Tech that helps people outshone overhyped AI at CES 2026

Another Consumer Electronics Show has rolled through Las Vegas, and this year vendors scrawled “AI-enabled” on all the kit they hope will find its way into your home – while airbrushing away its immaturity and downsides. Attendees could therefore hear vendors spruik AI toothbrushes and AI toilets and promise to turn snapshots …

[Yorick Hunt]

ES

The "C" component of it disappeared years ago, when it simply became a mutual backpacking orgy 'tween industry "leaders" and faux journalist "yes" men.

[Anonymous Coward]

Headlines.

I notice that this year, some things capturing the headlines are doing so because they don't have AI.

[David 132]

Re: Headlines.

There’s a definite sense, isn’t there, that the hype machine is going off the boil.

Glory be. About time.

[Neil Barnes]

SeeHaptic

I believe something along those lines was predicted by SF in the sixties - Fred Pohl's 'Years of the City' comes to mind, but I'm not certain. I am very pleased that something with this much use is now available. One of these (each) for the designers and the team --->

[that one in the corner]

Re: SeeHaptic

BBC "Tomorrow's World" demonstrated* a working system that sounds exactly like this, with the exception that the input was coming from a normal camera. The use of a depth imager does sound much more functional.

* I have no idea when, but the memory "feels" like late 70s to early 80s. Would love to know if anyone has an archive of the episode contents.

[Bebu sa Ware]

Disappointed…

I came here looking for the "AI toothbrush that sends their gums to the cloud."

Would make an ideal gift for quite a few people I know who are already wallowing in the cesspit of AI daftness..

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Disappointed…

I've been using an Oral-B io10 with "A.I. position detection that tracks where you brush across all 3 surfaces of your teeth" since July 2023. I don't know whether you'd class it as true AI (it doesn't learn), but it does tell you which teeth you are cleaning and ensures you clean them for the recommended time, and my dentist has commented on how this is visible at check-ups.

[Bebu sa Ware]

tech can be more than just privacy invading, soul destroying, and enshittified experiences.

perhaps, but unfortunately the ROI won't be as spectacular so those who have a rational requirement for the tech are doomed to sit in a public square, on a steaming pile of shit and bereft of a soul. Unaccountably many amongst the polloi mistake this for their moment in the shit sun.

[Doctor Syntax]

Vera Rubin

Does she sing covers of Vera Lynn songs?

[spold]

Re: Vera Rubin

I knew her sister Vicky.

[Will Godfrey]

Assisting the vision impaired

I've had a a fair bit of contact with those with various sight issues. Many of them work out ingenious solutions for themselves, but this sort of development could be a great help to them.

P.S. I've had minor sight problems myself.

[Bill Gray]

Dyslexic assistance

"...Lili Screen, the product of breakthrough French research on the cause of dyslexia, adds a variable flicker to a normal-looking LCD display."

Sounds interesting. Quite a while back, I read a bit about how Comic Sans, much derided by font cognoscenti, is actually quite helpful to dyslexics. Among other things, the fact that b/d and p/q aren't exact mirror images of each other was thought to very helpful. (Other fonts, some specifically designed with dyslexia in mind, were also mentioned... although it appears opinions are mixed as to whether they actually help.)

It caused me to wonder if there might be other minor tweaks that would make text more "readable" for dyslexics. I'd not thought about adding flicker. (I'm not dyslexic myself, but my wife works at times with kids with a variety of reading issues. Some of these kids are way behind their peers academically, and probably wouldn't be if the text could just make its way from page or screen into brain.)

The Lili site linked in the Fine Article is short on details of how this works. Still, kudos to them for giving it a try.

[tiggity]

Re: Dyslexic assistance

@Bill Gray

No idea about the flicker side of things, but some simple paper based solutions were used in schools.

Not sure how well it would work with the relatively high glare of a screen, but (in addition to font selection) using different paper colour for printed text that had to be read often helps dyslexics, it was commonly used in schools (not sure if it still is as stopped being a school governor when child left the school). It was not a one size fits all fix, some kids responded better to certain colours / shades than others, so a lot of trial & error was needed (but once optimum colour found it was recorded on the child's record) .

It was sub optimal (not a scenario of colour printers and printing selected background, but various different colours of A4 paper were stocked) - wheraes on a screen a lot more control over the colour (but , as stated earlier, a lot more glare than matt paper!)

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Dyslexic assistance

Yeah, LeFloch and Ropars (Rennes) say flickering helps reduce fixation and hence improves reading (cognitive aspects; cf. also their earlier paper), but Lubineau et al. (Paris Sud) then go like, no, it don't work, and then Kodochian (Lexilens) goes like, yes it does ... The jury may still be out on this then iiuc.

But it's worth a shot imho, even if it works for just a few kids, even subjectively ... ;)

[Anonymous Coward]

introducing flicker to a screen to help dyslexic people, An interesting idea. As dyslexia is often linked to perceptual issues, I can see this being a complete and utter nightmare to use. Of course I'd like to try one and be proved wrong, but I can't see it being comfortable at all.

[spold]

"I can see this being a complete and utter nightmare to use"

Yes, and unfortunately many can't understand the user manual.

[Anonymous Coward]

Washing up?

We already have a robot to wash dishes, it's called a Dishwasher. Now they are demoing robots that can load your dirty dishes into the dishwasher and when they are clean, it will remove them and stack them on your shelf. This leads me to one question that has been unaddressed in these demos:

Can the robot wash its hands?

[cd]

Thank you for the alternative and more interesting take. Good info...