Best Tech for Business from CES Innovation Awards

While CES might have its roots in consumer electronics, walk the showroom or attend its panels and it will quickly become clear that there’s plenty to take in from a professional perspective.

Its Innovation Awards are no different. By their own description, they aim to honour “outstanding design and engineering in consumer technology products”. But if your interest in technology is purely business or professional, don’t let the consumer in that description stop you from browsing through this year’s winners.

If you understandably don’t have time to check out every product that has been honoured, and are just looking for a shortlist of products with professional or business applications, look no further.

Related reading: CES 2024: Business tech trends

AirFarm from Midbar

South Korean company Midbar won both Honoree and Best of Innovation awards for its AirFarm, an inflatable smartfarm module that can be installed virtually anywhere in less than half a day. It uses an astonishing 99% less water than conventional agriculture and 90% less than traditional hydroponic systems.

That’s not all: fertilizer usage is reduced by 60% and there’s no need to use pesticides at all. All this while enabling plants to grow 150% more efficiently than with other techniques.

For small agriculture businesses, this is a product that can have a real impact, both on the bottom line and on the environment. While its core market is individuals and small communities, this is a product with encouraging prospects, particularly in areas where there’s water scarcity or where it can be deployed strategically to cover off-season crops.

SiWx917 from Silicon Labs

Silicon Labs won an Honoree Award for its multipurpose, energy-efficient SoC (System-on-a-Chip). From a business perspective, it’s particularly attractive for local governments with a view to smart cities, healthcare and industrial purposes. It’s engineered for ultra-low power IoT wireless devices using Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Matter, and it shines when paired with devices that need long battery life.

Akidaia

French startup Akidaia bagged an Honoree Award for its access management solution. A simple and elegant product, it works offline anywhere with a power supply, meaning it can be deployed to a location regardless of connectivity.

Access management might not be a sexy topic, but it’s the kind of necessity that, when done wrong, is an absolute pain in the neck for everyone involved. For businesses, Akidaia’s solution means managing office spaces, industrial sites or temporary locations from anywhere, with just a mobile number needed to make it work.

It’s cheap, simple and scalable – all attributes that will likely help it continue to grow in popularity.

espresso 17 Pro from espresso Displays

The espresso 17 Pro from Australian company espresso Displays won an Honoree award in the Computer Peripherals & Accessories category. And well deserved, too, given how much innovation is packed into this portable monitor.

espresso Displays launched the much-awaited monitor back in October and it has been met with almost universal applause. Designed with professionals and creatives in mind, it boasts a 17.3in touchscreen that connects via USB, it’s capable of displaying 10-bit colour and 100% DCI-P3 colour range and it’s the company’s first 4K display.

Now the bad news. At around £1,300, this screen isn’t for everyone. But if you work in the creative industries, such as design or special effects, then it might be time to ask your IT department for an upgrade.

Snap from Xebec

Another recipient of an Honoree Award in the Computer Peripherals & Accessories category, the Snap monitor from Xebec makes the list for different reasons to the aforementioned espresso 17 Pro.

The portable 13in Full HD display monitor can attach to the sides of laptops with screens up to 17 inches. As the name suggests, it snaps to the sides, allowing for an extended laptop monitor on the go. Perfect for professionals working remotely or on the go, who still need the additional screen space for optimal productivity.

For more on the Snap, read the following from my colleague Barry Collins: Is your laptop screen big enough for work? CES doesn’t think so.

MiraLogic Workspace Intelligence System from Targus

Targus’ MiraLogic Workspace Intelligence System is technically a combination of hardware and software in an all-in-one solution. On the hardware front, this means office staples such as docking stations, power strips and sensors. And all at the top end in terms of quality.

On the software front, things get even more interesting, with Targus essentially offering IT departments a bird’s eye view of how office spaces are being used, including power consumption, occupancy rates and contact tracing.

It’s not the first time Targus’ MiraLogic bagged an award at CES, but with the company continuing to upgrade its hardware and software every year, it’s likely that it will find itself on the stage again. This year it received an Honoree award for Sustainability, Eco-Design & Smart Energy.

From a business perspective, any IT department would do well to consider Targus’ solutions for endpoint solutions and workspace management.

Wrinkless TriClarity nScreen from NAMI (Nano and Advanced Materials Institute)

We apologise for the brief interlude – we now resume our regular schedule highlighting fabulous screens from CES 2024.

There are many products that feel like they are out of science fiction at CES. No surprise there. The Wrinkless TriClarity nScreen (which needs a much shorter name, by the way), is one of those. Here’s a screen that can be collapsed to the size and shape of a book, yet when expanded, works as a 24in 2K display. Impressive. And as the name suggests, wrinkless.

While its main audience is certainly consumer-oriented, we think there might be a case for this monitor to work well in remote or extreme conditions, where portability and weight play a role. Professionals working on the go or remotely should consider this high-contrast display.

SmartHat from Proxgy

We had the pleasure of interviewing Proxgy at CES to talk about its smart helmet and we’re very happy to shortlist it in this list as well.

The India-based company is targeting a market of an estimated one billion workers worldwide, and with the kind of features it packs, it could well represent a meaningful work and life improvement for many. Not to mention, it could save lives in some of the world’s most dangerous industries.

The company won an Honoree award for Wearable Technologies. We suspect it won’t be the last.

Smart Crowd Technology from Vueron

In October 2022, the world witnessed a tragedy in Seoul, South Korea, that was all the more chilling for how avoidable and surprising it was. Repercussions are still unravelling from a crowd crush in the neighbourhood of Itaewon, with Seoul’s Chief Police charged only a few days ago.

It has also spurred calls for better crowd monitor solutions. While Vueron has been around since 2019, it recently launched the world’s first LiDAR-based solution for monitoring traffic in urban areas, a solution with the potential to help mitigate the chances of a disaster like that of Halloween 2022 happening again.

While smart cities are the obvious partners for it, businesses running large events of any kind (or venues with the potential to host substantial crowds) should consider crowd-monitoring solutions like Vueron’s.