Geek News

Volkswagen's been talking about its intelligent co-pilot system for upcoming vehicles since last year's CES when it introduced Yui . So it's no surprise that this year it announced it's teaming up with NVIDIA to bring that plan to fruition. Both companies appeared on stage at NVIDIAs press event alongside the I.D. Buzz electric microbus for the announcement. The two companies said they would initially work on an "Intelligent Co-Pilot" system that will gather data from both in and outside the car. Throw in some gesture and natural language voice controls and then fuse all that with what the AI has learned about the driver and you got yourself a helpful AI assistant. So when the I.D. Buzz hits the market in 2022 expect it to ship with some sort of virtual co-pilot. Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2018. Source: NVIDIA via Engadget RSS Feed "http://ift.tt/2m7G7s1"

We've seen the rumors and speculation about an Apple TV, but it turns out NVIDIA beat them to the punch. At CES today, the company unveiled its "Big Format Gaming Displays," monstrous 65-inch 4K screens with a ton of embedded technology. That includes NVIDIA's own G-SYNC and built in Shield functionality, as well as 120Hz panels and low latency. And no, this isn't meant for your living room -- NVIDIA envisions people using them on their PC desks. Developing... Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2018. via Engadget RSS Feed "http://ift.tt/2qyXVl2"

For 2018, AMD is building on its major innovations from last year: its new Ryzen CPU architecture and Radeon Vega graphics. Indeed, Vega is so versatile even its main competitor, Intel, has tapped it for its upcoming high-performance laptop chips . At CES, AMD revealed the Radeon Vega Mobile GPU, a dedicated graphics offering that'll go toe-to-toe with NVIDIA's GTX 10-series. Additionally, it'll be bringing Vega graphics into upcoming Ryzen desktop chips, as well as a new machine learning product. While we don't know much about the Radeon Vega Mobile GPU yet, it's not exactly a surprising announcement. Gamers have been waiting eagerly to see when AMD's new graphics hardware would make it into high-powered laptops. In October, the company revealed that Vega was coming to its new Ryzen mobile processors. It was only a matter of time until it had a more powerful dedicated offering. AMD is also positioning it as something you'd find in ultrathin notebooks, a...

As the need for more powerful processors in the emerging self-driving and semi-autonomous car grows, NVIDIA is making sure it stays ahead of the trend. At CES, the GPU-building powerhouse unveiled the Xavier SOC for AI car systems the company announced at last year's CES . The Xavier has over 9 billion transistors with a custom 8-core CPU, a 512-core Volta GPU, an 8K HDR video processor, a deep-learning accelerator and new computer-vision accelerators. NVIDIA says the SOC can perform 30 trillion operations per second using only 30 watts of power. NVIDIA says that's 15 times more efficient than the previous architecture. Important for EVs where everything that pulls from the battery reduces vehicle range. All those huge numbers means that the Xavier can crunch more sensor and vehicle data for the AI systems that will power self-driving vehicles. That should make OEMs and ride-hailing companies working on autonomous cars very happy. Artificial intelligence is already processo...

French company Helite has been selling wearable airbags in some shape or form for many years. Typically, it's targeted bikers, horse riders, light aircraft pilots and other people with dangerous hobbies. This year at CES, it's pitching the Hip'Air, a 2.2-pound belt that detects when an elderly person is falling and deploys an airbag. A typical fall, a Helite spokesperson explained, takes 400 milliseconds. Using gyroscopes and accelerometers, the Hip'Air' can detect a fall within 200 milliseconds of it beginning. The belt will then begin to deploy its built-in airbag, which takes a further 80 milliseconds. Our managing editor Terrence O'Brien took a tumble for the greater good and the Hip'Air worked as advertised. It'll launch this March in Europe prior to a US release in September. At approximately $790 (plus $50 for each one-use gas canister), it's a lot of money to pay for peace of mind. Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 201...

