by Julia Pierrepont III, Tan Jingjing
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- Amongst the vast array of products the globe's largest consumer electronics show has teed up this year, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is doing its bit to take on COVID-19 by showcasing a variety of products that help mitigate the spread of the virus.
These products run the category gamut from health & wellness and wearable tech all the way to smart home appliances.
At the top of the list is the winner of the CES 2021 Innovation Award in robotics, Hills Engineering/Hanseo University's Coro-Bot of South Korea, a universal anti-virus disinfection robot featuring an air circulator designed to sterilize airborne coronavirus and other viruses with UV-C light in a far-infrared ceramic filter that reaches 200 degrees Celsius.
It comes equipped with a flexible H-Arm, a V-Arm and an articulated robot arm to cover uneven surfaces and is driven by a host of intelligent robot management software systems that include autonomous driving collision prevention algorithms, energy harvesting technology, smart care systems, damage inspection systems, and robot management system.
It will be competing against another new UV-C market innovators, like, California's Deep Light Photonics' anti-virus UV-C state-of the-art disinfecting system and the Targus UV-C LED Desktop Disinfection Lamp.
Two Honoree products featured at CES this year that approach disinfecting from a different angle are Kensington Computer Products UVStand Monitor Stand, Paker's Aalok UVC Shield Box and ZEISS UVClean by Carl Zeiss Vision.
The UVStand Monitor Stand features a UV-C disinfection compartment that can sanitize keyboards, cellphones, mice and other small devices in one go while doubling as handy storage.
The Aalok box, also from South Korea, is a practical, contactless sterilization box that uses UVC LEDs and can be placed anywhere, while the ZEISS UVClean, geared toward professionals, is a UVC Germicidal chamber specifically developed to disinfect eyeglasses for eye care professionals.
Another twist on UV-C disinfection is Oblio by Lexon, a Qi-certified wireless charging station that charges and cleans the user's smartphone screen and kills 99.9 percent of germs in 20 minutes.
An interesting development to help implement COVID-19 prevention protocols in the workplace is CES 2021 Honoree product Airthings' Virus Risk Indicator, which provides the digital interface for Airthings' Wave Plus Smart Indoor Air Quality Monitor, their flagship product for businesses.
Using Wave Plus data and a proprietary algorithm, the Virus Risk Indicator monitors CO2, temperature, humidity, and airborne pollutants and calculates the risk level of virus transmission in an enclosed space. According to the company, the Virus Risk Indicator "evaluates four factors that correlate with airborne virus spread: virus survival rate, body's natural defense, room occupancy, and ventilation rate."
In the wearable tech arena, BioButton, a CES 2021 Best of Innovation award-winner, is a medical grade device and data service from BioIntelliSense, a California-based manufacturer.
The size of a button, BioButton is disposable wearable tech that continuously measures temperature, heart rate and respiratory rate at rest and analyzes statistical changes that may indicate COVID-19 symptoms. The company touted it as "a scalable health screening and contact tracing solution ... that enables safe return to work, school, travel, conferences and entertainment."
Smart home technology companies are helping the public's move toward more touchless environments, including Moen's Smart Faucet from Canada that has added voice activation to its faucets allowing users to avoid potentially dangerous contact with surfaces that normally are touched by multiple users. Through the Moen app, the Smart Faucet also enables users to track their water usage and consumption patterns.
San Jose, California-based Arlo Technologies' Arlo Touchless Video Doorbell, which also won this year's innovation award of CES, is a proximity-sensing front door monitoring security solution that alerts homeowners as visitors approach without having to touch the doorbell to ring it.
Though not specifically designed for COVID-19 sufferers, another innovation award winner Bulo by Breathings may have applications in that arena. It is the world's first device that suggests customized breathing exercises for users by measuring and analyzing their lung capacity, lung endurance and lung muscles using an IoT device and a Smart Mobile App.
Even the beauty and cosmetics arena fielded a COVID-safe beauty device. Formularity by Seoul-based Amorepacific is the first at-home beauty device that dilutes an ampoule to a single dose of toner based on the user's skin condition and hygienically dispenses it on a sterile, single-use cotton pad that has been cooled to the user's optimum temperature.
With COVID-19 primed to remain a part of our lives for another year or so, these innovative new products are sure to find grateful consumers. Enditem
