CES 2019 highlights: Flying car, Wall TV, roll-up TV screens, 5G, blockchain technology and AI

Titi Mary Tran/Nguoi-Viet English

LAS VEGAS (NV) – If Disneyland is the place where dreams come true for children, the Consumer Electronics Show is the space where adults make their dreams a reality.

Visitors come to get inspired, connected and to improve their lives and build the future.

For 51 years, businesses and people around the world have gathered in Las Vegas to showcase their latest tech innovations and pioneering ideas, making CES the world’s largest exhibition of innovations and breakthrough technologies.

This year’s event, held Jan. 8-11 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, drew more than 4,500 exhibitors and 180,000 attendees to over 2.9 million square feet of exhibit space.

Here are a few highlights from CES 2019:

Flying car from Bell

CES houses one of the biggest car shows on the planet. Corporations such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Ford and Honda, as well as boat and tractor manufacturing companies, race to show off their latest technologies each year. (Toyota did not have a show last week.)

Automatic and self-driving vehicles with voice assistants have been on the fast track of development in recent years. However, the biggest buzz at the 2019 CES show in the automotive category wasn’t the car that drives on land, but rather the one that flies.

Known as the Bell Nexus Air Taxi, the six-rotor vehicle attracted a large group of observers.

Officials at Bell — formerly Bell Helicopter — said in Las Vegas that the Nexus there was a non-flying mock-up, but plans to build the real vehicle are underway at the company’s headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas, with flight testing expected to start in 2023.

The taxi’s power will be provided by a hybrid-electric propulsion system, with a gas turbine engine driving the electric rotors.

Samsung Wall-TV and LG roll-up TV screens
Improving customer experiences with in-home entertainment systems and visual technologies has been a goal for large companies such as Samsung and LG. This year, Samsung came to Las Vegas with a customized TV screen and modulators that are made-to-order.

Samsung calls its massive, 219-inch screen the Wall TV. It uses Micro LED, a technology that creates a brighter image while using less energy than current televisions.

There is no word yet on price or a release date.

Meanwhile, LG wowed attendees with a 65-inch 4K HDR television that rolls up and down from a cabinet with built-in speakers. The company didn’t say when the new TV will be released, or how much it will cost. But this year is possible, according to Forbes.

Imagine a whole house decorated with roll-up TV screens. You’re in another world.

5G ecosystem

Hans Vestberg, Verizon’s CEO, said “5G will change everything. It is a quantum leap from 4G, with eight currencies”: peak data rate, mobile data volume, connected devices, mobility, service deployment, energy efficiency, E2E latency and reliability.”

This technology marks the fifth generation of mobile telecommunications service, which will be faster and more reliable than previous incarnations. For example, 5G technology will enable a doctor to remotely perform a surgery across countries, or a drone pilot to control the device in Los Angeles while standing in Las Vegas.

The general population will use the technology via its cellphones. Samsung is expected to announce its 5G phone this year.

Blockchain technology

You’ve heard of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, but are you familiar with blockchain — the underlying technology that built cryptocurrencies?

Few people have a deep understanding of this concept, but imagine a world where you can own your own data and information, tokenize goods and services, and exchange them for other goods and services without a hiccup, exchange rate, sale taxes and/or fraudulent theft.

A company from Singapore showcased its first device built on blockchain technology to exchange goods and services in real time.

Artificial Intelligence

“Artificial Intelligence is real,” said Phu Hoang, an industry expert who founded the DataTorrent, a company that specializes in big data.

Here is AI at work: A machine initially is losing to a ping-pong player because it has no data on the movement of the player. As the game continues, the machine outplays the player because it has learned his techniques.

Forbes and CNN contributed to this report.