Two years ago, at CES 2016, we found a pair of smart shoes that can be "laced" by simply tapping a virtual button on a smartphone app. Now, the company behind those sneakers, Zhor Tech, has brought its latest creation to CES 2018: a connected shoe insole. The device is loaded with sensors that count your steps, detect your fatigue levels, analyze your posture and detect any rough vibrations around you. Zhor Tech says that its Safety insole is designed for people who work in construction or other field jobs like that, as it helps them keep better track of their work activity. If someone slips, for instance, the insole can detect that and alert a manager or another supervisor. Of course, the whole system comes together in an app, where users can view detailed, real-time information and share it with other people. The same technology can be built into a shoe's midsole, according to Zhor Tech, but right now there are only plans to sell the insole to companies that make sa...

Patients with spinal cord injuries, according to assistive technology company Neofect, face three major challenges navigating their day to day lives: Opening and closing doors, brushing their teeth and picking up objects like a glass of water. For those who may be wheelchair bound with limited use of their hands, Neofect has developed a robotic glove that wraps around the palm as well as index and middle fingers. Called NeoMano ("new hand" in a Latin/Spanish amalgamation), the glove connects to a rubber pad that can be controlled with an elbow or arm to activate grip and release motions. The mechanism itself is straightforward: two wires run down the length of each finger and triggering the grip reels them in, allowing users to pick up objects up to about 1kg. Neofect says the lightweight glove is designed to be worn every day. Founded in 2010, the company formerly made the Rapael Smart Glove to assist hand-eye coordination in stroke rehabilitation. The prototype NeoMano ...

I know what you're thinking, and yes — these are some dorky-looking AR glasses. What they lack in style, however, they arguably make up for in battery life. The ThirdEye X1 packs two hot-swappable batteries with a combined 2400 mAh charge — more than any of its competitors, apparently. That means the glasses, which project a 90-inch virtual "screen" roughly 10 feet in front of you, can last all day provided you have plenty of fresh batteries. At CES 2018, I was able to put them on and get a brief glimpse of its AR capabilities — unfortunately, though, the team at the booth could summon little more than a misty loading screen. (Lame.) The team says its glasses are unique because it's developing both the hardware and software in parallel. They're meant primarily for enterprise customers — think engineers, doctors and teachers — who might need to wear them for long periods. The company says it could have potential as a consumer product too, however. A sports broa...

Mymanu's Clik+ headphones come with a big promise: live translation between 37 languages. We saw something similar recently from Google and Bragi , but both of those are operating as a middleman, serving up the audio with an app doing the heavy lifting. Let's be clear, Mymanu also uses an app for translation, but the Click is designed to bring us one step closer to the app-free translation device we really want. Prototypes of the Clik have been around for a while, but here at CES we were able to finally test it for ourselves. After a successful Indiegogo campaign last fall, the headset is poised to go into production, with an expected delivery date of March this year. When we asked how the translation worked, we were told that it's a combination of the app, the cloud, and when Clik is involved (the app is available on its own), there is a processor inside that improves the experience. We tested the service with one of our Chinese speaking editors, and she claims the t...

There's more to your eyesight than just whether or not you can see. Often, your vision can be a window to other health issues, like autism, Parkinson's and even whether you have a concussion. That's the idea behind RightEye's EyeQ system , which aims to revolutionize the optometrist office with eye-tracking tech to not only diagnose issues, but to offer therapeutic measures to correct them as well. At CES 2018, the company released a brand new all-in-one EyeQ terminal that incorporates a PC, a monitor as well as a Tobii eye-tracking camera that promises to do all of that and more. According to CEO and co-founder Adam Gross, EyeQ has already been in use in schools, certain clinics and hospitals, and is also in use by Major League Baseball to test their athletes. Aside from having a new terminal, RightEye is also introducing a slew of different EyeQ tests that can assess everything from Brain Health to whether or not you have autism. One particularly useful test is ca...

