Category: Technology

CES is known for splashy TV and laptop launches, but in 2025, there were more than a few companies trying to make waves with robot vacuums, too. After years where it seemed like vacuuming, mopping, and self-emptying might be the peak of a robot vacuum’s abilities, this year’s show introduced home robots with whole new functionality — and appendages.

Here’s the robot vacuums that caught our eye at CES 2025, many of which you could invite to clean your living room later this year.

Roborock Saros Z70

Roborock’s flagship vacuum for 2025 is the Roborock Saros Z70, a circular robot vacuum on the outside, that hides a retractable “OmniGrip” arm that can pick up and move objects on the inside. The arm is capable of five axis movement and is only able to carry around 300 grams, which makes it better at moving clothes and cables than anything truly heavy. Roborock claims the Saros Z70’s precision sensors, LEDs, and camera will be able to identify 108 objects that it can move or avoid, with the ability to learn up to 50 custom objects, too. 

The only missing pieces are a price and launch date. Roborock plans to start selling the Roborock Saros Z70 later this year, but hasn’t shared what the price of the new robot will be. It might turn out that a robot arms don’t come cheap.

Dreame X50 Ultra

Dreame is one of Roborock’s rivals, and it had its own new flagship robot vacuum at CES. Rather than an arm, the Dreame X50 Ultra has tiny wheeled legs for climbing (admittedly shallow) stairs. Dreame calls the feature its “ProLeap System” and it currently says that the X50 Ultra can handle stairs that are 6cm (around 2.4 inches) tall. That’s a lot shorter than the average household stairs, but it does still mean Dreame’s robot vacuum can reach places competitors can’t.

The Dreame X50 Ultra is available to be reserved now for $39, which locks you in to a lower $1310 price and secures a longer warranty and free accessories. The robot vacuum will officially go on sale on February 4 for $1700.

Eufy E20

Robot vacuums are convenient, but they’re not yet great at reaching every corner of your home, which usually means you have to also own some kind of handheld vacuum. The Eufy E20 could eliminate that two-vacuum conundrum. It’s a 3-in-1 robot vacuum that you can program to clean your house on its own, or pop out its vacuum component and use as a stick or handheld vacuum for hard to reach spots.

The goal is owning one vacuum that can adapt to all of your needs, while still offering the benefits of a robot vacuum, like a base station for automatically dumping debris. It seems like Eufy might have pulled it off, and at a relatively affordable price, too. The Eufy 3-in-1 E20 Vacuum will be available on February 10 and start at $550, with all of its accessories included.

Switchbot K20+ Pro

Swithcbot is known for smart home accessories like robotic curtain movers and button pushers, but the company has also been offering its own affordable robot vacuum for the last few years. The Switchbot K20+ Pro is its latest model, but also a whole new way to combine the Switchbot products you might already own.

The K20+ Pro looks a bit like normal robot vacuum, just with a rolling platform mounted on top. It can hold up to 18 lbs and you can connect Switchbot’s air purifier, security camera or fan to the top and get a vacuum that doubles as a more of a general home robot. Switchbot says it’s also designed to be easy to mod if you want to create your own weird attachment to go on top. The K20+ Pro is definitely equal parts goofy and clever, but it still has plenty of unknowns. There’s no price or launch date beyond later this year. Switchbot plans to sell the K20+ Pro solo, and in bundles with some of the compatible accessories.

Dreame Retractable Arm Prototype

Roborock wasn’t alone in showing off a robot vacuum with an arm. Dreame’s unnamed prototype robot vacuum isn’t ready to go on sale, but does includes its own claw-shaped arm for grabbing things, and wheeled “legs” for getting over ledges like the Dreame X50 Ultra.

It’s not clear when this prototype will become a real product or how much it’ll cost when it does, but it serves as a good example that if Roborock can pull off the Saros Z70, others will certainly follow.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/smart-home/the-new-robot-vacuums-that-caught-our-eye-at-ces-2025-210358124.html?src=rss 

CES 2025 is coming to a close, and team Engadget is ready to leave Las Vegas. Our reporters and editors have scoured endless carpeted convention halls, braved lines of chain smokers and fielded thousands of emails a day to find the best and most credible products at the show.

As expected, the vast majority of things we saw this CES had an AI component, with a noticeable uptick in AR glasses, hearing aid earbuds, solar-powered tech, emotional support robots and robot vacuums. Apparently people really like robovacs that can pick up socks. Our team was encouraged to see more growth in tech built to improve the lives of those with disabilities and mobility issues, too.

