Last week we returned from the world’s largest Consumer Electronics Show. There’s honestly nothing quite like it.

One hundred and fifteen thousand visitors from 140 countries walked 2.2MM sq. ft. of display space that housed 3,200 exhibits and experienced some exciting (and a few head-scratching) innovations. CES is so much more than a consumer gadget show and provides a showcase of the best in accessibility, audio visual, connected home, transportation, robots, gaming and mobile technology.

While we will add another blog post in the next few weeks that speaks to the future trends we saw at the show, here are few worth calling out:

1. Battery-powered tech that will change your home.

Not only is the LG exhibit the most visually stunning of the show, this year they debuted the world’s first fully wireless TV.

While no one loves wires, imagine living in a condo that’s filled with glass and you have limited or curved interior walls to mount a TV. Thanks to LG, you can soon mount a fully wireless 4K onto your window (or wall or whatever flat surface you desire) using vacuum loop vacuum technology. It’s only 20 pounds and powered by 4 batteries that provide 180 hours of viewing between charges (that is 6 hours per day for 30 days).

Called the LG Displace, it also includes an integrated 4K camera that you can use at home for Zoom meetings. Should you not want to use the remote, the camera will follow your hand gestures (a.k.a., Minority Report) to switch between screens and adjust the volume with the flick of your wrist. Very clever and one of the Best of CES.

2. Innovation doesn’t have to be complicated.

The most novel innovations are also the most straightforward, and for anyone who has driven an electric vehicle in the winter, they understand that cold weather diminishes battery range by as much as 30 percent. Turning up the heat inside the cabin further drains the battery, so in the tradition of heated seats and heated steering wheels, global supplier ZF unveiled a heated seat belt at CES.

'Heat Belts’ include small wires woven directly into the belt structure that conduct heat and allow the driver and passenger to gain a source of warmth and comfort while minimizing the impact on EV range. Unlike an internal combustion engine where you simply turn up the heat, reducing the amount of battery current used to heat the vehicle interior enables a range gain of as much as 15 percent. “It's so simple that when you think about it, it's pretty amazing it took until 2022 to come up with it,” said Martin Fischer, a member of ZF's management board at CES.

3. One of the cooler devices that you’ll actually use:

The shape-shifting Lenovo Yogabook 9i comes equipped with dual 13” rotating displays that come on a hinge and is accompanied by a digital keyboard (just like how you type on your iPhone) or a detachable wireless keyboard and wireless pen.

This video will give you a feel for just how cool it is. If you want to see the coolest feature, fast-forward to the 2:12s mark in the video to check out the waterfall mode, which allows for a very cool above and below the fold website experience.

4. The definition of Personal Mobility keeps expanding.

When we were last at CES in 2019, there were tons of personal mobility solutions, namely electric scooters and electric bikes.

This year the French company AtmosGear debuted a rather unexpected piece of personal mobility: the world’s first electric inline skates. Enabling you to get up to 32km/h, you carry the battery in a pack around your waist that is attached to wires that down the inside of each pant leg and connects to an electric motor in the centre wheel of each three-wheeled skate. You can use the skates sans-power, or with an electric boost you can glide for just over 30 km.

Speaking of electrified mobility, as e-bikes get faster, safety becomes an issue so Bosch debuted their newest lineup of antilock braking systems for e-bikes outfitted with the company’s electric drivetrains. The new system uses speed sensors built into the hydraulic brake hardware that measure how fast the specially enhanced brake rotors are spinning, and then determine what amount of stopping force needs to be applied to bring you safely to a halt.

5. Technology to drive food security.

While farmers represent just 2% of the North American population, the security of the food we eat made national headlines with the invasion of Ukraine and the ripples it made globally on wheat crops and in our local grocery aisle.

While at CES, we attended a forum about how technology could be a force for good and solve 40 percent of the world’s insecurity issues through technology. That theme continued as we walked the show floor and encountered the massive 120-foot-wide robotics-based fertilizer system in the John Deere booth — a brand before CES I would not have defined as innovative.

It had 36 cameras, all pointed straight down looking for weeds. When a camera spots a weed, the hoses that run the length of the boom give the weed a blast of herbicide that is just enough to do the job as the tractor rolls autonomously down the field. Not only does the farmer use less herbicide, but it records the precise volume of spray used and plots the differences on an AI learning, computer-based map. On top of that, they have pioneered technology that enables a farm tractor to harvest within millimetres of the next crop row using sensors, cameras and AI all paired to ultra-fast processors. Now that’s a clever use of technology for good.

6. A few things you did not know you needed.

• The RAM 1500 Revolution BEV Concept that enables you to wirelessly stream a movie outdoors while camping or on your garage door.
• OVR Technology for your Virtual Reality headset, which delivers 8 essential smells so that you can literally smell all the virtual roses.
• Never miss a visit from your feathered friends with the Bird Buddy Smart Camera Bird Feeder.
• Want to get a better grasp on your diet? You’ll want the U-SCAN thermal sensor in your toilet. It will pick up all the body chemistry that your other wearables never will.
• Worried about a family member being alone and want to ensure they have a companion that also keeps an eye on them? Get them a pet bot.

7. And when you TRULY need to make a statement.

There were many autonomous transportation showcases from brands like Cenntro, Alphabet/Google owned Waymo, Amazon owned Zoox, and even the INDY Autonomous Challenge at Las Vegas Speedway.

But no one showcased anything quite like the Italdesign Climb-E. This pod transports you on the open road, and upon arriving at your building, your Climb-E transport pod affixes to the exterior. Thanks to a partnership with Schindler elevators, you are whisked you up to your floor. When it gets there, your pod slides horizontally to your condo/apartment, the door opens and you walk in — like a rock star.

Best Press Conference:

Who doesn’t love Arnold, especially when he helps you launch a product like the BMW i Vision Dee.

Things we really don’t need:

Sports scores delivered to the media bar on the bumper of the new Afeela — which is a collaboration from SONY, Honda and Qualcomm.

And for the explorers:

Should you want to spend a day in space (and make zero carbon footprint doing it), check out Space Perspective. Your seat deposit will cost $1,000. The 6-hour ride to space from Kennedy Space Station when your number gets called in a few years will cost just an additional $124,000.

Reach out at any point if you want to discuss the latest from CES, or begin a conversation.