The Consumer Electronics Show is part trade show, part science fair, and part toy store. It’s basically a giant nerd playground in the Las Vegas desert. Like most toy stores, the show is full of stuff that’s far too expensive and that you’ll never justify the cost of. But amid all the neat, if unnecessary, stuff out there, including way too many methods and tools to speak with your toilet and a whole host of gigantic TVs, there are a few things that save you space, save the environment, or save you money, and thus are likely to wind up in your house.
Here are the best highlights, with five products you’d actually get use out of.
LG’s Rollup TV
One of the big problems with giant TVs is that most of us don’t have a giant amount of space. LG, which has been working on a folding TV for years, has the solution: A giant 4K TV that rolls up like a newspaper and only displays as much screen as you actually need at any given time. So, if you’ve got friends over, you can roll out the TV for the Super Bowl, but if it’s just you on the couch, you can only roll out as much as you need to watch a widescreen movie.
A TV that tucks itself away is handy, no matter how big your house is, but for living in a small space, it may be indispensable. LG is currently looking for a company to take it out of the prototype stage, but considering that last year, they had an 18-inch version, seeing this at stores is likely just a matter of time.
ConnectSense In-Wall Outlet
One of the fundamental problems with smart homes is that installing smart outlets means giant, chunky pieces of plastic that eat up space. ConnectSense has solved that problem by managing to cram all the necessary bits into a standard sized wall outlet. That means both it’ll be easier to upgrade your place into a smart home, and also that you won’t have to shove around the furniture to do it.
This one is on the way. It’ll be out in the fall of 2018.
Heatworks Tetra
Washing dishes by hand costs a lot of water, and a dishwasher is a little more efficient, but not exactly eco-friendly. This countertop dishwasher is not only space efficient, as it only needs an electrical outlet to scrub those dishes, but it can hold two whole place settings and can hold enough detergent and water for several loads.
Okay, so the internet connection features feel a bit superfluous, but clean dishes for less water and less space is a bonus for everyone. It’ll be available in late 2018.
L’Oreal’s UV Sense
Skin cancer is the most common, and one of the most dangerous, cancers. And one of the big risk factors is exposure to ultraviolet light. Unfortunately, tracking that can be tough. Fortunately, a solution has come from an unlikely place: Cosmetics giant L’Oreal, which has teamed up with Northwestern University to create a health tracker that’s the size of your fingernail.
Stick it to your shoe, your shirt button, your necklace, or anything else that can measure the sun, and, running on solar power, it’ll help you measure your UV exposure. (And, of course, recommend L’Oreal products to buy, but looking at makeup ads is a small price to pay to not get melanoma.)
It’ll be available in a limited run in the US this summer, with a global launch next year.
Kohler’s Sensate Kitchen Faucet
This faucet has been around for a while, but there’s an upgrade that’s fascinating. Now you can request from the faucet the exact amount of water that you need, instead of winging it for recipes or dishes, and the faucet also tracks how much water you’re using. Considering that water conservation is going to be one of the future’s biggest challenges, a faucet that only doles out the water you need and calls you out for being wasteful might soon be obligatory.
It’s also definitely happening: It’ll be available sometime in 2018.
Got a favorite gadget from CES? Let us know in the comments!