Bill & Phil Gadgets

BILL & PHIL’S GADGET OF THE MONTH By: Bill Ramsey

Neal & Harwell

By: Phil Hampton

THE COOLEST THINGS WE SAW AT CES 2023

The long drought is over. For over a decade now we have consistently made our way over to Las Vegas the first week of January each year to attend the world’s largest consumer electronics expo, CES. Due to the COVID pandemic, however, for the past three years, we have not been able to attend the show in person. Finally, as the calendar flipped to 2023, we packed our bags and headed out to Vegas for the first time in three years to witness what we like to call the “Super Bowl for Techies/ Nerds.” We can report that CES is back in all of its glory. The crowds were back this year and so were the exhibitors (for the most part). We saw inspiring tech, mind-blowing tech, useful tech, and (what shall we call it?) tech that we don’t know how they thought it up. So, fresh from our quick trip to Vegas, here are some of the coolest tech trends and gadgets we saw at CES 2023.

VR and AR headsets: We spent all year in 2022 talking about “Are You Ready for the Metaverse.” Apparently, the answer is “yes” from a whole host of companies racing to produce the best hardware to optimize our metaverse experience. Each year at CES, there seems to be some product that is just ubiquitous as you traverse the expansive exhibit halls. This year was the year of the VR/AR (Virtual Reality / Augmented Reality) headset. They were everywhere. HTC probably stole the most headlines with its new competitor to Meta’s Meta Quest Pro headset. HTC revealed the VIVE XR Elite which is a stand-alone headset (not tethered to a device) that can function as a complete VR headset or can be minimized to a more eyeglass-like form factor, which would make it a potential solution for AR applications. This dual functionality is indeed interesting since it is widely rumored that Apple is working on an AR glasses concept. It looks like the MetaWars are beginning; and that usually bodes well for consumers.

Not to be outdone, TCL revealed their RayNeo X2 AR glasses that, at first glance, could fool you into thinking they are just regular eyeglasses. TCL touts these lightweight AR glasses as being able to project a wide array of information right in front of your eyes from language translation to travel directions overlaying the landscape directly in front of you. The fact that hardware developers are seeking to minimize the bulk and obtrusiveness of VR/AR headsets is a positive development for a business-friendly metaverse. Sustainability and Electric Transportation: A clear overarching theme of most big technology companies at this year’s CES was “sustainability”. From electric cars, motorcycles, and boats to technology that actually seeks to clean the environment; companies worldwide are jumping on the sustainability bandwagon in a big way. One of our favorite examples is ICOMA’s Tatamel e-bike. A CES 2023 Innovation Award winner, the Tatamel is a curious looking electric “bike,” that is sort of a cross between a moped and a scooter. It has a top speed of 25 mph and about a 20-mile range on a full charge; so the use application is for intra-city or neighborhood transport only. But its function as an e-bike is only the starting point. The Tatamel folds down to the size of a briefcase; and its custom panels can be reconfigured to turn this “bike” into a desk or a TV panel. Riding a Tatamel is like riding your own personal transformer. Very cool indeed.

Health and Wellness: The health and wellness tech sector has just exploded. There are gadgets to monitor just about everything from your biorhythms and sleep cycles to how well you brush your teeth. Filed away in our “bizarre but intriguing” category this year was a new gadget from well-known French electronics company, Withings. We saw this device on the show floor; and we had to do a doubletake. Was this for real or a joke? It’s for real. The device is called “U-Scan” which sounds like a perfectly normal name for a health-related gadget until you learn that the ”U” in “U-Scan” does not stand for “You”; it stands for “Urine.” The U-Scan device looks like a flattened egg; and it is to be installed in your toilet bowl. When you do what you do in the toilet, the U-Scan device analyzes the urine and sends a full urinalysis report to your smartphone. Withings touts the U-Scan as a “hands-free connected home urine lab.” While its use might be hands-free; someone has to install the device in its designated spot. Bill and Phil will not be offering installation services to any of our colleagues or clients.

There were so many other gadgets, both useful and outrageous, that we saw during our 48 hours in Vegas. Over the course of this year, we hope to get our hands on a fair number of these tech innovations; and we will share our experience with these new products.

PRACTICE TIPS, continued from page 7

Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA)

For most employers, OSHA does not immediately come to mind when thinking about employee mental health. In many cases, however, employees claim that mental health issues are related to the job. OSHA has significant record keeping requirements and employers are generally required to record and report an employee’s mental illness if the mental illness is deemed work related.8

1 J. Edward Moreno, “Anxiety, PTSD Drive Rise in Mental Health Employment Bias Claims,” Daily Labor Report, April 11, 2022. 2 J. Edward Moreno, “Anxiety, PTSD Drive Rise in Mental Health Employment Bias Claims,” Daily Labor Report, April 11, 2022. 3 EEOC, Depression, PTSD, & Other Mental Health Conditions in the Workplace: Your Legal Rights (2016), http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/depression-ptsd-othermental-health-conditions-workplace-your-legal-rights 4 Id. 5 Id. 6 U.S. Dep’t of Labor, Fact Sheet #280: Mental Health Conditions and the FMLA, https:// www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/28o-mental-health 7 Id. 8 See 29 C.F.R. 1904.5(b)(2)(ix) (noting that “Mental illness will not be considered work-related unless the employee voluntarily provides the employer with an opinion from a physician or other licensed health care professional with appropriate training and experience (psychiatrist, psychologist, psychiatric nurse practitioner, etc.) stating that the employee has a mental illness that is work-related.).