Our list of CES 2025 winners covers a variety of categories, ranging from typical areas like home entertainment, transportation and smart home to theme-based topics like sustainability and accessibility. After our team shortlisted nominees and voted on the best for various categories, we then conducted another round of voting to decide on the best product of the show.

That said, here’s the full list of our picks for the Best of CES 2025.

ASUS Zenbook A14

The ASUS Zenbook A14 feels impossibly light, weighing between 2.2 and 2.4 pounds, and it has a gorgeous 14-inch OLED screen and a decent array of ports (USB-C, USB-A and HDMI)! What else ccould you want in a MacBook Air competitor? After years of basically copying Apple’s MacBooks, ASUS proves it can out-innovate Apple without resorting to gimmicks like dual screens or flashy lights. The Zenbook A14 is simply a tiny laptop that feels great in your hands, thanks in large part to ASUS’s unique Ceraluminum case material. ASUS claims it can last up to 32 hours while playing video, well above the 18 hours Apple estimates for the MacBook Air. It may seem odd that the least flashy laptop of CES 2025 is one of our favorites, but sometimes pure practicality is undeniable. — Devindra Hardawar, Senior reporter, reviews

BioLite Backup

We’re always looking for brand new, never-seen-before stuff at CES, but sometimes it’s the clever reinterpretation of existing tech that catches our attention. That’s the case with Backup by Biolite. It’s essentially a cross between a universal power supply (UPS) and a whole-home backup battery, but improves on both. 

The thin, 40-pound 1.5 kWh battery lives between a wall outlet and your fridge (or any other plug-in device) and keeps those things running in the event of a power outage. It doesn’t require professional installation, just a user-installed wall mount, and it’s thin enough to hide behind your fridge or tuck under a counter. Though if it were on display, the matte-silver finish wouldn’t spoil any aesthetic.

The Backup Complete includes two units that supply up to 3 kWh, which is enough to power a fridge, microwave, lights, as well as refill phones and a laptop. The 3 kWh capacity and the fact that it’s an installed battery currently qualifies it for a 30 percent federal tax credit, which would bring the cost down to $2,100 for the Complete. The single-unit Backup Core packs 1.5 kWh and goes for $2,000. Both are available for pre-order now and should ship this summer. — Amy Skorheim, Reporter, buying advice

Jackery Solar Roof 

Jackery is already an established name in domestic solar generator systems, and its latest product fills a wavy gap in its product lineup. Jackery’s XBC curved solar roof shingles mimic some of the most common house styles in the country, and they come in terracotta or obsidian colorways for optimum HOA appeasement. These are the first curved solar tiles to hit the United States market and they deliver a cell conversion efficiency of more than 25 percent. They can withstand extreme weather conditions, including temperatures between -40 degrees F and 185 degrees F, and they’re designed in line with traditional roofing installation practices, featuring a modular setup that allows for flexible maintenance. Jackery’s new wavy solar tiles connect with the company’s existing solar generation and storage products, making them an accessible and attractive option for whole-home sustainability. — Jessica Conditt, Senior reporter

Lenovo Legion Go S

The plight of the modern handheld-PC gamer is trying to decide which OS to use. There are a ton of Windows 11-based devices that offer unparalleled compatibility and strong graphics support. But all that comes on a platform that isn’t optimized for smaller gadgets with attached controllers. Alternatively, SteamOS offers a much more cohesive experience with a better UI and less performance overhead. The problem is that Valve’s operating system was basically only available on a single device — the Steam Deck. That changes now with the Lenovo Legion Go S, which will be available in two flavors: a Windows version and for the first time on any handheld not made by Valve, a model powered by SteamOS.

Aside from the choice of platforms and different colored shells, we appreciate that the two variants feature almost identical specs including an AMD Ryzen Z2 Go processor, up to 32GB of RAM, 1TB of storage and a decently large 55.5Whr battery. Its 8-inch touchscreen looks great too, as it offers a 120Hz refresh rate with support for VRR, 500 nits of brightness and a 1,920 x 1,200 resolution. And with prices starting at $600 (or $500 for the SteamOS model), it’s rather affordable too. Perhaps the biggest downside is that while the Windows model will be out later this month, we’re going to have to wait until May for the one powered by SteamOS. But with the latter sort of finally making good on the nearly decade-old promise of Valve’s Steam Machines, holding out for a few extra months doesn’t seem so long. — Sam Rutherford, Senior reporter, reviews

LG OLED evo M5

LG’s Best of CES crown is safe for another year. The company is consistently at the top of the best TVs we see each year in Las Vegas, and it frequently comes out the winner. For this year’s OLED evo M5, the company managed to further improve its most premium displays, adding the latest α (Alpha) 11 AI processor Gen2 to improve the look of lower-resolution content and power advanced features.