SureFire is laying the foundation for a post-Wi-Fi world. Its new platform, ARON, is a communications system designed to transmit real-world data via infrared light, allowing users to access an augmented reality view of their immediate surroundings. It's a lot like Google Lens -- but it doesn't rely on Wi-Fi, cellular data, geolocation or orientation tools. ARON stands for "augmented reality optical narrowcasting" and it's able to transmit any type of digital file format, including high-definition video and images, up to 400 meters during the day and 1,200 meters at night. The data travels on square beams of infrared light, creating a secure connection between the device -- whether a smartphone, car, computer or wearable -- and the sensor in the real world. Ditching Wi-Fi and data creates a secure connection, but it would also come in handy wherever internet connectivity is weak or nonexistent, and in the face of natural disasters, which typically wipe out Wi-...

Smartphones are great for getting you where you want to go. But when you're on two wheels, it can be tough to keep track of your progress. You either have to pull over, or attach your device to the handlebars. Velco's "Wink" smart handlebar solves that issue while also adding additional security to any bike it's attached too. The Wink handlebar uses lights adjacent to both grips that indicate which direction you need to go after the rider has created a path with the companion app. If the right light is illuminated, you turn right, if the left, you turn left. If both are illuminated, you go straight. It's turn-by-turn navigation without the non-stop barrage of notifications coming from your phone. But if you're someone that needs to be connected, the Wink will notify you when you receive a text message or call. On the security side, the handlebar is equipped with GPS and can be tracked in case your bike is stolen or more embarrassingly, you forgot wh...

A delicate balance must be struck when using action cameras, between capturing your adventures and keeping your hands free. But with Orbi's 360 degree camera glasses, you'll no longer have to choose. In development as a crowdfunding project since 2016, the Orbi Prime glasses are finally set to begin shipping, the company announced at CES in Las Vegas on Monday. The water-resistant frames hold a pair of HD cameras at each temple and can record up to an hour of 1080p video onto the onboard microSD card between chargings. The Orbi's associated mobile and desktop apps enable users to quickly edit and stitch together their recordings, though the glasses also offer built-in WiFi so that you can share these videos without having to first offload them to a PC. The Orbi Primes are expected to begin shipping to IndieGoGo backers around April, according to a company rep, and will retail for just over $400 once they do go on sale. Click here to catch up on the latest news from C...

For everyone but the journalists covering the show, CES is all about catching up on, and improving the quality of, your sleep. One company with an eye on getting you well-rested is Dreamlight, which is building an eye-mask that , so its founder claims, will help you get some more shut-eye. The chunky foam eye mask wraps around your head and is secured by velcro, with special inserts to ensure no light can peek in around your nose. Inside, however, are flexible circuits that house a quartet of speakers, infra-red sensors, an optical heart-rate monitor and LED panels in front of your eyes. It's comfortable, and the darkness that the eyemask offers is certainly better than the shades you can buy from a corner store. The LED panels are for the sleep program , and will gently blast you with 15 minutes of orange light in order to stimulate melatonin production. After that point, you'll be shut off from the outside world with the eyemask that'll keep you in a dreamlike state u...

It's no secret that not every Kickstarter or Indiegogo project becomes a reality. Often times, these ideas get crowdfunded but don't get turned into an actual product, but thankfully that wasn't the case for the Moodo smart air freshener . The project was funded on Indiegogo last year, and now Moodo is showing it off at CES 2018. It works exactly as advertised, letting you use your smartphone or tablet to select and activate different scents in your home, such as Orange Sunrise, Precious Spices, Grandma Vanilla and Midnight Trill. The Moodo box consists of four scented capsules, which you can mix and preset them to turn on via the companion app. If you're someone who likes to have scented candles in your home, this could be the perfect device for you. It's available now for $189 with 12 scented capsules, and each pack of four after that will cost you $29. Yes, using your phone to make your house smell good is kind of pricey. Click here to catch up on the late...

