Every year some of the most exciting and innovative technological developments go on show at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Over 180,000 people attend the show, with 4,500 exhibitors from 150 countries. Of course, as the start-up nation, there are always a number of companies there from Israel. There were no less than 22 Israeli companies in attendance this year and they impressed across a number of fields.
One of the fields best represented by Israel this year was automotive technology, in particular in the area of self-driving cars. The company Innoviz was there showing off their LiDAR system. The system sends out pulsed laser beam to monitor a car’s surroundings. The company received a pre-CES Innovation Award and BMW is integrating the technology into their autonomous cards due to be launched in 2021. Another company in the field was Vayavision, which produces the ‘brain’ for the sensors from companies such as Innoviz. The technology is designed to reduce false alarms and missed detections, last year it raised $8 million in funding.
Another area well represented by Israel was drone technology. The company Flytrex is looking to be a leader using drones to carry out deliveries. It produces software that allows operators to set pick up and drop off points, and see information about weather, topography, and other drones that may be in the area. The service is already operating at the King’s Walk Golf Course in North Dakota, where it is used to deliver food and drink to golfers on demand. It is also being used in Iceland where AHA uses the software to drop deliveries in customer’s gardens in Reykjavik.
There were many other areas of technology represented by Israeli companies. For instance Lumen, a personalised nutrition device that measures users’ metabolism by analysing their breath. The product has various sensors that will do things such as measure the breakdown of fat, carbohydrates and proteins and send the results to a smartphone app.
It is well known that Israel is a leader in the field of water and the company Watergen was displaying their GENNY device. This is a home and office water generator that uses ambient air to extract and produce between 25 and 30 litres of water each day. It costs just $0.02 to make a litre of water with GENNY and the company was named a “Best of Innovation” nominee in CES’ “Tech for a Better World” category.
On your gap year you will have to do your own laundry and one company you may be interested in is Foldimate. They produce a robotic laundry folding machine and it is expected that the robot will go on sale later this year. All you have to do is put your clothes in the top of the machine and they will come out neat and folded.
There were many other Israeli companies at CES showcasing a huge range of exciting technologies. You may come across some of these in your gap year, and if you are really lucky, you may even be able to intern at a company set to feature in CES 2020.