For gamers, there’s a 165Hz refresh rate, alongside both NVIDIA G-SYNC and AMD FreeSync Premium certifications. This should smooth things out and keep lag to a minimum. The company’s new Brightness Booster Ultimate can achieve levels that are three times brighter than “conventional OLED” models, according to the company. Plus, the feature contributes to a UL Solutions’ “Perfect Black” and “Perfect Color” verification on the M5. It’s truly stunning picture quality.

Lastly, LG’s Zero Connect Box that’s been available on the M-series for a while now is finally available on screens below 77 inches. This device allows you to connect all of your consoles and streaming gear without running multiple HDMI cables to the TV. LG now says it doesn’t need line-of-sight clearance either, and that it can be hidden in a wooden cabinet near the M5. — Billy Steele, Senior reporter, reviews

Moonbird Moonbuddy

Gadgets made for relaxation shouldn’t be complicated. Moonbuddy has one purpose — to make guided breathwork accessible and appealing to children — and it nails the execution with no unnecessary frills. The company behind it first made a similar stress relief device for adults, and Moonbuddy simplifies that experience and puts it into a cuter package. Moonbuddy is an egg-shaped device with a soft area that expands and contracts in set rhythms, so kids can follow along and sync up their own breathing. It fits into an animal themed sleeve, so it looks like a toy. There are four different breathing modes, each lasting a few minutes and designed to promote a state of calmness.

The whole thing is tactile and screen-free, which is especially good considering many parents may want to incorporate it into the nighttime routine. And as much as I love the little animal outfits as a person who gravitates toward cute things, I also like that if your kid gets to that stage where they reject everything babyish, they can take the sleeve off and keep using it in its more nondescript form. — Cheyenne MacDonald, Weekend editor

OhSnap MCON

The MCON by OhSnap basically transforms any smartphone into a modern Xperia Play, complete with modern conveniences like Hall effect analog sticks, silent buttons, flip-out grips, and a full bumper and trigger layout. It’s a mobile gamepad that can slide into your pocket without the sticks or handles getting caught on anything, and it works with pretty much every smartphone on the market today. The MCON uses MagSafe to snap onto the back of any recent iPhone and it comes with an adapter for Android devices to join in on the fun. It even works with the Galaxy Z Fold, and its creator, Josh King, is working on a solution for the Z Flip, too.

The mockup that King brought to CES 2025 felt lightweight yet solid and comfortable to hold, and the phone-snapping action was supremely satisfying. After gaining a bit of viral fame with his idea, King partnered with established MagSafe accessory manufacturer OhSnap to push the MCON into full production, and it’s due to hit the market in August for $150. — Jessica Conditt, Senior reporter

Roborock Saros Z70

Robot vacuums got a bunch of new — and sometimes strange — powers at CES 2025. But none made a bigger impression than Roborock’s Saros Z70, which comes with a mechanical arm that can pick up socks, lift cords and grab other objects.

The OmniGrip arm can pick up objects up to 300 grams (a little more than half a pound) in order to clean under them or deposit them in the location of your choice. Functionality of the arm is controlled via Roborock’s app and is extremely customizable so you can program it to pick up loose trash and cat toys, but lift up cords to clean underneath.

When we saw it in action at CES, it deftly picked up socks and placed them in a basket. But Roborock promises it can do much more. The vacuum will automatically recognize 108 different objects — yes, like seemingly every other gadget we saw at CES, it uses AI — but you can also teach it to detect up to 50 additional items so it will know how to handle obstacles it’s most likely to encounter in your home.

