, and a thermometer. To measure SpO₂ and to take a medical-grade ECG, place two fingers—one from each hand—on two electrodes. Meanwhile, a light simultaneously measures your blood oxygen levels. Place the BeamO on your chest over your heart or lungs to listen; you can also use it over a shirt or plug in a pair of headphones to monitor what it’s picking up. Finally, to check your temperature, swipe it toward the center of your forehead from the temple. You can check its data readings in Withings’ app, or export a report as a PDF to send to your doctor. The device is currently awaiting FDA clearance, but Withings expects to be selling it to consumers for $250 by the middle of this year. —Adrienne So
Photograph: Alex Welsh
Palmplug
Gesture control devices are useful for a wide variety of applications. But while it’s easy enough to use hand movements to simulate scrambling up a rock wall or paddling a canoe, it’s a lot harder to use hand movements to learn how to do something that requires a high degree of fine motor control. The Palmplug, which aims to solve this, is a device that attaches sensors to the back of your hand and to each of your five fingers. High-fidelity motion capture lets you record and re-create nuanced or delicate hand gestures. Haptic feedback simulates a wide variety of textures and different nuanced vibrations, and the device also provides visual feedback in the form of multicolored LEDs. The range of applications for this technology is theoretically endless, but currently Palmplug offers devices that assist stroke patients who are rehabilitating, and that help students learn how to play musical instruments. In fact, the company founder and CEO Olaoluwa Adesanya was trying to learn how to play the saxophone and realized that his teacher also taught visually impaired kids to play by tapping their fingers. —Adrienne So

Photograph: Alex Welsh
Skyted
Let’s say you’re walking around Times Square and you have top secret information you need to convey over a phone call, but you’re really paranoid about eavesdroppers. Well, you can either wait until you’re somewhere secure, or turn into Bane. That second super subtle option is what the Skyted looks and feels like. This burly mask wraps around your mouth and seals off your voice to the outside world via sound-dampening material. I stood inches away from someone on the Skyted team as they spoke and I couldn’t hear a single thing they was saying. It has a microphone on the inside and outside and the person on the other end of the call should be able to hear the speaker loud and clear, without any background noise. (It pairs wirelessly to a phone or connects via a wire.) The problem? The prototype they had on hand used a basic microphone, so the person wearing the mask really did sound like Bane and was tough to understand. The company tells me the final version will have much better quality mics that will make the wearer sound crystal clear. We’ll have to wait and see if the Kickstarter, which launches today, will be successful first. If so, this mask will set you back a mouth-opening $299. —Julian Chokkattu
Photograph: Alex Welsh
Skwheel One
These electric skis from Skwheel (say it like “squeal”) can rocket along at up to 50 miles per hour, which we do not recommend trying in a crowded convention hall. The all-wheel drive skis also have thick, heavy, all-terrain wheels that are designed to be used everywhere from sandy beaches to asphalt to forest paths. Strap in wearing your street shoes (you have to have a shoe size above a European 36 and weigh under 240 pounds) and use a wireless remote like the kind used for electric skateboards to control your speed and braking. The removable lithium-ion battery lasts for a little over an hour and carries you about 30 kilometers, give or take, depending how much you weigh and how fast you go. In a world where snowfall is rapidly decreasing due to climate change, the ability to ski whenever and wherever you want might be a welcome evolution of the sport. —Adrienne So

Photograph: Alex Welsh
Doublepoint Technologies
It’s so rare to hear about a third-party company developing software for Google’s Wear OS smartwatch platform for Android phones, yet this very thing was spotted at CES. A company called Doublepoint Technologies has debuted a gesture-sensing app called Wow Mouse. It’s available now for free on the Wear OS Google Play Store and it’s compatible with most modern Wear OS smartwatches. It relies on the Inertial Measurement Units (IMU) sensor that’s used in most fitness trackers and smartwatches to detect activity and lets you use a double-tap and a pinch and hold gesture with your fingers to control another device via Bluetooth. I saw the team using these gestures with a Samsung Galaxy Watch5 to control a browser just like they were using a mouse for input. They also used it as a controller in a mixed-reality headset and as a way to control the brightness of a connected lamp. Considering Apple is also going all-in on gesture controls in the Apple Vision Pro, it seems like the future will really rely on our hands as the input device. —Julian Chokkattu
Photograph: Alex Welsh
Hurotics H-Fit
Are you a college athlete struggling to shave seconds off your 200-meter time? Why train yourself to run faster via tedious and possibly ineffective interval training when you could wear a robot that trains your glutes to fire off faster and harder with every stride? That is the premise of the Hurotics H-Fit, an ergonomically designed assistive exoskeleton. In addition to mechanically forcing you to apply more force with each step, the suit also offers AI-enabled assistance to help you correct your form and optimize your training programs. It only costs a mere $25,000. If you fancy a different style of assistive exoskeleton, Hurotics also offers a much more moderately-priced version, the H-Flex, that's meant to be used for post-injury rehabilitation. —Adrienne So

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