The Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which takes place in January every year, provides an opportunity for innovators from across the globe to showcase their products and introduce futuristic technologies that can solve human challenges and make the world a better, safer place to live.
Technologies that enable accessibility and inclusivity have been one of the areas of focus at past CES events, and this year was no different. At CES 2023, companies from around the world exhibited innovative products that can improve the lives of people with disabilities and help them become more independent.
Here is a selection of some of the new and promising assistive tech-based products that were unveiled at CES 2023.
eSight Go from eSight
The eSight Go smart glasses are designed for people with low vision. These glasses contain a built-in high-speed, high-definition camera and two high-resolution OLED screens – one for each eye. The camera captures all the images the user looks at, optimizes and enhances the footage, and projects it onto the two screens in real-time.
Lightweight and comfortable to wear, the eSight Go glasses are designed for 100% mobility retention and do not impact the range of the user's peripheral vision. Users can adjust the color and contrast settings on the OLED screens for an optimal experience at school, work, or home.
Project Leonardo from Sony
Project Leonardo is a highly innovative, customizable controller kit for PlayStation 5. It’s designed to address the issues that gamers with disabilities (particularly those with limited motor control) often face, including difficulty positioning their thumbs and fingers on the controller, difficulty pressing small buttons, and difficulty holding the controller for long periods.
The kit contains several analog stick caps and buttons in different shapes and sizes and features an expanded area of pressure points. Players can set any button to any supported function and even map more than one function to the same button. They can create and customize various control layouts and figure out the ideal configuration for their range of motion.
My-own-voice from Acapela Group
My-own-voice is a voice synthesizing tool designed to address the needs of people with voice impairments and people who are suffering from conditions that can lead to loss of their voice. The tool allows people to preserve their voice by creating a synthetic version of their voice.
The tool incorporates Deep Neural Network technology to create digital copies of people’s voices. Users only need to record 50 sentences – which takes approximately ten minutes – to create a synthesized version of their voice. My-own-voice is extremely easy to use and supports 30 languages, including English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Dutch.
Relumino Mode from Samsung
Relumino is an assistive system designed to enhance the viewing experience of people with limited or low vision. The feature incorporates intuitive camera technology that can highlight outlines, adjust brightness and contrast, enhance colors, and sharpen the content for a better and more comfortable TV-viewing experience.
The Relumino technology is already available for certain Samsung Galaxy phones and Samsung Gear virtual reality devices. Samsung stated that it will be available on its Neo QLED 8K and 4K TVs later this year.
HAPTA from L’Oreal
HAPTA is a computerized lipstick application tool for people with limited fine motor skills. It incorporates stabilization technology and has built-in smart motion controls that can improve the user’s mobility and range of motion to help them apply lipstick easily and precisely. The tool has customizable attachments and boasts 360 degrees of motion and 180 degrees of flexion to make it easier for people with disabilities to apply lipstick in minutes.
Users can customize the features to their liking and save their preferences. L’Oreal says the tool can be helpful for those who are suffering from Parkinson’s and other diseases that cause loss of balance, stiffness, and tremors.
In addition to HAPTA, L’Oreal also released an electronic eyebrow printer called Brow Magic, both of which won awards for inclusive beauty tech at CES 2023.
Putting Accessible and Assistive Technologies in the Global Spotlight
With over 3,000 exhibitors and 115,000 attendees, CES 2023 was an impactful international platform for companies to exhibit their accessibility- and inclusivity-based innovations. As more innovators try to modify and expand their product ranges to address the needs of people with disabilities, there is no doubt that we can expect to see more such solutions go mainstream in the coming years.
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