Surprisingly, the Saros Z70 wasn’t the only robot vacuum with an arm we saw at CES, but it will be the first that you can actually buy. — Karissa Bell, Senior reporter

Technics EAH-AZ100 earbuds

Technics’ new Magnetic Fluid drivers have garnered a lot of headlines this week, but all you really need to know about the EAH-AZ100 earbuds is that the sound quality is massively improved. Powered by those new components, there’s more clarity, detail and bass, all of which are upgrades from the already impressive AZ80. Technics revised its earbud shape for the AZ100 in the name of comfort and fit, while also making the buds smaller and lighter. Features like touch controls, multipoint connectivity for three devices, spatial Dolby Atmos audio and LDAC support are here as well. And unlike most of what we see at CES, these new earbuds are already available to purchase. — Billy Steele, Senior reporter, reviews

Urtopia Titanium Zero

Since the pandemic, e-bikes, not electric cars, have been at the forefront of the EV revolution, and it’s easy to see why: Electric bikes are a lot more affordable than their four-wheeled counterparts. Plus, here at Engadget, we’re all for devices that promote healthier living, and for many, getting an e-bike can be transformational.

So when Urtopia showed up at CES 2025 with a concept e-bike that features a novel motor design, I was excited. As my colleague Daniel Cooper notes in his writeup, e-bike motors have traditionally come in two form factors, each with their own set of considerations. The custom-designed Quark DMI.2 mid-drive motor Urtopia showed off alongside its Titanium Zero e-bike offers a third path. It’s not as powerful as traditional mid-drive motors, but it still features more power output than even the best hub motors. Best of all, the motor is small enough to fit inside a bottom bracket and weighs just 2.6 pounds.

Urtopia hasn’t said when it will start manufacturing the Titanium Zero, but it’s easy to see a scenario where the design of the Quark DMI.2 inspires other bike makers and pushes the industry forward. — Igor Bonifacic, Senior reporter

WeWalk Smart Cane 2

Of all the products at CES 2025 that had AI stuffed into them, WeWalk’s Smart Cane 2 stood out. The smart cane for people with visual impairments got an update this year that not only adds AI, but also addresses the original’s shortcomings. It brings more advanced sensors, and best of all, still works as a conventional folding cane when these technological features aren’t engaged. The Smart Cane 2 can detect obstacles and offer turn-by-turn navigation, and it has a ChatGPT-powered assistant that can provide answers to questions while someone is walking, without the need to reach for a smartphone. WeWalk also refined the actual cane by making its handle slimmer, replacing the original’s touchpad with tactile buttons and shaving a bit of weight off.

Sure, you might not be able to trust ChatGPT to give you correct answers to every question imaginable yet, but at least in this implementation, the product isn’t likely to harm users even if the AI fails. Plus, it has useful hardware, including time-of-flight and motion sensors to improve navigation, speakers to provide answers and feedback, as well as a flashlight to make the visually impaired more noticeable at night. And again, if the battery dies, you can still use this as a traditional, albeit pricier, cane. — Cherlynn Low, Deputy editor, reviews

Yukai Engineering Mirumi

One of the most memorable robots at CES this year was the one that arguably does the least. We found ourselves powerless against the heart-melting charm of Mirumi, a tiny, fluffy robot made by Yukai Engineering that literally just stares at people and looks around like a baby discovering the outside world. It’s small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, but even better than that, it has long posable arms that allow it to hang onto objects. So if you put it on your bag strap, it will stare down everyone you encounter, and maybe become a little shy when they return the attention.

Mirumi has no purpose other than to spread joy, and I love it for that. Yukai previously brought us the weird Qoobo pillow (the one with the tail) and the cat that nibbles your finger, and this is another case in which it did not miss with one of its odd creations. — Cheyenne MacDonald, Weekend editor

Best in show: WeWalk Smart Cane 2

At CES this year, AI was unsurprisingly everywhere, often in places it didn’t really seem like it needed to be. But the WeWalk Smart Cane 2, a high-tech version of the mobility cane for people who are blind, struck me as an application where it could actually be really helpful. With a new voice assistant that’s powered by GPT, users can speak directly to the cane to get detailed navigation guidance and on-demand information, like public transportation options and menu items. The smart cane is also packed with sensors that allow it to alert the users of upcoming obstacles. It does this with haptic feedback in the handle and by calling out a verbal warning.

WeWalk co-founder Kursat Ceylan, who is blind, gave a demonstration of the cane in the chaotic environment of the Las Vegas Convention Center, and it was impressive. The voice assistant responded quickly and accurately to his prompts, and the obstacle detection alert was loud enough to be heard over the buzz of the CES crowd. It can also pair with headphones or earbuds via Bluetooth. Since the cane can handle things like turn-by-turn navigation, users don’t have to worry about also holding a smartphone while they’re trying to get around.

