Gawk-worthy gadgets: The Consumer Electronics Show was brimming with fun, high-tech prototypes

I strolled aisle after endless aisle at CES—the Consumer Electronics Show—where throngs of people spent Jan. 5-10 searching for the Next Big Thing.  

With 150,000 attendees and thousands of booths, there is literally something for everyone. People from every continent and every background pushed their way through to gawk at the innovations. What many folks don’t understand is that a lot of the gadgets and solutions they see are not even products yet. They are prototypes—or worse, virtual prototypes. Many won’t reach the market if they don’t get traction—investors, customers, partners or some combination thereof.  

I’ve been through many cutting-edge tech trends since my days of leading teams bringing virtual reality out of the Department of Defense and into practical apps, beginning in early 1992. (That’s not a typo. My tech career really does date back to the last millennium.) We were pioneering this awesome new tech that was incredibly cool, wildly complex and crazy-expensive. We saw the potential, so we built the early applications for industry.  

The gamers saw it, too. They began building more complex games as the hardware, software and memory increased and matured. It was late in my VR tenure that a new Silicon Valley chip startup was getting known to developers; it was known as Nvidia. The founders were gamers who needed more power and more memory; we needed it, too.  

Fast-forward to this year. Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s co-founder and CEO, gave the keynote at CES, with 10,000 people or more squeezed into the Mandalay Bay Arena as if Steve Jobs was giving one of his Apple speeches. Despite a record-breaking rough day for Nvidia on Jan. 27, Jensen is the new visionary, the new guru for 2025. I’m feeling ducky, because he and I are only three years apart in age, and he is a rockstar! There is always hope!  

Like many game-changing founders, he saw a market that was underserved, growing like crazy, and in need of more horsepower. He started building microchips for gaming computers in the late ’90s as mobile tech and online tech were coming into their own. Nvidia basically owns the market for affordable, high-end chips that push huge computations in milliseconds—for blockchain, crypto, gaming and AI. These expanding sectors, as of now, rely on Nvidia for their success. Jensen chatted about the company’s success and the new chips being released. 

CES is world-renowned for new product announcements and releases. The startups are there hawking new tech, and so are the giant, multi-national corporations. Automakers showed off the new tech in their cars and protype cars. Heavy-equipment manufacturers brought automated backhoes. Here are a few cool devices from big names that I saw: 

Sony and Honda: Sony and Honda are now taking orders for their new EV joint-venture called Afeela. Last year at CES, the car was navigated onto the stage with a PlayStation controller. It promises to combine the best of Honda and the best of Sony with two models—the Origin for about $90,000, and the upgraded Signature for about $103,000. I laughed at their statement, “Make mobility a creative entertainment space.” What ever happened to, “Safe and wonderful to drive”?  

Garmin: I’m a sport-watch guy, so this one caught my eye. The new fēnix 8 is touted as the most capable smartwatch Garmin has ever built. That’s saying something—it makes and take calls, with great graphics, altimeters and solar storage for 48 days. Nice. Oh, and here’s the big one: It even tells accurate time!  

Goodyear Tires: Recognizing that self-driving cars don’t do well in inclement weather, Goodyear has developed a smarter tire that is specially designed for self-driving cars, exceeding the current limitations on snow and ice. (Maybe we should just put a savvy driver in there, or simply teach folks how to drive.) 

Here are some interesting and cool tech startups that I ran across: 

Maca Flight: The world’s first hydrogen-powered flying racecar—15 feet long, 85% recyclable, up to 300 miles per hour‚ comes from France, in partnership with Red Bull Advanced Technologies.  

SkyFall: This Ukrainian company specializes in combat-tested drones, from 7-inch kamikaze strike drones to 6-foot-diameter drones with six propellers and payloads up to 50 pounds. The knowledgeable Ukrainian startup rep that told me, “We have the best real-time testing lab in the world—Russian soldiers and weapons.” She was a great booth rep. (See my January column on trade-show ROI.) I couldn’t dispute her results. 

Darwing: This Dutch-Japanese company makes a wearable suit with electronic hinges and an exoskeleton that helps warehouse employees and other workers lift heavy loads without injury. It is pretty cool and crazy-looking. Think Tony-Stark-ish from Iron Man. There were many startups with these types of exoskeletons or walking robotic assistance—very cool, with no smarmy remarks needed. 

Cat Link: The Scooper Pro Ultra, developed in South Korea, is a 5G, AI-enabled multi-cat litter box, water dish, food dish and cat door that assures “worry-free outings.” 

E-Skimo Power Your Ascent: This Swiss tech booth caught my eye, as I’m a backcountry snowboarder. Listen up, my purist skier friends: This is a set of skis with electric-powered skins—kinda like e-Bikes on the trail. After powering you up the peak, the battery pops off from the front of each boot; the skin retracts up top; and down you go. Skiers, talk amongst yourselves after you check it out. 

Lastly, I couldn’t finish this list without mentioning a guy I sat next to in the international business center. I was getting to my seven different email accounts for the first time in days. He asked if I’d watch his laptop while he “went to see a man about a horse,” as we say in the Southwest. When he came back, he whipped out his phone to show me his wellness line. Because I’m a family man with young daughters who may read this, I’ll simply say he has a line of adult-oriented toys for women that are—what else—AI-driven, so you can program them for random or specific movements that rock your boat. Check out this company at senserawellness.com, and tell CFO Gabi that I sent you. 

The innovations I’ve listed are fun, but understand that many of these companies will not get funded. These prototypes may never become products, and products are not companies. The road for these companies is long, and for many, it’s a dead end. They need to be accepted by the target market at a price point that will make a profit and scale. Most won’t. This is true for every new bleeding-edge product company in the world.  

Make sure people want you and can cough up the cash to pay for it. Then, build the company. More on this next month.