The Covid-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on innovation and new technology, this week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) revealed.
The annual event, usually held in Las Vegas in January, was staged virtually for the first time - getting the tech world to embrace not only new capabilities in products, but new ways to demonstrate and display them.
Health solutions and home entertainment and maintenance technologies stole the show, despite the efforts of makers of self-driving vehicles, robots and agricultural technology.
The health solutions ranged from the ridiculous, like the Ettie doorbell that takes visitors' temperatures, to the sublime, like the AirPop Active+ smart mask that includes a sensor to track users' breathing.
From body sensors that detect Covid-19 symptoms to smart air filtration systems, much of the new technology is miniaturised, and is expected to feed into a massive boom in consumer tech as professional services become integrated into the home experience.
One of the products attracting the most attention in this category was the iSyncWave, an artificial intelligence-driven brainwave-mapping headset launched by iMediSync.
2,000
The number of companies unveiling new technologies at CES.
The mapping allows it to personalise a therapy called photobiomodulation, which is claimed to enhance neural activity, optimising a person's brain. Its primary purpose is to screen and predict Alzheimer's long before its onset, but future models may be used in its treatment.
A connected sensor that can quantify allergens in food within two minutes was launched by biochemical company Taiwan User-Friendly Sensor & Tech. Its Test Food Allergen Detection System stores, analyses, and shares the data with users through a dedicated app.
"Currently, we want to solve the problem of food safety, especially in the realm of food allergies," said company founder Leo Chen. "Every three minutes in the US, a person is sent to the emergency room due to food-related allergic reactions, and these people spend over $25bn (about R379bn) on health care every year."
InWith Corporation premiered a platform for fitting computerised applications in soft contact lenses, allowing for smart contact lens technology.
It will allow developers to place augmented vision display chip applications into any soft hydrogel contact lenses of the kind that millions of people wear daily. The company has already displayed stretchable electronic circuitry in name-brand Bausch & Lomb contact lenses.
Smart fridges from LG and robot kitchens from Moley Robotics ensured that food technology remained an obsession of CES, but its consequences also came into focus. With the global weight-management industry already worth more than $100bn a year, it was only a matter of time before tech got involved.
It came in the shape of Gene-Hub, claimed to be "the world's first hand-held metabolic device, allowing accurate measurements of the respiratory exchange rate and basal metabolic rate through breathing to estimate the user's body metabolism in real time". The real benefit is that the user can measure the body's metabolism at home, helping reduce the demand for medical services.
Some brands crossed over from health to entertainment, but few did so as effectively as gaming hardware company Razer. It launched Project Hazel, described as "the world's smartest and most socially friendly face mask", and Project Brooklyn, a compact, integrated gaming chair to provide an immersive game experience.
The mask, with a built-in microphone, is intended to "improve the convenience of daily wear while overcoming common social interaction challenges".
CES is usually dominated by entertainment technology, with the likes of Korea's LG and Samsung, China's HiSense and TCL, and Japan's Panasonic and Sony, showcasing their display innovations in vast pavilions and installations.
This week, they went to great lengths to make up for their inability to dazzle the crowds by announcing a dizzying range of new TV technologies.
Sony Electronics announced a new range of 4K and 8K Bravia televisions with a processor that it said "mimics the human brain to deliver an immersive viewing experience".
HiSense introduced TriChroma, a colour technology that uses a light source architecture based on colour lasers, allowing for a dramatic increase in resolution, brightness and colour range. The company claims that these laser TVs do a better job of colour replication than high-end cinema projection.
Samsung rolled out a line-up of micro-LED TVs, previously only seen as modular panels that combined into a wall-sized display. "The Wall", a highlight of a previous CES, was out of reach of the public, and the new range is the early signal that modular TV will eventually be a consumer option.
Thanks to these and 2,000 more companies unveiling new technologies at CES, the digital event is regarded as having been a major success, suggesting future expos of this scale will be hybrids of physical and virtual. Thanks to the lower cost of exhibiting from a distance, 700 start-ups from 37 countries were able to participate.
"CES showed how the pandemic accelerated the arc of innovation and illustrated the resilience and innovative spirit of our industry," said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the event's owner, the Consumer Technology Association.
Karen Chupka, executive vice-president of CES, said: "The all-digital format brought new voices to the tech conversation."
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