The smart cane takes an existing tool that people are already familiar with and enhances it. Importantly, it also seems like the company heard the feedback of users who had the first version of the cane and improved the design to better meet their needs. It has a slimmer handle than the first model and tactile buttons, and weighs about the same as a traditional white cane. — Cheyenne MacDonald, Weekend editor

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-best-of-ces-2025-211535752.html?src=rss 

CES is a great place to check out all sorts of upcoming tech for the year, but it’s often the wildest gadgets that steal the show. The conference hosts thousands of exhibitors, all vying for attention, and you really never know what they’re gonna come up with. And this year’s show did not let us down. So without further ado, here’s the weirdest tech at CES 2025 that we encountered — all of the crazy (and crazy useful) devices we spotted out in the wild of the show floor. Just keep in mind, weird doesn’t necessarily mean bad — we actually want to buy some of these! They’re just not quite the run-of-the-mill laptop or TV from the big vendors that dominated the show floor.

EcoFlow Power Hat

Do you want to look like a professor at Hogwarts while effortlessly charging a smartphone? Then we have the hat for you. The EcoFlow Power Hat includes an embedded set of Monocrystalline Silicon solar cells and a pair of charging ports. It looks dorky, sure, but it also looks pretty dang useful. It costs $129 and is available right now.

Roto VR Explorer

VR can easily show us digital vistas, but can’t do much about natural movement. That’s where this bizarre, and cool, spinning chair comes in. The Roto VR Explorer moves in the direction you tilt your head and has been designed to work with Meta Quest headsets, but can integrate with other models. Surprisingly, it doesn’t seem to cause too much motion sickness. It costs $800 and is available now.

Yukai Mirumi

It wouldn’t be CES without an adorable robot to steal our hearts. This year’s cutie-pie is the Yukai Mirumi, and it’s an absolute unit of a fluffball. All it really does is look cute and engage in eye contact, with occasional coy glances elsewhere as it plays hard to get. But that’s enough. Playing with it feels like getting to know a new kitten, and we are totally fine with that. It should cost around $80 when it hits a crowdsourcing platform later this year.

Anker Solix Solar Beach Umbrella

Solar umbrellas are such a good idea. The thing is already open, to provide some much-needed shade, so may as well make it suck up juice from the sun. That’s Anker’s thought behind the Solix Solar Beach Umbrella. It uses perovskite solar cells in its panels, which are highly efficient, and offers of up to 80W of power. We don’t have pricing or availability on this one yet, but it should arrive in time for summer.

Roborock Saros Z70

This is not a drill. The Roborock Saros Z70 robot vacuum boasts actual robotic arms that will pick up objects from the floor as it cleans. It can lift stuff up to 300 grams, so it excels with dirty socks, pet toys and even some light sandals. However, it looks like there’s a cap on the number of items the AI can recognize. This handsy robovac doesn’t have a price or release date yet.

Mecha Systems Comet

The Mecha Systems Comet is the handheld computer of our dreams. This diminutive little doodad is a modular, Linux-based computer built for hobbyists, engineers, artists and roboticists. It boasts a 1.8 GHz ARM64 Quad-core processor, 32GB of storage and 4GB of RAM. However, everything is expandable and customizable. A magnetic snap interface allows folks to clip on all kinds of different control panels for unique use case scenarios. It’s coming to Kickstarter soon, with a starting price of $160.

Jizai Mi-Mo

Here’s another robot, and this one looks exactly like the iconic Pixar lamp. The Jizai Mi-Mo is described as a “general purpose AI robot” that “thinks and acts” on its own. It has a built-in camera and microphones, and uses multiple large language models for voice and image recognition. The company hopes that one day the robot will be used for simple childcare tasks, like reminding kids to do their homework. This is just a prototype for now, so there’s no price or availability.

AirStudio One

Why spring for both a microphone and headphones when you could just opt for this 2-in-1 oddball gadget? The AirStudio One is a decent wireless condenser microphone with a secret lurking underneath. When you open up the chassis, there’s an audio interface, a wireless USB-C dongle and a pair of true wireless headphones. We couldn’t really get a sense of how the mic sounded (CES is noisy) but this could be a real boon for musicians when it gets released later this year.

