I’m thrilled to announce TechCrunch Live is filming live and in real life at CES 2023. We’re filming on the first day of the show at 11:00. If you’re not attending CES, that’s fine. Just like every TechCrunch Live, the show will be streamed live on TechCrunch.com, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter Spaces — basically anywhere I can blast the show.

The mission remains the same despite the change of location: TechCrunch Live helps founders build better venture-backed business. I do this by hosting conversations with successful startup founders and their early investors and board members. We talk through pitch decks, fundraising strategies, and founder/investor relations. But for this show, I’m featuring a hardware company and investor. Because CES.

I hope you can come and hang out. We’re filming at Stagwell’s Content Studio, located at booth 60488, in the Grand Lobby of the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC). We’re right next to the Starbucks, I’m told.

TechCrunch has a team of writers attending CES, and we’d love to connect. Fill out this form, and we’ll reach out if your company is a good fit.

TechCrunch Live is filming at CES, and you’re invited! by Matt Burns originally published on TechCrunch

Be it virtual, in-person, or some mix of the two, CES is a beast. How could you keep up with all of the news flooding out of the show? You can’t, really. The big outlets each put a small army on CES coverage and only really scratch the surface.

With that in mind, and with CES 2022 now wrapped, we figured it was worthwhile to bring it all together in one neat little box — a recap of our top stories of the week, the trends we noticed, and some of our favorite bits. It’s by no means exhaustive, but it’ll give you a good sense of the show if you were too busy to pay attention in realtime.

The top stories:

We wrote up many, many, many news items from CES. Can’t read them all? Here’s some of the stuff that folks read and shared the most:

Image Credits: BMW

BMW shows off a color-changing car

It’s like something out of a sci-fi flick: push a button, and your car changes color. Based on E Ink tech along the same lines as a Kindle screen, it’ll only flip between black/white/shades of grey… but still — wow. Don’t go looking for a pre-order page, though… for now, it’s just a tech demo.

Image Credits: Nvidia

Nvidia launches the $249 GeForce RTX 3050

Between crypto miners, resellers, and chip shortages, good graphics cards are hard to come by right now — especially if you don’t want to pay a huge markup. So it makes sense that a great card meant to ship at a budget-friendly price would grab a lot of eyes… but will resellers just gobble up all of these ones, too?

Image Credits: Nvidia

Nvidia expands its GeForce Now game streaming ecosystem

Nvidia had a good bit of news around its game streaming service, GeForce Now: new games, free subscriptions for select AT&T customers, and plans to build it right into Samsung TVs.

Nvidia had quite the CES; while it didn’t break the top stories list, its announcement that it is opening up its Omniverse tech to more creators also pulled a ton of eyes.

Image Credits: Daan Tech

Meet Bob, a cute little dishwasher that saves water and zaps bacteria

Want a dishwasher, but dont have space and/or don’t want to deal with ripping out cabinets or installing water lines? Bob lives on your counter and you add the water with a pitcher. Plus you can use its water-free UV-C mode to disinfect things like phones, or keys, or other things that can’t get wet. Plus it’s hella cute.

Image Credits: Scanbo

How sweet is your blood? Scanbo gives an answer without poking holes in you

“How sweet is your blood?” writes Haje in a wonderfully-Haje headline. It’s early days, but AI company Scanbo is aiming to do glucose monitoring without the painful, exhausting, never-ending finger pricks

Image Credits: Sony

Sony gives first details on next-gen PS VR2 headset for PS5

We’ve known for a while that Sony has been working on a new VR headset for the PS5, but now we know a lot more… like that it’s called PS VR 2, has a much improved display, supports foveated rendering, and more.

Image Credits: GAF Energy

GAF Energy takes on Tesla’s Solar Roof

“GAF Energy, a division of the roofing giant, claims its new solar shingles are simple enough to install that no special equipment or knowledge is required, making home renewable energy that much more accessible.” writes Devin Coldewey.

Image Credits: Brian Heater

Power1 is an iPhone battery case with a spot for your AirPods

Ever wished you could just cram your AirPods right into your iPhone instead of carrying around an extra little widget? This case makes it happen. Brian Heater goes hands on with a prototype.

