CES 2024 arrived in Las Vegas this week, offering a preview of the latest tech gadgets designed for the home.
The annual event stands for Consumer Electronics Show and is a huge showcase for the latest technological innovations, some of which are destined to endure in our lives, while others will eventually sink without a trace.
AI was clearly the buzzword of the moment, with everything from bathroom mirrors to cat flaps infused with machine learning.
Some of these home technology inventions could very well catch on: we could see a transparent television becoming the hot new item for fans of minimalist decor. But others are a bit creepy or downright dystopian.
Read on for our round-up of the most futuristic home tech from CES 2024.
LG Smart Home AI Agent
This cute little robot with two stubby legs and Google eyes promises to be your perfect household helper and companion in one.
Using a variety of sensors and cameras, the robot can connect to other smart devices as it patrols and monitors the home.
It can report temperature, humidity and air quality, and if you're not home you can set it to go on patrol to alert you of unusual activity.
The robot can also warn you if you left the lights on or the windows open. Hopefully LG will add a setting to let you know if you left your straightener plugged in or not, for the anxious ones.
It can also double as a pet monitor, such as a mobile babysitting camera for your four-legged friends.
As for companionship, LG's added AI elements should help the Smart Home AI Agent communicate with its owners. In addition to voice recognition from your standard virtual assistants, it can also learn context and intent.
This means that when you get home, the robot can come to you and gauge your mood from your voice and facial expressions - and then play music tailored to your mood.
Electronics company LG says it's part of their vision to provide a labor-free home environment, although the Armless Smart Home AI Agent to help you open stubborn jars doesn't do it all yet.
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Baracoda BMind
As if confronting your reflection in the morning isn't confrontational enough, this smart AI mirror is impregnated with an AI-supported mental health coach.
Using generative artificial intelligence (the kind of algorithm that powers ChatGPT), it assesses your mood based on your facial expression and offers tips to improve it.
If it notices that you're feeling a little down, the mirror can offer light therapy, a mindfulness coaching session, or some positive affirmations.
"BMind collects information without any invasive technology and helps users incorporate mindfulness practices into their daily routines or even curb feelings of loneliness through an immersive experience using light, sound and images," promises Baracoda.
If you find affirmations and the like a bit woo-woo, this might not be the mirror for you if all you want to do is brush your teeth. But it looks good and if you already outsource some of your mental health care to apps, this could be a stylish and hands-free way to access it.
Ecovac Winbot W2 Omni
If you've ever looked at a contemporary home with floor-to-ceiling glass and thought, "Beautiful, but how can I find the time to clean everything?" this could be the kit for you.
The Winbot W2 Omni is a robotic window cleaner that you can attach to your windows and let it do its work.
A portable suitcase-style hub allows you to transport it between locations. Once attached to a glass surface, the three nozzles get to work on the dirt and stains.
The robot can reach hard-to-reach areas where a human needs a ladder, and can be disconnected from the hub and run on its own built-in battery.
It has cotton pads to mute annoying sound effects, and several modes to choose from, including a spot-clean option for particularly dirty areas.
It's an expensive alternative to breaking out the Windex and elbow grease, but for the clean freak who has everything, this can be the perfect addition to the home.
Flappie
Putting aside the inflammatory debate between indoor cats and outdoor cats for a moment, if you have a feline companion who enjoys the outdoors but also brings home unwanted gifts/guests, then Flappie is a high-tech solution.
This is not a standard cat flap. Using AI recognition, Flappie can determine if your cat has a bird, mouse, frog, etc. in its mouth and block it from entering until it drops it.
It also sends you an alert so you can choose when to let your furry little hell back in. It's basically a Ring doorbell for tracking cats.
As a bonus, the free app also tracks data about your pet and gives you fun data graphs about their hunting patterns (i.e. kill rates for cats).
If you sync Flappie with your cat's microchip, it can also prevent other cats from sneaking in.
Photos and videos of your cat can also be saved as they come and go, even at night. The comedic potential is intriguing, and Flappie promises that the data won't be sent to outside servers, ensuring your cat's information is stored safely.
LG Signature OLED TV
This TV is one of the few products coming out of CES 2024 that doesn't have AI as a selling point, but it still has a pretty cool USP: it's transparent.
Interior designers have previously had to come up with all kinds of solutions to make a flat-screen TV look chic in the home, from hanging it in a frame to hanging it on easels.
The Signature promises to be completely unobtrusive when not in use, meaning the 77-inch screen blends into the background.
It sits in a sleek piece of furniture that can also serve as a room divider - and alerts you to the fact that there is a TV, so you don't bump into it.
LG has also made it wireless, so there are no unsightly cables cluttering the room. When you're not watching your shows, you can switch between a transparent and a translucent screen to project art or other images on it, such as an animated aquarium.
Samsung Ballie
Another AI-powered home robot debuted in Vegas this year, Samsung's Ballie.
Roughly spherical and a pleasant canary yellow, Ballie floats over your floor to greet you when you come home - and even rolls out the welcome mat in the form of a message projected onto the floor.
It plays music and can control the lights, with Samsung promising it will learn your habits and adjust settings accordingly.
The projector function seems to be a bit defunct on the floor, but if you place it on a table, Ballie will project its video onto a wall or other vertical surface.
It also performs patrol and pet monitoring functions and can answer telephone calls.
Like LG's home robot, Ballie seems to function best when the rest of your home is connected to the Internet of Things. Or, like the promo images, you can just have it play videos on the floor for your dog.
Philips Home Access Series 5000 Wi-Fi Palm recognition Smart deadbolt
The name tells you most of what you need to know here. This smart lock scans the entire palm, not just a fingerprint, something Philips claims is a "paradigm shift in home security".
It's not so much your palm that this device reads, but the vein pattern in that palm - something that is entirely unique to you and also apparently much harder to replicate than just a fingerprint.
It's also designed for a seamless experience, with the lock sensing your palm as you reach for it and the deadbolt automatically sliding back when it recognizes the user.
The Wi-Fi Bit allows users to monitor all the smart deadbolts in their home via the Philips Home Access app, and it can also be linked to virtual home assistants such as Alexa or Amazon's Google Assistant.
