The new, the exciting, and the confusing at CES Asia 2017

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CES Asia is a place of ideas, some fully formed, some that could go either way and some that are just half baked.

Still, it’s getting increasingly bigger year after year, and there are exciting gems to be found every year. These are some of the new and confusing things that caught my eye at CES Asia 2017.

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Monster’s Ravebox is both a Bluetooth speaker and a glittering disco ball. Lights pulsate in sync with your music, while a powered subwoofer lets out some deep bass. Monster says the Ravebox is good to go for 12 hours of play time.

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The bling! Also from Monster, the Diamondz (yes, with a ‘Z’) on-ears headphones is co-designed with songwriter JVP. Shiny.

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Made by Gowild Intelligent Technology, the Holoera is a 3D holographic AI companion. Amber can talk with you, answer your questions, and play music for you through the Holoera’s speakers. Apparently, it can even remember your responses and gauge your moods, if you’re rude to Amber she can get angry. The Holoera looks similar in concept to the Japanese Gatebox holographic companion, but both launched earlier this year around the same period.

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EverDisplay Optronics was showcasing its bendy AMOLED displays, including one that was continuously being bent without any distortion to its image. Why bendy displays? Think of the curves on the Samsung Galaxy S8, as well as flexible displays that could warp around building interiors.

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The Seed, from Hym Originals, is both a vinyl player for those who go old-school and a Bluetooth speaker for those who prefer modern technology.

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Cowa Robot, whose R1 robot suitcase was the darling of CES Asia 2016, is back again this year with a robot baby carrier that they say is “coming soon.” But are you sure you’d want to put your baby in an autonomous robot with wheels?

By the way, the R1 was supposed to ship by Q1 of this year, but according to a Cowarobot representative I talked to, it’s now targeted to be available by the middle of June worldwide, and by the end of June in China.

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VR headsets were everywhere. Everywhere. From big name companies to dubious looking headsets, a lot of people here are banking on VR to be the Next Big Thing.

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Hey, it’s a decapitated Optimus Prime. This intricately made bust from Camino International is based on Prime from the upcoming The Last Knight movie, and it sings tunes wirelessly via Bluetooth, while a pair of deathless eyes glows at you. There are smaller TLK Bluetooth Transformers heads as well, featuring Prime, Megatron, Bumblebee and Sqweeks.

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The Neutrogena light therapy mask uses the power of light to clean and heal your face. It may look like it’s blasting her face off with lasers in this photo, but I swear it didn’t look that freaky in real life.

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This demonstration from Haomaiyi (roughly translated as “sell clothes well”) lets you take a photo of your face and plant it on an interactive model to try clothes digitally. You can even change the shape of the model by dialing in your own height and weight. The models and clothes are photographed, so they look more realistic than similar simulators that use 3D models, but I’m not sure how well this will scale. Haomaiyi tells me that they’re rolling this out in some stores and that an app will be available soon.