By Ariel Grossman, NoCamels -
Startups wow the crowds at world’s biggest consumer tech event.
Startups from Israel showcased entertainment innovations including “Scented Movies” and “Simon Says on steroids” at CES Las Vegas, the world’s most influential tech event.
They were among 23 companies at the Israel pavilion for the four-day Consumer Electronics Show, which attracted over 100,000 visitors. It was the first fully in-person event since the Covid pandemic.
Here are just four of the ideas that could change the way we view entertainment and recreation.
Scented movies, video games, and shopping:
Startup iRomaScents is adding an extra sense to the movie experience – smell.
Imagine you’re watching a movie in the cinema, and you can actually smell the pine needles being crushed beneath a soldier’s boots as he flees through a forest. Or, imagine you’re traversing an old dungeon in a video game and a musty odor fills your nostrils.
iRomaScents believes that it can elevate the experience of TV, movies, and video games with the added dimension of scent. Its device, which looks like a regular humidifier, contains up to 45 different scents that can be released on demand.
Directors can add them to movies or commercials, just like a regular video editor would add music to a scene.
They simply select the aroma they want, drag it onto the timeline, and it will automatically be triggered at that point in the movie. The device holds a refillable store of 5,000 “whiffs”.
“Visitors were so excited from our iRomaScents device and the different applications,” said Co-founder and CEO Avner Gal.
“Those who experienced our retail application were amazed about the ease of use, and immediate result they get, leading them to the most suitable product.”
The company says in the future it aims to provide perfume shoppers with sample fragrances online.
Next-generation dice, Rubik’s cubes, and chess sets
From binge-worthy Netflix shows to video games with stunning graphics, entertainment is shifting to an almost entirely digital medium – and board games are quickly becoming a thing of the past.
Particula has combined the two, blending the online and offline worlds with its smart-connected dice, Rubik’s cube, and chess set.
Its electronic dice connects with a companion app, turning a tablet into an interactive board game with tons of games for the family, games for adults, and educational games.
“It is our goal to empower kids especially to enjoy games away from screens through the medium of smart-connected toys,” said Udi Dor, Co-founder and CEO.
Each dice is equipped with 3D sensors, wireless connectivity, a colorful light system. It needs just 10 seconds of charge for two hours of gameplay.
Its smart cube connects to any mobile device and tracks the player’s moves in real time, and its companion app has a battle mode to compete with friends or strangers, and participate in live competitions.
Train your reflexes with “Simon Says on steroids”
Improve your workout – and brain processing power – with a fitness accessory reminiscent of the children’s game Simon Says.
BlazePod is paving the way for fun, competitive and cognitive exercises with light-up pods attached to suction cups. The small LED pods blink on and off in eight colors according to pre-set patterns to guide the user’s flash reflex training routine.
Users can attach the pods to a punching bag, then punch them when they flash green, or kick them when they flash red. It can also bring a fun element of competition to workouts, as athletes try to smack their respective pods as many times as they can in 60 seconds – all while doing core-strengthening planks.
“My mission in creating BlazePod was to motivate, educate, and inspire the world to think quicker and perform better by offering a revolutionary training experience,” said Yaniv Shneiderman, the company’s Founder and CEO.
He says using BlazePods during workouts can improve agility, balance, coordination, reaction time, and strength.
Grow your own vegetables with an “indoor wine cooler”
Many of us dream of growing our own vegetable garden, but find our crops wilting from too much or too little sun and rain.
The AgwaGarden – which looks like an indoor wine cooler – guarantees amateur gardeners perfect crops every time.
It’s powered by artificial intelligence to grow vegetables more predictably and more consistently than anything planted in the field.
Three cameras and an array of sensors collect data twice a day to adjust the temperature, humidity, light and water levels for all the plants. And because it’s a closed system, there’s no need for pesticides.
The indoor gardener simply places capsules of their desired vegetable into empty slots, refills the machine with water as necessary and harvests the veg within three or four weeks, as instructed by notifications sent to their smartphone.
The AgwaGarden can grow up to 60 plants at once, including eight varieties of lettuce, greens like kale, chard, arugula, and bok choy, and a variety of herbs and spices.
“We monitor your plants twice a day remotely, and collect all of this data to our cloud service, which is today based on human agronomists’ knowledge and AI. That’s the only way to get consistent quality and yield,” says Gal Wollach, CEO of AgwaFarm.
