Light Start: CES 2020 edition – a smart lipstick mixer, enormous Predator displays, Intel’s modular gaming PC and a restaurant robo-cat?
Marcé
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L’Oréal wants to personalise your makeup according to influencers’ style
Courtesy of L’Oréal
It’s not every day we get to write about skincare tech, but it’s definitely something to keep an eye on this year. At CES 2020, L’Oréal announced its Bluetooth-connected Perso gadget. It’s an AI mixer that’ll concoct personalised lipstick, foundation or a skincare regimen, depending on the model. The accompanying app is used to scan the face from a variety of angles, after which it prompts the Perso to mix a personalised foundation that’ll work well with your skin. Same goes for the skincare concoction (check out the video explanation here). Then, like many makeup apps out there, the app will double as an augmented reality try-on mirror, that’ll allow you to choose a lipstick colour after you’ve tried it on in AR. L’Oréal also told The Verge that it plans to like the app with your social media, which will allow it to mix up colours depending on the trends you follow. So basically, if Kylie Jenner creates a new lip colour you can just… make a copy using your Perso? Sounds about right.
Source: The Verge[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
You’ll definitely find a Predator display that fits your needs at CES this year… at a price
What is a consumer tech show without some ace gaming monitors? Acer announced its new line of Predator gaming displays this week at CES 2020, and there’s a display for every gaming need. It introduced a 1,440-nit HDR Predator X32, the 55in OLED CG552K and the 38in curved X38. The standout monitor is definitely the Predator X32, which looks like it’ll be the favourite for content creators and gamers. It’s a 32in 4K display with a peak brightness of 1,440 nits. This is made possible using the 1,152-zone mini LED backlight. This little LED delivers a much sharper image, boosting brightness in just the right spots to keep the contrast on point. So, it’s basically the closest you’ll get to OLED contrast without opting for an OLED panel. All the new displays feature a 144Hz refresh rate with G-Sync Ultimate (formerly G-Sync HDR) variable refresh support, and they come at a price. Although we don’t have official local pricing (or availability), the X32 will cost $3,600 (‘bout R52,000). The others are similarly priced and… we’re gonna have to test these out and see if they’re worth that hard-earned money.
PC builders rejoice! Intel’s modular gaming PC concept is adorable
Every year at CES, we see tech maniacs create tiny versions of things. This time. Intel revealed the tiny modular gaming PC called Ghost Canyon NUC. It’s a mini PC and its’ adorable, but Intel promises some top-of-the-range specs and upgradability. This little rig is designed to accommodate the best graphics cards, up to a Core i9 processor, and a “compute element for CPU upgrades.” The case itself will size in at just 5-litres, which is small by any gaming PC case standard. We are excited to see what capabilities Intel provides with the little NUC, especially when it comes to portability (are LANs still a thing) and upgradeability. If this turns out to be far more upgradeable in terms of component, it may make a dent in the gaming laptop market. Unfortunately, that’s all we know about the Ghost Canyon NUS at the moment as Intel hasn’t provided other official specs yet. It looks like you will be able to swap out everything from the CPU, GPU, memory, storage, to even ports with minimum effort. It also may take regular sized GPUs from Nvidia and AMD. If this is the case, sign us up.
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This restaurant robot cat meows at you while delivering your food. Wait, what?
To be honest, we’re not even surprised by the wacky robots that pitch up at CES anymore, and BellaBot is one of the coolest by far this year. The Chinese company, PuduTech, designs intelligent delivery robots for the service industry. This year they revealed BellaBot, an adorable delivery robot with the face of a cat. BellaBot features large four-layer trays that are used to deliver food to patrons in restaurants. The face is a display that proudly portrays a cute cat face. Upon delivery, Bellabot will meow at customers to remind them to take their food off its tray. It also uses the cat face to interact with people using facial expressions. Feature-wise it’s got precise positioning and navigation systems and optimal scheduling algorithms. But we really just care about the cute-aspect when it comes to BellaBot. We probably won’t see it roll out commercially anywhere outside Chine, so you’ll have to visit the country to be se4rved by robo-cats. According to a report by the BBC, patrons will be able to stroke BellaBot’s ears, after which it’ll react favourably. But if you keep it too long by stroking its ears for a while it’ll get upset. “It gets mad to remind you not to interrupt its job.”
