Each year at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, amid countless remarkable people and tech products, a small number of truly innovative creations stand out — ones with genuine potential to shape how we live.
At Imaginar, we’re passionate about new technology and its impact on creativity. As John Lasseter said, “The art challenges the technology, and the technology inspires the art.” With that spirit, we walked the bustling CES 2020 show floor to bring you our five favourite finds — after a quick honourable mention.
On the show floor, Targus showcased a forthcoming backpack alongside an augmented reality shopping app we helped build, both drawing strong attention. The Cyprus EcoSmart backpack is engineered with sustainability in mind: it uses material from 26 recycled water bottles, lowering reliance on petroleum-based inputs. It also features a side phone pocket that acts as a charger, letting you keep your device powered on the move without carrying separate portable chargers. As they did at last year’s IFA, Targus demonstrated their AR experience created in partnership with our sister company, “Immersive Studio.” You can learn more about that project here.
Sony keeps pushing filmmaking forward, and their latest from Sony Innovation Studios is no exception: a virtual film set. Picture a black-box studio where, instead of building physical scenery, you project pre-recorded imagery — live-action plates or CGI — onto the space to create environments that look real on camera. The result appears seamless and lifelike thanks to Sony’s Atom technology, which reads camera position and lighting cues to dynamically adjust projection perspective as the camera moves. The aim is to give productions with limited budgets — or those needing locations that are impractical or impossible to shoot — a powerful, flexible alternative to on-location or fully constructed sets.
In an era defined by AI, social platforms, and instant connectivity, telling the real from the simulated is increasingly difficult. Backed in part by Samsung, the startup Star Labs has introduced Neon — its bid to create “artificial humans.” Still in its early days, Neon is a fully virtual entity that puts a face on AI. While Neons are inspired by real people, they are not — and cannot be — exact replicas of any individual. Looking ahead, a Neon might check you into a hotel or serve as the on-screen chauffeur in your self-driving car. Whatever the application, the future potential is compelling.
Most VR headsets today are bulky, awkward, and uncomfortable over long sessions. Panasonic wants to change that with what it says is the world’s first 4K, high dynamic range virtual reality glasses. Still an unnamed prototype, the device is closer to a pair of eyeglasses than a traditional headset, delivers distortion-free HDR visuals, and includes built-in hi‑fi earbuds. As faster networks like 5G reduce streaming delays and buffering, this sleek form factor could be a genuine game changer in the rapidly evolving VR space.
Staying with virtual reality and the push for deeper immersion, Teslasuit has introduced haptic VR gloves that look like something out of Ready Player One or Minority Report. While they certainly have sci‑fi flair, they’re primarily aimed at professional use in engineering, medicine, and architecture.
The gloves combine multiple technologies to simulate the sensation of touching and gripping virtual objects. They also track hand motion and capture biometrics such as pulse, along with other data. When used together with the full Teslasuit, they enable complete body tracking within a VR environment.
We’re excited to see where this goes — especially how it plays with creative tools like Tilt Brush and games like Dreams — and how it pushes forward the creation of art and content inside virtual reality.
For our final pick, we’re shifting to augmented reality — related to the VR headsets mentioned earlier, but distinct in purpose. AR is quickly advancing, particularly in retail and advertising, yet most experiences remain locked to smartphones, each with its own hardware limits. Nreal aims to break that mold. The company drew major attention at CES by releasing developer kits, and the device itself isn’t a phone or a bulky headset — it’s a true pair of glasses. Built on an Android Snapdragon platform, it projects AR onto two 1080p micro displays that act as the lenses. With 6-DoF tracking and speakers integrated into the frame, it could transform how we view and interact with AR content. Having developed several AR apps for retail, we’ve seen the potential first-hand — and we’re genuinely excited.
Those are our highlights from this year’s CES. The pace of progress is accelerating, and we’re excited to see how these technologies weave into daily life — and how they’ll shape the way we at Imaginar design the experiences you watch and interact with.
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