Image Credits: Hyundai

Spot goes into the metaverse

“By connecting robots to the metaverse, we will be able to move freely between both the real world and virtual reality,” says Hyundai Motor Group President Chang Song in a sentence that explodes my brain a little. Will traveling the planet — or, as Hyundai’s promo video suggests, Mars — in a robot avatar be a totally normal thing at some point?

Image Credits: Sony

Sony explores building electric cars

Sony has been experimenting with cars for a few years now, showing new prototypes at each of the last two CES. Now they’ve announced the formation of a new company, Sony Mobility Inc., just to figure out how to commercialize their EV efforts.

The Trends:

Schlage Encode Plus Smart WiFi Deadbolt

Why Matter Matters

Smart home devices can be great… once you get them up and running. But for most people, just figuring out what works together is a chore. A lot of the biggest tech companies (Apple, Amazon, Google, etc.) have banded together to build a protocol called Matter, and Christine Hall has a look at how those efforts are going so far

Image Credits: Yukai Engineering

Robots roll out

Are we close to having Rosie the robot roaming our homes? Or are we forever stuck with puck shaped robo-vacuums that eat our socks? In last weeks Actuator newsletter, Brian Heater gave us a look at where consumer robotics are today, and how it has moved forward over the years. Plus there’s a robot cat that nibbles on your finger for some reason?

Image Credits: Blink Charging

EV Chargers charge up

Electric vehicles tend to grab most of the headlines… but what about the boxes that you plug them into to give’m juice? There’s growing competition in the space, and Rebecca Bellan has the overview about what each team is doing differently.

Image Credits: Cake

E-Bikes and Scooters take charge

What’s left to build in the world of e-bikes and scooters? How can one fancy electric scooter differentiate itself from another? Our mobility team took us on a ride through all of the micro-vehicle news from the show.

Image Credits: wacomka (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

VR Simmers

Rather than any one headset or “killer app” making VR an overnight ubiquitous thing, its story so far has been one of incremental progression — and CES this year moved it a few more steps down the road.

Image Credits: Samsung

Metaverses metaversed the metaverse

Metaverse? Metaverse! “Metaverse” was by far the buzziest word at CES this year, even if a few companies’ use of the word was… questionable.

Image Credits: TP-Link

Gadgets galore

The organization behind CES might not want anyone to call it “Consumer Electronics Show” anymore (as it aims to broaden its scope to all of technology, not just the electronic bits) but there are still lots, and lots, and lots gizmos and gadgets to be found. Heater took a look at some of the most interesting ones.

BOCCO emo robot

Elder tech can help everyone

As much as we’d love to pretend otherwise, we all get old. Before we know it, we’ll have a generation of seniors that grew up from day one with the Internet always within reach. How can tech evolve to help older people live more comfortably? From robot companions to lightbulbs that might help detect falls, Catherine Shu rounded up the latest advancements in elder tech.

Our favorite bits:

We spent the last week with our heads buried in CES news — and, for much of the CES team, it was our 7th or 8th or zillionth time doing so. What stood out to us? Here’s some of the stuff we’re still thinking about.

John Deere’s self driving tractor

The average age of the American farmer is 57.5 years. Field work is backbreaking, intensive and increasingly difficult to staff. Farming is one of those roles that makes a lot of sense to automate, something John Deere has been working for several years to perfect. Available later this year in select U.S. Markets, the 8R finally brings full autonomy to the company’s popular tractor line, with a number of features currently in the works.

— Brian Heater

Mercedes-Benz’s Vision

This isn’t just a concept car that will never see the light of day. Mercedes tapped the expertise of its R&D department, Formula 1 and Formula E teams to develop advanced components for this concept that will show up in future models, starting in 2024.

Of note, they improved the energy density of the battery by making “significant progress” in the chemistry of the anodes, which has higher silicon content and advanced composition that allow it to hold considerably more energy than commonly used anodes. Translation: More range packed into a tinier package. Another item that will show up in 2024 includes ultra-thin roof panels that feed the battery system for some extra range.

— Kirsten Korosec

BMW’s color changing concept car

Will you be able to buy BMW’s color-shifting car any time soon? Probably not. Is it super practical? Nope! Who knows how much it’ll cost to replace a door panel when someone bumps this thing with a full grocery cart. But one thing I dearly miss about in-person CES is the absurd, “we made this mostly just to flex” aspect of it all, and this one fits squarely in that category.

