by Dot Cannon

Shoes that can warm themselves up, and adjust to fit more comfortably?

These were just one innovation on display at CES 2016, during Monday’s Unveiled event in Las Vegas.

Creator Karim Oumnia drew on his engineering background to create “the world’s first smart shoe”.  These Digitsole shoes will be available in the U.S. this September.  They can calculate distance, adjust your insole for comfortable wear–and you can even tell them to heat up, through your smartphone, when your feet get cold!

  

Across the room, Uday Parshionikar was previewing his hands-free Smyle mouse, coming out this quarter.   “It works by tracking the motions of your face.  However, it comes alive only when you smile,” he explained.

Uday said his son originally came up with the concept, as a science fair project. “I really liked it, and thought…a lot of people could really benefit from it, so I decided to make it my full-time job, and I love it,” he said.

While the Smyle mouse is primarily targeted for users with disabilities, Uday said it can be used for a number of other applications, including gaming.

The Smyle mouse will be the first product for Uday’s company, Perceptive Devices™.  However, a number of new projects are in the planning stages.

“(Our software) can also be used in virtual-reality glasses…games, there are a lot of possibilities,” he said.

Nearby, The One Smart Piano represented a different kind of possibility.

On the market for about a month now, it’s designed to make learning the piano more fun and more accessible.

“It teaches you how to play with light-up keys,” said One Smart Piano Head of Growth Sandy Diao.  “So all you have to do is connect our piano to any of your mobile devices.  You download the app, and when you do that, you can actually access video lessons, light-up sheet music, and piano games.   And all of this makes learning piano a lot more fun.”

Designer Pandora Samios was inspired to create this imaginative tracker, Oliba, for kids’ favorite toys out of necessity.

“My nephew (lost) his cuddly toy and nobody could sleep for a week,” she explained.  Oliba, currently crowdfunding through Indiegogo, not only tracks a favorite stuffed animal but functions as a night light and tells stories!

Meanwhile, Keegan Shoutz was onsite with the consumer edition of Sphero ball droid robot BB-8™,  from Star Wars: The Force Awakens.  For CES 2016, Sphero’s premiering a new wearable technology piece: a wristband, called the Force Band, to control BB-8™ through gestures!

(BB-8™, and all Sphero robots, are controlled through a series of apps on a tablet or smartphone, so the new “Force Band” adds another dimension to the experience.)

“It kind of takes that notion of The Force and extends it that much further,” Keegan said.