Aerating wine can dramatically improve the taste by just letting it sit in a glass or decanter for a while. However, sometimes you don't really want to wait an hour (or several hours) to have that first sip, so Aveine developed a gadget that nixes that wait time. With its $200 connected device of the same name, the company says it can offer up to 24 hours of aeration as you pour the wine. No more waiting until the perfect amount of time has elapsed to have a glass. The gadget attaches to a wine bottle and features a touch panel on the front for adjusting the aeration level and displaying the wine's temperature. There's a companion app that allows you to scan the label of your bottle so the software can provide a suggested aeration time. The company says that if the app's database doesn't recognize what you've scanned, you can manually add it. Based on a few questions, it will still give a suggestion for aeration -- even for those bottle you have to add yours...

Google is well-known for offering free bikes on campus to help its employees get around, but those bikes frequently don't stay on campus. Up to 250 go missing per week -- and that's rather ironic for a company that built its reputation on finding information . At last, though, the search giant is putting technology to work to solve the problem. Google has been adding GPS trackers to its bikes as of late 2017, and has been testing smart locks that employees can open with their phones. The company tells the Wall Street Journal that about a third of its bikes have GPS trackers so far, and they're offering insight into just how far the two-wheelers will go. While many tend to stay around Mountain View (some locals treat them like community rides), others have been taken as far as Alaska and Mexico. In many ways, the trackers and locks represent Google's ongoing loss of innocence . Free-to-ride campus bikes might have sounded great in Google's utopian early days,...

If you're not familiar with Coravin, the company makes wine openers that allow you to pour a glass without removing the cork. The devices pierce the cork with a thin needle that doesn't remove any material, so you can have some and then continue to cellar the bottle. So-called Coravin Capsules (similar to CO2 cartridges) filled with Argon gas push the wine out of the bottle and into your glass. At CES 2018 though, the company took its wares to a whole other level with the Model 11. Coravin calls it "the world's first fully connected and fully automated wine preservation opener." In addition to pouring wine like its other models, this unit syncs with the Coravin Moments app. With the added bit of software, you can keep tabs on how much gas is left and other valuable info. It also offers suggestions for a specific event or food pairing based on what you have in your cellar. As you might expect, it can also suggests wines that you make not already own, but that m...

We've seen Innomdle Lab's Sgnl wearable at CES a few times before, but it's worth revisiting because a) it's an absolutely crazy idea that works and b) it's very nearly ready for the masses. In case you missed it the first time around, the Sgnl is a sleek, understated wearable that lets you have full-blown private phone conversations by simply touching your finger to your ear. The wearable — which was originally developed as a concept for Samsung's delightfully nutty C-Lab — transmits sound through your handmeat as vibrations that eventually come out of your finger as sound. In theory, this sounds absurd. In practice, though, it actually seems to work as advertised. Even though Innomdle Lab's body conduction technology isn't specifically meant for music playback, a demo track streamed from a tablet via Bluetooth was piped into my wrist, up through my hand and came out surprisingly audible on through my finger. There's no way you'd want to l...

Massage is good for adults and great for babies, who use the stimulation to bond with their parents, calm down and work out their gas. It's why French startup Caressa is building My Lussya One, a massage oil heater and automatic dispenser that's designed to ensure that rubbing sessions are always a pleasure. The device has been created by Frenchman Sébastien Fauconnier, who was inspired to build it with his wife, a pediatric nurse. He wanted to craft a gadget that not only made massage time easier, but encouraged it simply because of all the positive benefits baby massage offers. Looking like a Henry Moore sculpture, users begin by placing their hands on the head-esque top dome, which is warm. Lifting up the head exposes two slots for massage lotion and aromatherapy oil capsules that look like slightly cuter Keurig pods. Once your hands are warm, you place them beneath the head, where up to three squirts of massage lotion are fired out, much like an automatic soap dispens...