SwitchBot K20+ Pro

Here’s a robot vacuum with a built-in stand that allows it to wander the home while carrying something else, like an air purifier or a tablet. The SwitchBot K20+ Pro is described as a “multitasking” household assistant that can do stuff aside from cleaning a floor. To that end, it supports a wide variety of attachments and connects seamlessly to other SwitchBot appliances. Theoretically, this thing can also deliver drinks and snacks. It goes on sale later this year, but there’s no price yet.

Haus.me microhaus Pro

The Haus.me microhaus Pro is a tiny home with not-so-tiny ambitions. It can be placed just about anywhere, doesn’t require professional contractors or site prep and is seismic California fire code and CAT-5 hurricane compliant. These 120-square foot domiciles also include floor-to-ceiling windows, a full-sized shower, a kitchen and a Murphy bed that folds up to reveal a table and two bench seats. The price starts at $35,000, which isn’t that bad considering, well, it’s a home. Preorders are open right now.

Govee Gaming Pixel Light

Want a unique set piece for your gaming room? The Govee Gaming Pixel Light comes in two sizes, with the option to be placed on a desktop or mounted to a wall. Out of the box, users can choose from 150 pixel-based scenes, but that’s just the beginning. The unit is programmable, both on the display itself or by using a companion app. That app actually has a chatbot, allowing folks to simply describe what they want to see. Pretty cool, right? It’ll be available later this year and should cost $100.

MSI Mag Coreliquid A13

The MSI Mag Coreliquid A13 is a CPU cooler with a built-in turntable. Yeah. You read that right. It’s based on the Mag Coreliquid A15 360, but adds a cute spinning table that goes directly inside a desktop computer. Now, the word turnable is apt here, but it doesn’t play records. Instead, MSI showed off the device being used to spin around a dragon mascot character. It’s very cool and I want it very much, but it’s just a concept design for now. MSI has no plans to sell this thing.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-weirdest-tech-we-saw-at-ces-2025-190014510.html?src=rss 

DotLumen founder Cornel Amariei describes his product as a “self driving” system to enable blind and low-vision people a way to get around. It’s essentially the electronic equivalent to a guide dog, helping users avoid obstacles when walking around. The Romanian company turned up to CES 2025 in Las Vegas armed with prototypes of its headset that it hopes will make blind people’s lives a lot easier.

The headset looks like a chunky piece of VR gear, with a front unit sitting on your forehead just above your eyes. There’s a chunky power and processing pack on the rear that keeps the bulky device’s weight balanced while walking around. In the front, there are six computer vision cameras — three near field and three pointed further away — which Amariei says was inspired by Tesla’s setup.

Collision avoidance is the main priority here, preventing you from bumping into other pedestrians or street obstacles. In front of the headset are a series of little arms that make contact with your forehead, each one tied to a vibrating motor. When the vibrations are in the center of your forehead, it’s safe for you to move forward, but when the vibrations move either side, you should turn to refocus.

There is also a voice guide, and this will chime in to let you know when the view in front of you is getting crowded. Amariei told me that the headset has a battery life of around 2.5 hours, which is more than enough for an average walk. But that if you do need some extra juice, you can hook up a USB-C battery pack and carry that around with you as well.

Testing the headset in the less-than-ideal environment of CES was a great way way to see how serious the company is. After all, the ceilings are low, the walkways narrow and there are always hundreds of people who just walk at you, expecting you to throw yourself out of their way. Which is why I wore a blindfold and strapped the prototype to my head in order to roam the floor at Eureka Park.

It’s obviously quite hard to describe the sensation navigating a space using only gentle taps on your forehead. I certainly was quite hesitant, taking small steps and slowly moving forward, letting the headset guide me on my journey through. When crowds thronged past me in tight formation, the hardware’s audio guide said “narrow,” telling me the space around me was in short supply.

What impressed me is that I was able to navigate the scrum without bumping into anyone, and managed to get a fair way through the hall. Naturally, I can’t speak to the headset’s long-term effectiveness, especially as someone who can see, but the technology certainly feels like it could be very useful.

Amariei said DotLumen will begin selling its headset in Europe in the near future, with the price expected to come in under €10,000. As steep as that sounds, he added the price to train a guide dog is significantly higher. In the US, the Guide Dog foundation says it costs $50,000 to breed, raise, train and place an assistance dog.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/dotlumens-haptic-headset-could-help-blind-people-navigate-181532099.html?src=rss