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AI companions, hidden speakers, bird-spotting binoculars and sideways-driving cars shine at annual tech show in Las Vegas

the next year in technology is to be dominated by upgrades for everything from catflaps to binoculars to cars, devices that disappear in your home including transparent televisions, plus a new era of spatial computing brought in by some very expensive goggles. 

Those are the predictions from the annual CES tech show in Las Vegas that drew to a close this week.

Unlike previous years, the event was not dominated by the big technology and car firms but rather a record-breaking 1,400 startups displaying their prototypes in hopes of catching the eyes of consumers and investors alike. 

Despite myriad promises to the contrary, many of these novel gadgets may never make it to the shops. But all of them show how technology is progressing and give a glimpse of what’s next.

After many years of showing prototype see-through displays, LG is finally turning one into a television.

The Signature OLED T is a 77in (196cm) transparent TV that looks like a sheet of glass. A black film can be raised at the push of a button to block out what’s behind the TV for movie night.

LG said it would ship the TV this year, but would not confirm a price, which is expected to be in the multiple thousands of dollars. 

South Korean rival Samsung also had transparent microLED panels on show but only in prototype form, plus a different kind of disappearing tech with its new Music Frame that hides a speaker behind a painting, similar to

Ikea and Sonos’s Symfonisk frame speaker from 2021.   Meanwhile, the new GL.iNet Marble hides the necessary but unsightly internet router in plain sight.

The Marble hides behind a photo frame that you can place on your desk or the wall, beaming your broadband around the home without standing out.

The appropriately named Swiss startup Flappie has an AI-powered catflap that can detect if your furry friend is trying to bring some unfortunate prey into the house.

If the camera spots a mouse in the cat’s mouth it blocks the door until your feline friend drops it.

Thereis an app so you can remotely control the catflap and track your pet’s comings and goings. It costs 449 Swiss francs (£414) and ships in the spring. 

AI also found its way into a set of binoculars that can identify more than 9,000 species of birds when pointed at them. The £3,820 ($4,799) Swarovski Optic AX Visio has an integrated 13MP camera that can shoot HD videos too. 

The Rabbit R1 AI companion device The Rabbit R1 AI companion device. Photograph: Rabbit Inc One of the most intriguing gadgets was the Rabbit r1:

a $199 orange rectangle with a screen, camera and a scroll wheel that can control your phone remotely to take the tedium out of your doom-scrolling.

Rabbit says its AI understands how apps and websites work so you can command it to buy something, order a taxi or edit a photo and it will do it for you, including launching the right app and pressing all the right buttons. You can even teach it how you do things so it can repeat the process hands-free.