—Greg Kumparak

The Labrador robot

We hear a lot about the promise of robotics, but the most useful robots for people aren’t going to look like us.

They’re going to be things like Labrador, which is essentially a mobile table. It’s intended for elderly  folks and those who may have trouble with everyday tasks, for example, carrying a plate and a drink from the kitchen to the dining room, or bringing the laundry hamper to the washer. With built-in voice controls you should be able to tell it “wait in the bedroom” or “come to me.” It’s the kind of thing that could make a lot of people’s lives easier, and something I hope we see more of in robotics.

— Devin Coldewey

Mui Lab’s “calm” smart home device

One of the more interesting smart home devices at CES was the Mui Labs Matter-ready “muiPlatform” that turns smart home devices into “calmer ones.”

The more devices we add to our home, the more we have cluttering up our furniture. Mui Labs lets you embrace a minimalist lifestyle while also enabling your Amazon Alexa to function more like a piece of art on your wall with a visual interface.

— Christine Hall

Bob

To me, some of the most interesting technologies at CES are about how we can use our limited resources better. With California being in perma-drought, Bob caught my eye.

Bob is a tiny dishwasher aimed at households of 1-2 people, and uses a lot less water than washing dishes by hand. It even has an UV mode to clean items without using any water at all.

— Haje Jan Kamps

It has somehow, inexplicably, impossibly been almost ten years since the original Oculus Rift hit Kickstarter.

A decade of development later, VR headsets have gotten better and better — but it’s safe to say, at this point, that VR’s adoption will be… gradual. If we’re all destined to end up with headsets (be they VR, AR, or some mix of the two) strapped to our faces, it’ll be less about one-big-thing* and more the result of a thousand tiny steps. A Beat Saber here; a Supernatural there. Incrementally better/lighter/faster headsets. Maybe folks get used to using headsets for training purposes at work. Maybe everyone suddenly agrees on what a metaverse is.

This bit-by-bit advancement held true this year at CES. There was plenty of VR/AR news, none of it earth shattering — but each another step in the progression.

(* the one potential meteor strike, of course, being if Apple does what it loves to do and swoops in late, drops its version, and turns the category on its head. That’s been the rumor for a while now.)

Lets recap the biggest VR/AR bits from the show.

Sony PS VR2

Image Credits: Sony

We’ve known for a while now that Sony has been working on a next-gen headset for the PlayStation 5, following up on the PS VR headset it released in 2016. But beyond a kind of light “We’re working on it!” announcement back in early 2021 and some details about the controllers a few months later, they hadn’t shared many specifics.

They’re still keeping some cards close, but they shared a few more details on what’s now officially known as the PS VR2. Such as:

• It’ll have a resolution of 2000×2040 per eye
• It’ll have a wider field of view than the first-gen headset, at 110 degrees vs 96.
• It’ll have a refresh rate of 90/120 Hz.
• It’ll be able to track the motion of your eyes, potentially allowing you to do stuff like highlight interface elements just by looking at them.
• It’ll support foveated rendering, which is a fancy way of saying it can use processing power more efficiently by prioritizing the rendering of whatever’s in the center of your vision.
• They’re building new controllers for it (pictured below) with finger detection and the PS5’s mind-bending adaptive triggers.

Image Credits: Sony

What’ll the headset look like? Unknown! When will it actually ship? TBD! But with the PS VR being one of the few headsets to even kind of rival the Oculus Meta Quest in terms of ease-of-use, it’s nice to see Sony continuing to build here.

HTC Vive wrist tracker

Image Credits: HTC Vive

What’s the best way to handle input in VR? Most of the popular headsets have settled on some sort of controller in each hand. What if you just make your hand the controller, instead?

Hand tracking isn’t a brand new idea, of course. Companies have come and gone with hand tracking as their primary focus.

But HTC’s approach here is a bit different. Instead of relying entirely on cameras, they’re hoping you’ll strap sensor-packed bands to each wrist to help the system track what the cameras can’t see — like when one hand is obscuring the other, or you’ve got your arm back behind you for a golf swing. The company also demonstrated the sensors working while attached to other objects, like ping pong paddles and a NERF gun.

