Corona Daily 215: Better Normal for All

Yesterday, CES 2021, the biggest show of the tech industry, started.  Originally called the Consumer Electronics Show, it happens annually in Las Vegas. This year it is online. Unaware of the gravity of the coronavirus then, last January 171,268 people had visited it.

More than fifty years old, CES was the first to display the world’s best known tech products: VCR (Philips: 1970), CD player (Philips/Sony: 1981), Nitendo entertainment system (1985), Play Station (Sony, 1991), handycam camcorders (Sony, 2003), Plasma TV (Samsung, 2005), smartphones (2013), self-driving car (2019) to name a few.

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In keeping with the times we live in, the first online CES presents several pandemic specific products. Among the newspapers, the Washington Post has offered the best review of such products.

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 Biobutton: The size of a postal stamp, the Biobutton sticks to your upper chest like a Band-aid. It uses sensors to track your temperature, respiratory and heart rates, activity level and sleep. Glued to your chest, in a few days, Biobutton can detect if you possibly have Covid symptoms, even when you are feeling fine. Colorado’s UCHealth is using Biobuttons to monitor vaccinated health workers. The device has been cleared by USA’s Food and Drug administration.

BioIntelliSense, the maker, hopes it can be used effectively to make vacations, cruises and workplaces safer. It costs $1 a day for up to 60 days of continuous monitoring.

Biobutton has won the best innovation award at this show. One of its identified shortcomings is that it can’t tell the difference between covid-19 and the flu yet.

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Petit Qoobo: is a furry robot, your safe and comforting companion. Developed by Japan’s Yukai Engineering, it is like a real skittish, young animal. It has eighty different movements to respond to your voice or touch. Ladies can easily carry it in a shopping bag. Petit Qoobo has a regular heartbeat that gives you the feeling of a live creature when you cuddle it. Doesn’t require food or maintenance. Its cost is $110.

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WiFi 6E: With the sudden explosion in online work and education, many of us experience frustration with our existing Wi-Fi.

WiFi 6E routers offer a new wireless spectrum previously unavailable for Wi-Fi. WiFi 6E adds a new band 6GHz. For all your apps and devices streaming data, this is like adding a whole new lane to your home’s information super-highway. It’s not faster than the existing wifi, but far less crowded, making your connection more reliable.

It is priced at $600. Like other wifis, its signals don’t travel very far in the house. It works well when devices are closer together.

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Gardyn: This 5-feet tall device brings the farmers market to your living room. The gardening machine helps you cultivate fresh leafy greens indoors. Seeds are placed in cups called yCubes. Gardyn’s vertical towers hold up to 30 different varieties, including cilantro, mint, kale and tomatoes. The buyer has to refill the water jug once in 30 days, and the vegetables are ready in a few weeks. The company says for $60 a month, a family of four can be fed.

Gardyn costs $899 or $44 per month. (I don’t think it will find any buyers in India).

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Airpop’s Active Plus Mask: A smartmask that allows you to exercise vigourously and monitor the air quality without losing your breath. The mask’s censor called “halo” is connected to your smartphone via Bluetooth. It monitors the health of the mask’s filter and alerts you when it needs to be replaced.

The price is $150.

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There are other products including touch-free and disinfecting products, virus catchers. Targus UV-C LED disinfection light for the keyboard along with an antimicrobial backpack are aimed at office-going employees. Many products, not surprisingly, kill up to 99.9% viruses and bacteria.

Not all innovations take off. Last year, CES had displayed a toilet paper robot which didn’t attract any customers.

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In the opening speech, “Better Normal for All” was a phrase used to describe CES 2021. Rather than wishing the pandemic-special innovations success, consumers will hope to return to a previous normal. Who wants to wear a mask- however smart?

Ravi