IFA 2022: Come on, foldables and artificial intelligence for the masses

Although the epidemic left its mark on the big electronics show in Berlin this year, human innovation does not stop.

Here is a summary of the trends and intriguing developments

Lilian dialect

03/09/2022

Saturday, September 3, 2022, 10:30 a.m. Updated: 10:46 a.m.

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IFA exhibition, Berlin (Photo: GettyImages)

After two years of an epidemic, it seems that the major electronics shows are starting to recover.

The IFA exhibition in Berlin is actually taking place for the first time in two years in the full and traditional way, and was opened yesterday (Friday) to the general public.

But the epidemic gave its signals here: despite the sunny and pleasant weather, the large halls of the "Mesa" conference center in the heart of the peaceful Charlottenburg neighborhood were not full and tiringly packed as in previous years, many of the participants wear masks, and large companies that previously occupied entire booths, such as Sony and Philips , are absent from here altogether or at most manning much more modest stalls than in past years.

And yet, it is evident that even a worldwide epidemic cannot stop human innovation - here are the trends and interesting things we saw at the IFA exhibition.

Although the audience still turns their noses up at them a bit - the flexible screens became the highlight of the exhibition, and after we saw them in smartphones that were launched very recently such as Samsung's Flip and Fold, they are making their way strongly to computers: Asus announced here (and even has a booth at the exhibition, a rare sight in itself ), on the Zenbook Fold OLED, a computer that is actually a huge tablet with a flexible screen, which folds like a book and is easy to carry.

In the space between the two parts of the screen, you can also push a thin magnetic keyboard attached to the kit, and when you place it on the lower half of the screen, it actually turns into a small clamshell laptop.

Asus's concept basically imitates the same principles that Lenovo introduced with its Thinkpad X1 Fold, which here at the exhibition was presented for the very moment of its new model (and we managed to get a glimpse of it, see also in the video below).

The Zenbook Fold (Photo: GettyImages)

But when they say flexible screens, they don't just mean computers.

In the gaming area at LG's pavilion, we came across the Flex, which is a computer screen of enormous dimensions, the sides of which curve mechanically, so that they wrap around the player in the form of a semicircle, or it can be straightened into a normal flat screen.

Either way, the key to this intriguing gaming screen, here too - is a flexible panel.

So even if in smartphones the flexible screens look like a gimmick, when it comes to larger devices, it is evident that they are really creating a change and charting the way for how our computers and screens will look in the coming years.

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Lenovo with the Thinkpad X1 Fold (Photo: Walla! Technology, Niv Lilian)

Cat in June

The second significant trend visible in the exhibition is somewhat hidden from view, yet its presence is evident: artificial intelligence.

The penetration of learning and responding machines and artificial intelligence into our lives may not always be felt, but it is already here, and even more so: not only have I seen here companies that offer tools for every person to learn to program artificial intelligence, many of the products here rely entirely on a heavy application of artificial intelligence.

Let's start with the strangest and most intriguing thing that is probably on display here at the exhibition: a cat in June.

It is a cat for everything, except that it is completely robotic, and is intended to replace live cats.

Like Sony's Aibo that was introduced back in 1999, MarsCat, developed by the company Elephant Robotics, is an artificial animal, based entirely on artificial intelligence.

Mars, totally has the demeanor of a real cat: I mean, don't expect him to always want to play with you.

He is also able to lay down and just fall asleep in front of your eyes instead of wanting to play, even though he is robotic.

Why?

because he is a cat

These behaviors, which are designed to simulate the behavior of a real cat, are based on a sophisticated algorithm with six different "personality" traits, which are established over time, and according to its developers - each Mars that is sold, develops its own personality over time, and no two bionic cats are identical in their behavior.

Cooking for idiots

Artificial intelligence is also evident in devices that are a bit more mundane than robotic cats: Qualcomm presented here at its stand, how artificial intelligence knows how to arrange a frame of a photo and automatically adjust it to the number of people in the camera's range, all through machine learning and facial recognition: if the camera recognizes the faces of several people In the photo, it will expand the zoom and open a wide angle so that everyone can be seen, and on the other hand, if only one face is detected, it will focus only on it for a more personal portrait image.

This is a development that is going to make video calls much more fluid than before, and we will probably see it coming soon to our smartphones, computers and webcams - because if there is something that the epidemic has brought back into vogue, it is video conferences.

Similarly, artificial intelligence now knows how to clean up background noises like a screaming baby or a barking dog, so at least our video call colleagues won't have to suffer through the noise...

And finally, artificial intelligence is also coming to our home devices, which is quite amazing: the vision that the refrigerator recognizes is in it and reacts accordingly, finally making skin and tendons grow.

Samsung (which hosts us here at the exhibition in Berlin, full disclosure), presents in its pavilion, a refrigerator with built-in cameras in its doors, so that its contents can be seen at any given moment.

This is not only useful while shopping at the supermarket, you can remotely connect to the camera through the smartphone app, and see what we really lack in the fridge, the cameras are again equipped with the ability to recognize objects, so they can, for example, identify a piece of meat that is placed in the fridge, and then offer us recipes for steak.

And wait, that's not all - if we chose a steak, the smart oven, which also talks to the app, will receive the appropriate program for grilling an egg, and will heat up accordingly.

The vision we were always promised of a truly smart home is finally coming to fruition.

Artificial intelligence also reaches our home devices (Photo: Walla! Technology, Niv Lilian)

Similarly, we saw a smart cooking pot here, which includes a built-in tablet from a company called Taurus.

The pot, called MyCook Next, will guide us in cooking - step by step, when to add ingredients, perform the required cooking operations on them and then, for example, after heating the oil, will ask us to also add sweet potato cubes, using instructions on the screen.

An apocalyptic vision of cooking for idiots, using smart machines... all we'll have left is to eat, and try to play with the robotic cat.

That is, if he agrees.

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