The company says the sensors should start shipping later this year for $129. One catch? For now, at least, it’ll only work with HTC’s Vive Focus 3 headset.

Shiftall MeganeX

Image Credits: Shiftall

VR headsets have gotten a whole lot sleeker over the years, but they’re still pretty beefy. How much smaller can they really get, though?

Panasonic subsidiary Shiftall has been working on an “ultra-lightweight, ultra-high-resolution” headset called the Meganex. With speakers built into the frames and a 1.3″ (2560×2560) display for each eye, they end up looking more like a massive pair of steampunk sunglasses than a headset. While designed to be lightweight and foldable, don’t expect to move around too much in these ones — you’ll need to attach them to computer via USB-C to do the heavy graphical lifting.

Shiftall says these should ship this year for “less than $900.”

Microsoft partners with Qualcomm for AR chips

Image Credits: Qualcomm

Microsoft already uses Qualcomm chips for their HoloLens headsets, but the companies made things a bit more official this week. At Qualcomm’s keynote it was announced that the two will work together to develop chips built specifically for use in AR headsets, with said chips supporting each of their augmented reality development platforms (Microsoft Mesh and Snapdragon Spaces.)

Nvidia Omniverse

Image Credits: Nvida

It’s not flashy hardware, but it’s potentially important on the software side of things: Nvidia this week opened up Omniverse, its collection of tools for helping 3D content creators work together in real-time.

Writes Frederic Lardinois in his post on the news:

Omniverse is Nvidia’s platform for allowing creators, designers and engineers to collaboratively build virtual worlds. It’s the company’s platform that brings together design tools and assets from first- and third-party applications into a single hardware and software ecosystem. Until now, Omniverse and the various Nvidia tools that support it were in beta, but at CES today, the company took off the beta label and made Omniverse generally available to creators.

TCL’s AR Glasses

This one seems mostly like a concept for now, so… well, don’t fall in love just yet. But TV/phone/air conditioner maker TCL is dabbling in the AR glasses space, pitching something akin to Google Glass in a package that looks much more like a standard pair of specs. “Holographic optical waveguide technology” pushes visuals onto the lens and into your field of view, and their concept video above promises touch-based controls built into the frames.

Age-tech startups at this year’s CES demonstrated the potential breadth of the sector. If tech can help an older person live more comfortably, it can also help out a lot of other people. After all, the usefulness of things like mobility aids, health monitoring platforms and long-term financial planning aren’t limited to the elderly.

Yesterday, I covered the startups at AARP Innovation Labs’ virtual presentation, which ran the gamut from a financial literacy platform to a D2C startup creating products to address menopause.

Some of TechCrunch’s other coverage from this week included Labrador Systems’ Retriever, a robotic cart with a retractable tray system, shelves and optional fridge. Capable of carrying up to 25 pounds, Retriever assists people with limited mobility, and can deliver payloads like laundry, meals and other items around a house. It can be voice controlled via Alexa (the startup is backed by the Amazon Alexa Fund).

Sengled came out with a smart lightbulb capable of taking health readings, including heart rate, temperature and sleep tracking through radar sensing. While smart monitors aren’t a new idea, Sengled’s lightbulb is particularly unobtrusive. As our hardware editor Brian Heater noted, “it could have some potentially useful applications for eldercare, including fall detection.”

More tech giants are getting into the home health monitoring game, including LG, which announced that all of their 2021 and 2022 smart TVs will come with remote health platform Independa’s app installed. This means people will be able to use their LG TVs to have telemedicine appointments and get access to a pharmacy benefit plan.

Medical device startup Eargo launched its latest hearing aid, the Eargo 6. New features include Sound Adjust, a proprietary algorithm that automatically adjusts its settings so users don’t have to switch them manually and clarifies speech in noisy environments. It also includes Mask-Mode, an environmental offset that can be selected through Eargo’s app so users can hear people wearing masks more clearly.

Sensorscall unveiled update to its CareAlert remote monitoring app, which integrates with Apple Watch, Fitbit and other health tracking devices. Its new wellness dashboard allows family members and other caregivers to see trends in daily routines, sleep patterns, hygiene and kitchen usage. CareAlert was created by seniors who are aging-in-place (or continuing to live at home, often apart from other family).

