Against all odds, Tech continues to innovate.
Despite the pandemic and one of its corollaries, the shortage of components, the CES show in Las Vegas has yet given birth to sophisticated devices that aim to improve our lives.
Anti-Covid innovations have been touted as have more unlikely gimmicks.
But young innovative companies and the R&D teams of large manufacturers have also developed promising innovations, of which here is a serious sample.
A shark robot against waste
The WasterShark collects and processes waste from oceans and parks.
Designed by Dutch start-up RanMarine, the WasterShark is an aquadrone that swallows plastics thrown into the ocean.
No more nets to retrieve a few floating bottles, this electric and autonomous robot collects all the rubbish within a radius of 5 km for 6 hours and returns to its base to dump its catch (up to 500 kg).
Covered with sensors and an anti-collision radar with boats, it is also capable of taking samples and measuring the quality of the water it crosses.
Tested for several years in the port of Rotterdam, the machine has been adopted by American ports but also by amusement parks with large areas of water polluted by visitors.
Its prices: nearly 22,000 euros or monthly rental.
Autonomous racing cars
A technological challenge was to make self-driving cars run on a track and perform bursts of speed.
This Dallara IL-15 evolves on the racetracks… without a pilot.
This small F1 is equipped with cameras, GPS or even radars to allow it to be on the track and to measure the distance with its competitors.
The show in fact brought teams of engineers into play during the Indy Autonomous Challenge (IAC), a competition where the objective was for autonomous cars to exceed 160 km / h.
In this little game of engineers, the Minerva of the Italian-American team PoliMOVE broke the record with a top speed of 185 km / h.
All the data collected during the exercise will be used to improve the autonomous cars of the future but also the safety of current models by adding sensors and functions.
A folding laptop
The Zenbook 17 Fold becomes the second folding laptop PC to be released.
Our eyes were full of miracles in front of this folding 17.3-inch OLED touch screen.
Taiwanese manufacturer Asus has really succeeded in finishing its Zenbook 17 Fold laptop.
The second to hit the market after Lenovo's X1 Fold presented last year at a virtual CES.
Equipped with a physical keyboard which is grafted onto the slab, the computer is available in three forms: as a classic PC with a touch screen, in giant tablet mode or as a monitor screen thanks to its kickstand on the back.
The device is equipped with the latest 12th generation Intel processor “AlderLake” also presented at the show.
Available mid-year, its price should be around 2,500 euros.
Gloves to experience virtual reality
Gloves with haptic feedback are used to perform actions in the virtual with a tactile feeling.
TactGloves will soon allow you to touch and manipulate objects in virtual worlds or the Metaverse. Already behind a haptic feedback vest that allows you to immerse yourself in virtual reality (VR), the Korean company bHaptics has developed these haptic gloves for the general public. They are compatible with the movement tracking systems of VR headsets marketed as the Meta Quest 2 (formerly Oculus) or Microsoft's Hololens 2. According to our first tests on site, the sensors respond well to every flexing of the finger when pressing a button, for example, and the potential for video games, even professional training, is there. The first copies will be sold at the end of the year at an affordable price for this technology of 270 euros.
The @bHaptics company makes gloves and a vest to experience all the senses in VR with haptic feedback.
pic.twitter.com/beKjKBhJQn
- Damien Licata Caruso (@DamienLicata) January 5, 2022
The drone taxi of the future
The flying machine caused a sensation with the possibility of climbing into the cockpit.
The Japanese start-up SkyDrive showed for the first time abroad its Model SD-03, a single-seater flying machine whose first tests were sufficiently conclusive to consider automatic flights with a passenger.
This drone has also recently been validated by the Japanese transport authorities.
The 100% electric vehicle takes off and lands vertically and could be used as an air taxi from the Osaka World Fair in 2025. A two-seater model, the SD-05, is also under development.
