CES 2024: $3200 toilet seat you can talk to and other wild products at world’s biggest tech show

The world’s biggest tech show opens this week and big brands dominate – but it's a toilet seat and a robot that plays with your dog that are raising eyebrows.

If you thought the biggest things in new technology were transparent TVs and AI enabled fridges, think again. What about a $3200 toilet seat you can talk to?

Or a robot that will play fetch with you dog? Or maybe what you really want is a machine that will, Star Trek style, turn you into a hologram and transport you to a city far, far away?

The world’s largest tech show kicks off this week in Las Vegas with big names, like LG and Samsung, Sony and Hisense serving up all manner of new and advanced products they hope Aussie consumers will froth over.

Called CES 2024, the show features 4000 exhibitors and 130,000 people are expected to head to it – that’s the equivalent of the population of Darwin all arriving at once on the Las Vegas Convention Centre.

But some of the most wild and weird inventions are on the sidelines of CES at its “Unveiled” event.

Think about prams and even barbecues with AI inside.

People arrive for the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) Unveiled on January 7, 2024, in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Frederic J. BROWN / AFP)

$3200 toilet seat

But surely a highlight is the PureWash E930 bidet seat from high-end bathroom and kitchen firm Kohler.

Part of its “smart toilet” range, this is the first dunny you can converse with. Well, at least tell it what to do.

The PureWash is touted as being able to “bring you the freshness of personal cleaning in a slim, low profile design”.

It connects up with Amazon Echo or Google Home devices allowing you to instruct the toilet to do all manner of fancy things while you are perched upon it.

With the Kohler PureWash E930 you can literally talk sh*t to your dunny.

It can mist the bowl prior to your derrière descending, warm the seat, turn a light on to illuminate the bowl (because why not see what’s going on down there?), adjust the water temperature and the power of the bidet spray.

Your new toilet friend will set you back $US2146 ($A3200).

The Withings BeamO does a four step health check up without body contact.

No contact health check up

Remaining with the loo theme, last year French firm Withings made quite the stir with its U-Scan device that you can actually put in the toilet and urinate on. It analyses your insides and can send the results to you doctor.

This year Withings has come to CES with a slightly less arresting but perhaps more obviously practical product called BeamO.

This little gadget claims to be able to do a complete health check-up in one minute mostly without any contact with the skin.

Just by pointing it at the body it can measure body temperature, blood oxygenation, track your heartbeat and act as a stethoscope.

And it’s one of the most reasonably priced new gizmos at CES, coming it at just $370.

The ORo robot claims to be able to play fetch with your pooch.

Robot dog companion

Robots are no strangers at CES and now there’s one for those canine owners who just can’t be bothered to play fetch.

ORo from Ogmen Robotics is an “intelligent companion for dogs”.

The makers say the ORo can initiate activities with your dog, detect anxiety and then play soothing music, automatically feed Fido, check you pooch’s vitals and send you a video of how your pet is faring through the day.

But the most eye-opening ability of ORo, the basic version of which costs about $1000, is it can eject tennis balls out of a hole in its robot stomach and play fetch with your pet.

The danger is your dog will decide a robot, not you, is its best friend.

The Holoconnects Holobox creates a 3D hologram that can be transported to anywhere in the world. Picture: Benedict Brook/news.com.au.

Be in two places at once

Dutch firm Holoconnects reckons it can transport you across time and space and have you interact with people as if you were really there – like a very advanced Zoom video call.

You set up a camera in one place and a three dimensional whole body hologram is created in the so-called Holobox, which could be located anywhere in the world.

The company says early customers are hotel chains.

It could mean, for instance, you check into a hotel in one part of Australia and find the receptionist is a hologram in the immersive Holobox.

The receptionist might actually be in another state but they could talk to you, guide you to the keys and answer real time queries.

Holograms are not cheap however with the full kit, from the box to the filming equipment, costing around $75k.

The Motion Pillow can stop you snoring before you even start.

Pillow that stops you snoring – before you even started

Traditionally the solution to a snoring partner has been to give the snorer a shove, or alternatively to kick them to the couch.

Company 10Minds reckons it has solved this relationship darkening dilemma with the Motion Pillow.

The pillow is filled with air pockets while a speaker is able to pick up the sound of the sleeper snoring and respond by inflating or deflating the air pockets to reduce snoring.

It’s been out for a few years, but in 2024 it’s now introduced a “vital ring” which the user wears and it measures oxygen saturation levels. If oxygen saturation goes too low the pillow adjusts before the snoring even starts.

Motion Pillows retail from about $1000.

The reporter travelled to CES with the assistance of LG.

Originally published as CES 2024: $3200 toilet seat you can talk to and other wild products at world’s biggest tech show