BOCCO emo robot

BOCCO emo is one of the latest robot created for nursing homes. Developed by Yukai Engineering, the maker of plush robotic pillow Qoobo, Bocco emo is small enough to sit on a table and connects to medical IoT devices, monitoring patients’ vitals and alerting nurses about patients’ conditions. If a patient needs help, BOCCO emo will ‘talk’ to them until a nurse comes. It can also be used to update families about patients’ conditions. BOCCO emo has already undergone a trial program in Japan and is currently being used at hospitals in the country. The little robot uses “emo language,” which Yukai Engineering says means it is capable of understanding user’s speeches and emotions and responding accordingly with “sound effects, facial expressions and gestures.”

Startups that help enable independent living through the use of IoT sensors included Nodeus Solutions’ KoKoon, a network of small IoT sensors connected to mobile app for caregivers and family members. It’s algorithms learns a person’s habits, and informs caregivers if there are any changes in behavior.

Other startups that use a combination of IoT sensors, AI-based tech and mobile apps is Caregiver Smart Solutions, Unaide and Smart Macadam.

When young (or youngish) people think of age-tech, they may picture mostly clinical solutions—telemedicine platforms, for instance. Growing older, however, doesn’t just have a physical component. Isolation, for example, is a serious issue for elderly people, especially during the pandemic. And older people still have to manage their day-to-day routines and finances, not just plan estates and wills.

AARP Innovation Labs, the incubator program, highlights the many facets of aging in its CES’ virtual presentation with a roster of startups that were divided into five groups: community, clinic, wellness, financial services and housing.

The program included fintech startups because of the pandemic’s economic impact, focusing on three companies that “are helping aging populations better manage finances and budgets, and effectively plan for the future.” Originally created to teach kids and teenagers financial literacy, Goalsetter is expanding its reach to more people with savings and investment management tools. Genivity creates customized financial projections based on users’ health and lifestyle habits, medical conditions and retirement goals, showing them how many years they might need to work before retiring and and what point they may need extended care. Trust & Will, meanwhile, makes it easy for families to create guardianship plans, wills and trusts.

Isolation was a serious problem for older adults even before COVID-19 and the pandemic has made loneliness worse. AARP Innovation addresses that problem with its selection of “community” startups. While many people already rely on other video chat apps, Kinoo wants to tailor the experience for families with elderly relatives living away from them. It IoT toys for kids that let them play games and do projects with their grandparents and other family members through Kinoo’s app.

A tabletop console gaming system, Gameboard, also lets family members enjoy fun time, instead of just chat time, with one another. It hosts hundreds of games, including role-playing games. Beeyonder is a marketplace for live virtual expert-led tours around the world, and can help alleviate the boredom of staying at home while the pandemic drags on.

Many of the startups in AARP’s incubator focus on aging in place, or helping older people stay in their homes instead of moving into a care facility. Its “Housing” section included three companies focused on personal mobility. Camino Robotics is creating “e-rollators,” or smart walkers with features that help people walk over slopes and uneven surfaces, brake automatically when going downhill and folds into “compact mode” for navigating tight spaces. Braze Mobility says it can turn any wheelchair into a smart wheelchair with patent-pending blind spot sensors that warn about obstacles through lights, sounds and vibrations. Meanwhile, De Oro Devices’ NexStride, created for people with Parkinson’s, is a small device that can be attached to canes and walkers and uses audio and visual cues to help users overcome freezing episodes and go on longer walks.

Meanwhile, Tellus is a startup that helps people live on their own with small wall-mounted sensors that can track biometric data, including heart rate, breathing, sleep and falls, from up to five meters away, and sends alerts to caregivers and family members through an app.

In its wellness category, AARP Innovation presented three startups focused on overall health and well-being. These included Zibrio, which was also part of AARP’s CES line-up last year. Zibrio is a scale that not only measures weight, but also gauges a person’s balance and fall risk. The company says Zibrio’s balance scale can predict if you are at risk of falling within the next 12 months, and its app then gives personalized care recommendations. While many people track their nutrition and exercise with apps like MyFitnessPal or Noom, Mighty Health was developed specifically for people over 50 years old. It connects users with a health coach and features nutrition and workout plans created for older adults.

