We’re back. People who work from home more often in 2022, whether by choice or not, will see that number go up. People who haven’t had to work in an office for almost two years have made work-from-home technology move faster. That was very clear at CES 2022, the tech industry’s biggest show every year. When it comes to working from home, 2022 could be the best year yet. There could be robots that clean while you work, better webcams for video calls and everything else.
Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra
In the beginning, we had a very cool robot vacuum. If you’ve been using Roombas for a long time, you’re not alone. As we spend more time at home, more dirt is bound to build up on the floor. When we keep wearing sweatpants to work for a long time, we need a cleaner that is more powerful and can handle the job.
Make yourself at home. This is the Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra. It’s a high-tech vacuum that has cameras, a LiDAR scanner, and other AI features that help it build a 3D map of your home that it can then use to help it find its way around. That’s not all: It also comes with a dock that can be used to store the machine when you’re not using it. When it’s not in use, the dock will automatically refill its water container and clean its mop system.
Welcome to a new era of being lazy. Chores are a thing of the past.
1080p laptop webcams
Anyone who has made a lot of video calls in the last two years or so knows that most webcams built into laptops aren’t very good. People who work with you don’t look good in 720p. In 15 years, that might have been a good standard for high definition. But now, things have changed.
For example, Lenovo and HP, for example, both said that their laptops would have better webcams at CES this year. Lenovo’s Yoga and ThinkPad lines now have 1080p lenses, and HP put 5MP webcams on all of its computers at CES. So, this isn’t really new or surprising. After years of grainy, bad-looking video calls, it’s a welcome change.
TP-Link Deco XE200
They should cover your house in WiFi.
Thanks to TP-Link:
If you work from home, it’s also safe to say that you’ve found a lot of holes in your internet service that need to be filled in. As for the quality of the signal you get into your modem, that’s something that your ISP can’t fix. But what you do with that signal can make WiFi dead zones into WiFi paradises thanks to mesh routers.
People at CES showed off their new mesh system called Deco XE200. It costs $800 for two units, but it promises to spread your internet signal to every part of the house. There are three high-speed LAN ports on each one, so you can hook up a desktop computer or game console to make sure the WiFi stays strong. Two of these should cover up to 6,500 square feet of WiFi. If you find that some parts of your home don’t have enough internet to be useful, you should seriously think about getting a mesh system like this one.
Full-body video calls
When you work from home, you don’t have to look your best all the time. People don’t care about what you say, but you do. There is a 7-foot video call device called “la Vitre,” and it might be more scary than progressive, but it’s still important to point out that it’s there.
In the beginning, it was mostly used in the office for presentations and such. It’s an always-on, full-body video call device. But the people who made la Vitre didn’t rule out home use down the road. Make all of the awkward work conversations where both people are standing up and no one knows how or when to end the conversation and get back to work. Again, even tho there’s an option to blur the picture, it’s always on.
In the end, the future doesn’t always look like it will be good.
Bonus concept that may never come out: LG Omnipod
If you want to see something that’s a little weird at CES 2022, check out LG’s Omnipod. The South Korean electronics company calls it a “future mobility concept cabin.” A car that can also be your home office because it has modular, upgradeable appliances and big screens. It also has an AI concierge who can help you with things like getting food.
Who said WFH had to be in a house or apartment? There is a moving bachelor pad with an AI that orders lunch while you watch movies. If Omnipod ever comes to market, you could take all of your video calls from a moving bachelor pad where AI orders lunch while you watch movies. The best way to show WFH innovation is to change what a home is.
