Tech start-ups brought cutting-edge innovations to tackle daily challenges and create a more sustainable world at the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which wrapped up in Las Vegas on Friday.
The world's largest personal electronics show saw a huge boost in interest from startup innovators this year. Derek Chim, head of the startup ecosystem at Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation, said that they went from bringing 15 startups to the last edition of CES to 51 this year.
"When they come to the CES, after they talk to a lot of people from all sorts of industries, they start thinking about how to scale. They are not pitching a technology, they are pitching an innovation, solving problems at a bigger scale," said Chim.
Startup company Seekr won a CES Innovation Award for an AI-driven device and app that can describe the surroundings to the visually impaired.
"COVID happened and I was stuck in my home with my grandfather, who lost his eyesight due to age. And he was telling me, 'Turzo, you're an engineer, right? Help me make something that I can actually go around in my own home without having to ask you guys for help," said Turzo Bose, co-founder and CEO of Seekr.
AI is a huge part of the show that comes in all forms, including a micro-sized pendant that can track this wearers' emotions. The device listens to the wearer's voice to detect emotions and measures their heart rate and heartbeat variability to determine stress.
"You can know what events are causing you to generate this kind of emotion. It can help you live a better life," said Xie Zhiyuan, Chief Technology Officer of PieX.AI.
At the show, a cooler cyber portable air conditioner, worn on the neck, can lower temperature by 10 degrees Celsius.
Another technology at CES that scores high on "practicality" is a lightweight portable dishwasher called Bob.
"You fill it like a coffee machine and then you touch it like that. It opens, and you can put the daily dishes up to three people in the one basket, and then it cleans in only 20 minutes. So it's very fast and very eco-friendly because it uses only three liters of water," said Antoine Fichet, CEO of Daan Tech.
The AI-driven AquaSense 2 Ultra is equipped with 27 sensors and is capable of detecting debris-filled areas that need extra cleaning.
The Chinese company Beatbot has even used their tech to create this amphibious robot turtle to conduct scientific research.
"It can walk on land and swim in the water. It mimics the movements of a turtle as to not disrupt the natural ecosystems. It sends back real time data on water quality and pollution levels. It's able to scan the ocean, river, pond, floor and the surrounding areas to monitor for species biodiversity for conservation purposes," said Jordan Hart, senior account executive of Beatbot.
Reachy, a robot from French company Pollen Robotics, is skilled in manipulation. It also can be controlled remotely.
"It can turn doorknobs. It can very precisely put a card in a wallet. It can open a bottle. Things that we couldn't do with the first-generation robot," said Mirasha Samantaray, business development manager of Pollen Robotics.
Tech startups showcase array of creative AI, robotic solutions at CES
Tech startups showcase array of creative AI, robotic solutions at CES