Mental wellbeing is also incredibly important. Ompractice was started to help people who “experience geographic, economic and inclusivity barriers” get access to health, wellness and mindfulness features by partnering with fitness studios and working with large organizations, including health systems, to make their services accessible to users.

Of course, improving healthcare and the delivery of health services for older adults is extremely important, especially in the United States with its fragmented healthcare system. Included under AARP Innovation’s “clinic” section, Folia Health is a health “individual operating system” that lets patients answer multiple choice questions each day, when are then reviewed by their providers to help with diagnostic and care plans. It can be used to manage several conditions and communicate with multiple care providers. Telemedicine startup Tembo, on the other hand, partners with senior care communities, enabling them to provide remote medical services to their residents or clients. Embleema was created to make pharmaceutical studies easier by making the evidence generation and regulatory review processes faster.

For individuals, the clinic section included two startups. MindMics are smart earbuds that analyze biometrics, including heartrate, and send them to an app. JoyLux specifically addresses menopause with a roster of products, including devices for pelvic floor exercises, lubricants, supplements and cooling pads.

It wouldn’t be CES season without at least a couple of offbeat robots showing up. Yukai Engineering, the maker of the Qoobo robotic cat tail pillow, has revealed a soft robot that nibbles on a user’s fingertip. The company hopes the “somewhat pleasing sensation” will brighten up your day.

Amagami Ham Ham has an algorithm called a “Hamgorithm” that selects one of two dozen nibbling patterns, so you’ll never be sure exactly what you’ll feel when you shove your digit into the robot’s maw. Yukai designed the patterns — which include Tasting Ham, Massaging Ham and Suction Ham — to replicate the feeling of a baby or pet nibbling on one’s finger.

Yukai Corporation

“Amagami” means “soft biting” and “ham” means “bite” in Japanese. Yukai based the look of the robot on a character from Liv Heart Corporation’s Nemu Nemu stuffed animal series. There’ll be a couple of finger-munching models to choose from: Yuzu (Calico Cat) and Kotaro (Shiba Inu).

“Most people like the nibbling sensation but know they need to teach their children or pets to stop it, because kids and animals will otherwise bite them with full force eventually,” said Yukai Engineering CMO Tsubasa Tominaga, who invented the robot at a hackathon earlier this year. “Amagami Ham Ham is a robot that frees humankind from the conundrum of whether ‘to pursue or not to pursue’ the forbidden pleasure.”

Pricing hasn’t been determined, but Yukai and Liv Heart plan to run a crowdfunding campaign in the spring. In the meantime, those braving CES can check out Amagami Ham Ham at the show, and perhaps leave Yukai’s booth with a slightly more tender finger.

Among the other devices Yukai will show off at CES is Bocco Emo. The company has updated the original Bocco robot to act as a smart medical device. Yukai says hospitals in Japan are using it to monitor patients’ vitals (via connected sensors like pulse oximeters and thermometers) and notify nurses about a patient’s condition.

During a pilot period, Bocco Emo was used to inform patients’ families about how they’re doing. It can also communicate with patients using sound effects, facial expressions and gestures while they wait for a nurse to arrive.

Goama (also known as Go Games) lets developers quickly integrate social games into their apps. Some of Goama’s clients have used it for promotional campaigns, while others rely on the platform, which introduces new games every week, to add a full-fledged gaming function to their app.

The startup, which recently took part in SOSV’s accelerator program, presented last week during CES at the Taiwan Tech Arena pavilion. The event is over, but Goama’s virtual booth is still up.

Some of Goama’s clients are “super apps,” or apps that offer several services and want to include games, too. To better serve super apps, Goama recently introduced a tournament model in addition to its subscription model for users.

[gallery columns="2" size="medium" ids="2097598,2097599"]

The startup says that integrating Goama’s platform can help apps grow brand awareness when people share their results or invite other players tournaments. It also increases user engagement, with players typically spending more than 16 minutes per session playing games. So far, the platform has a combined total of 2.5 million unique users.

The company currently focuses on Asia and Latin America, where mobile penetration is growing quickly, and works with more than 15 partners, including GCash and Rappi, to enable digital payments and communications. Its gaming platform’s user interface can be customized to match host apps and rewards can include points and other prizes that can be spent inside the app. Some companies that have used Goama include food delivery app FoodPanda, Snickers and money transfer app WavePay.

