CES 2024 arrived in Las Vegas this week, bringing a preview of all the latest pieces of technology developed for the home.
Standing for Consumer Electronics Show, the annual event is an enormous showcase for the very latest in tech innovations, some of which are destined to stick around in our lives, while others will end up sinking without trace.
AI was, obviously, the buzzword of the moment, with everything from bathroom mirrors to catflaps imbued with machine learning.
Some of these home tech inventions may well catch on – we can see a transparent television becoming the hot new item for fans of minimalist decor. But others are a little bit creepy or downright dystopian.
Read on for our roundup of all the most futuristic home tech from CES 2024.
LG Smart Home AI Agent
This cute little robot with two stubby legs and googley eyes promises to be your perfect domestic assistant and companion rolled into one.
Featuring all kinds of sensors and cameras, the robot can connect to other smart devices as it patrols and monitors the home.
It can report back on the temperature, humidity and air quality, and if you're away from home you can set it to go on patrol to alert you to unusual activity.
The robot can also warn you if you've left the lights on or the windows open. Hopefully LG will add a setting to let you know if you left your hair straighteners plugged in or not, for the anxiously inclined.
It can also double as a pet monitor, like a mobile nanny cam for your four-legged friends.
As for companionship, the AI elements added by LG should help the Smart Home AI Agent communicate with its owners. Alongside the voice recognition of your standard virtual assistants, it can also learn context and intention.
This means that when you arrive home, the robot can beetle up to you and gauge your mood from your voice and facial expressions – then play music designed to suit your mood.
Electronics company LG says it's part of their vision to provide a labour-free home environment, although without arms to help you open stubborn jars the Smart Home AI Agent can't quite do it all yet.
Baracoda BMind
As if confronting your reflection in the morning wasn't confronting enough, this AI smart mirror is impregnated with an AI-assisted mental health coach.
Using generative artificial intelligence (the kind of algorithm that powers ChatGPT) it will assess your mood from your expression and offer tips to improve it.
If it senses you're feeling a bit down, the mirror can provide light therapy, a mindfulness coaching session, or provide some positive affirmations.
"BMind gathers information without any invasive technology, and helps users incorporate mindfulness practices into their daily routines or even curb feelings of loneliness through an immersive experience using light, sound, and visuals," promises Baracoda.
If you find affirmations et al a bit woo-woo, this might not be the mirror for you when all you want to do is brush your teeth. But it looks good and if you're already outsourcing some of your mental healthcare to apps, this could be a stylish and hands-free way to access them.
Ecovac Winbot W2 Omni
If you've ever looked at a contemporary house filled with floor-to-cieling glass and thought "gorgeous, but how will I find the time to clean it all?" this could be the kit for you.
The Winbot W2 Omni is a robotic window cleaner that you can attach to your windows and leave to do it's thing.
A suitcase-style portable hub allows you to cart it between sites. Once attached to a glass surface, it's three nozzles get to work on the grime and smears.
The robot is able to get to any difficult to access areas that would require a human to get a ladder, and can be unplugged from its hub and operate on its own inbuilt battery.
It has cotton pads to dampen any annoying sound effects, and several modes to pick from including a spot-clean option for any particularly grimy patches.
It's an expensive alternative to breaking out the Windex and elbow grease, but for the clean freak that has it all this could be the perfect addition to the home.
Flappie
Putting the incendiary indoor-cat versus outdoor-cat debate aside, if you have a feline companion that enjoys the great outdoors but also brings home unwanted gifts/guests, Flappie is a high-tech solution.
A bog-standard cat flap this is not. Using AI-recognition, Flappie can ascertain if your cat has got a bird, mouse, frog etc in its mouth and bar them entry until they drop it.
It will also send you an alert, so you can choose when to let your furry little hellion back in. It's basically a Ring doorbell for narc-ing on cats.
As a bonus, the complimentary app will also track data on your pet and provide you with fun data charts on their hunting patterns (so, a kill count for cats).
If you sync Flappie with your kitty's microchip, it can also stop any other cats from sneaking in.
It will also take save photos and videos of your cat on their comings and goings, even at night. The comic potential is intriguing, and Flappie promises that the data isn't sent to any remote servers, so your cat's information is safely stored.
LG Signature OLED TV
One of the few products to come out of CES 2024 that doesn't have AI as a selling point, this TV nonetheless has a pretty cool USP: it's transparent.
Interior designers have previously had to come up with all kinds of workarounds to make a flatscreen television look chic in the home, from hanging them in frames to propping them on easels.
The Signature promises to be entirely inconspicuous when not in use, meaning it's 77-inch screen can blend into the background.
It comes set into a sleek unit that can also double as a room divider – and alert you to the fact that there's a TV there so you don't walk into it.
LG has also made it wireless, so there will be no unsightly cables cluttering up the place. When not watching your shows, you can toggle between a transparent and translucent display to project art or other graphics on it such as an animated fish tank.
Samsung Ballie
Another AI-powered home robot debuted in Vegas this year, the Ballie by Samsung.
Roughly spherical in shape and a pleasing canary-yellow, Ballie whizzes around your floor to greet you when you return home – even rolling out the welcome matt in the form of a message projected on the floor.
It plays music and can control the lights, with Samsung promising it will learn your habits and switch up its settings accordingly.
The projector function seems a little defunct on the floor, but if you prop it up on a table Ballie will project its video onto a wall or other vertical surface.
It also performs patrol and pet monitoring functions, and can answer phone calls.
Like the LG home robot, Ballie appears as though it will function best when the rest of your house is hooked up to the Internet of Things. Or, like the promo images, you can just have it play videos on the floor for your dog.
Philips Home Access Series 5000 Wi-Fi Palm Recognition Smart Deadbolt
The name tells you most of what you need to know here. This smart lock scans the entire palm, not just a fingerprint, something Philips claims is a "paradigm shift in home security".
It's not so much your palm that this device reads, but the vein pattern in said palm – something that is entirely unique to you and also, apparently much harder to replicate than a mere fingerprint.
It's also designed to be a seamless experience, with the lock detecting your palm as you reach for it and automatically sliding the deadbolt back if it recognises the user.
The wi-fi bit allows users to monitor all the smart deadbolts in their home via the Philips Home Access app, and it can also be linked up with virtual home assistants such as Amazon's Alexa or Google Assistant.