The COVID-19 pandemic shined a harsh spotlight on the challenges many elderly people face. Older adults are among the highest-risk groups for developing cases that need hospitalization and nursing homes were especially vulnerable to outbreaks. While dealing with COVID-19, the elderly have also faced many other problems, including the difficulty of accessing medical care for chronic conditions during lockdowns and isolation.

Many of these issues won’t go away after the pandemic. According to the United Nations, the global population of people 65 and over is growing faster than any other age group. At the same time, there is a critical shortage of caregivers, especially for elderly people who want to continue living at home instead of moving into nursing homes.

Tech can help in many ways: by helping caregivers (and reducing burnout), allowing seniors to perform health monitoring at home and creating tools to combat isolation. During CES, there were several “age-tech” presentations. One of the most notable was AARP Innovation Lab, the non-profit’s startup accelerator program. It presented nine companies at the virtual show.

Zibrio’s smart scale for assessing postural stability, or balance

One common theme among AARP’s group was tech that helps elderly people “age in place,” or stay in their homes or communities instead of moving into a nursing home. For example, Wheel Pad designs accessible home and work spaces that can be installed into existing structures and sites. Mighty Health is an app that pairs users with health coaches, certified trainers and personalized nutrition plans, while Zibrio, a scale that assesses users’ balance to predict if they are at risk for a fall, can also be incorporated into at-home routines.

Other startups from AARP Innovation Lab focus on helping caregivers, too. For example, FallCall Solutions’ creates Apple Watch apps that send alerts if a fall is detected and help family members check on users. Another app, called Ianacare, helps family members coordinate caregiving tasks and ask for support. End-of-life planning is one of the most emotionally difficult processes for families, and Cake, an “end-of-life platform” helps by providing tools for estate and health care planning, as well as resources to help relatives cope with caregiving issues and grief.

Other startups center on medical care. For people with chronic conditions, Folia Health helps monitor the progress of treatments. On the clinical side, Embleema’s software allows clinical investigators to share data and design studies, making pharmaceutical research more efficient.

Other noteworthy age-tech startups at CES included Nobi, a smart lamp that automatically turns on when users stand up and sends alerts to family members if they fall. Nobi can also be used in residences and nursing homes.

Caregiver Smart Solution’s app for caregivers to coordinate tasks

Caregiver Smart Solutions is a multi-faceted platform that makes it easier for seniors to stay at home with a machine learning-based app for early detection of potential health issues, fall sensors, monitors and emergency buttons. For people with incontinence, DFree, a wearable device, can reduce stress by monitoring how full their bladder is with an ultrasound sensor and keeping track of their average time between bathroom visits. It’s available for both consumers and health care facilities.

A diagram of companion robot Cutii’s features

For elderly people living in nursing homes, Rendever is a virtual reality platform that wants to help reduce isolation. It can be used with reminiscence therapy, which guides individuals with dementia through experiences that remind them of their pasts, and to allow virtual travel to landmarks. Cutii, a companion robot, also seeks to reduce loneliness. While companion robots have been a mainstay of CES for years, Cutii sets itself apart with entertainment like music, games and live events. It also has video call and night patrol features.

Tresl’s flagship product, e-commerce intelligence platform Segment Analytics, is designed to give small brands on Shopify access to the same kind of analytics larger online retailers have. Founded by former LinkedIn data scientists, Tresl is currently exhibiting at CES’ Taiwan Tech Arena.

Segments Analytics analyzes a Shopify store’s data and then automatically sorts visitors into more 30 pre-built customer segments based on their browsing habits, spending and how likely they are to make repeat purchases.

This means that brands can identify specific groups of shoppers and use Segments Analytics’ suggestions for targeted campaigns without spending too much on data analytics, marketing or user acquisition. For example, one of the segments the platform identifies are people who have made one purchase already, but are unlikely to buy again unless they are see an ad or promotion soon. Segments Analytics can be used for advertising across multiple channels, including email, Facebook and Google.

Tresl claims that brands using Segments Analytics have increased their clickthrough rates on abandoned cart flows (or reminders sent to customers who have unpurchased items) by 30% and grown sales by 40% month-over-month within one month of implementing the platform.

Segments Analytics is currently available through the Shopify App Store, with subscriptions starting from $79 a month.

3Drens’ IoT mobility management platform not only lets fleet operators track where their vehicles are, but also produces data that helps them make business decisions. The company began operating in Taiwan, where it is based, before expanding into Southeast Asia. Currently presenting at CES’ Taiwan Tech Arena, 3Drens is focused on the increased demand for logistics during COVID-19. For example, its tech can potentially be used to enable smaller e-commerce retailers to rent unused capacity on delivery vehicles from larger platforms.

The company’s clients also come from the vehicle rental, ride-hailing and food delivery sectors. Founded in 2017, one of 3rens’ first clients was a electric scooter company that mostly serves tourists. It installed 3Drens’ IoT box onto scooters to send alerts if scooters were potentially involved in accidents or if a user went over the time they had paid for. It also generated a heat map of where the scooters traveled the most often, so the company was able to make partnerships with popular venues and attractions.

3Drens’ platform can also help logistics services pick the right type of vehicle for a delivery, predict the best routes and assign new tasks for drivers on their way back after an order is fulfilled.

OFLO is a voice communication system designed to replace traditional walkie talkies. Its hardware is more compact and lightweight, with a bone conduction headset, and capable of covering unlimited distances and multiple channels. Created by Origami Labs, OFLO is also connected to software that features auto logging and productivity tools for teams who don’t have access to screens while they are working.

The startup, whose clients include property management company JLL and luxury hotel chain The Peninsula, is currently showcasing OFLO at CES’ Taiwan Tech Arena pavilion.

OFLO was created for the millions of frontline workers in health care, hospitality, security, manufacturing and other sectors who can’t sit in front of a computer or look down at mobile screens frequently. The walkie talkies many of them currently use cover only limited distances and have a single channel that is shared by multiple workers. OFLO’s advantages include letting users call specific co-workers and it is also cross-platform, so someone talking on a smartphone can call a person on a OFLO walkie talkie. Its software includes features like live chats, transcriptions, task management and GPS location.

A product shot of OFLO walkie talkie

OFLO is available on a subscription plan for $6 per user a month. Wong said its monthly recurring revenue is currently increasing 20% a month, with a target of $100,000 a month by the third quarter of 2021.

The system builds on Origami Labs’ other tech, including Orii, a voice-powered ring. Co-founder and chief executive officer Kevin Johan Wong told TechCrunch the company sees OFLO as “almost a screenless smartphone alternative.” One of the reasons Wong became interested in working on voice technology is because his father, Peter Wong, is a visually-impaired programmer who helped develop Microsoft’s accessibility tools.

“Our company’s mantra is to try to create devices that are equalizing, that allow people to interact with computers screenless-ly,” said the younger Wong.

Winnoz’s Haiim is designed to make collecting blood from fingertips easier, increasing the volume drawn so it can be used for more types of tests. The New Taipei City, Taiwan-based company’s vacuum-assisted device can collect up to 150 to 500 microliters of blood from a finger prick, depending on the person, in about two minutes.

Winnoz is currently presenting Haiim and eGGi, its molecular detection device that supports isothermal DNA/RNA amplification methods, at CES’ Taiwan Tech Arena pavilion, with the goal of finding new partners and investors.

Haiim was inspired by founder and chief executive officer Joses Hsiung’s childhood memories of watching his mother go into clinics for regular blood testing. Since his mother’s veins were hard to see, it often took multiple punctures for phlebotomists to draw enough blood. Eventually, her veins collapsed. Hsiung began working on the device to maximize the amount of blood that can be taken from finger pricks.

While finger blood draws are typically used for tests that require less than 10 microliters of blood, like glucose monitoring or cholesterol panel, Haiim can draw enough for ones that need a larger volume, potentially helping patients avoid venipuncture blood draws.

The device consists of two parts, the main unit and single-use cartridges that stores the blood until it is tested. Since many clinics and hospitals are understaffed, it is designed so personnel can start using it with less training than traditional blood collection methods. Haiim was approved by the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration in 2019 and is intended for use by health care organizations, clinics and hospitals.