CES went virtual this year thanks to the ongoing pandemic, and while there was less news than normal we still got a good look at where the smart home is headed in 2021 and beyond. We saw new ways of thinking about the smart home when it comes to touchless tech, home security and virtual assistance around the house.
Not everything was reasonably priced or even out of the concept phase, but hey, that's what CES is all about -- the weird, wacky and wholly unaffordable tech of the future. Here are the highlights from the smart home category at CES 2021.
Home security didn't give us any ground-breaking new devices to look forward to (perhaps because everyone's home all the time) but there were a few interesting items at the virtual show. In addition to Alarm.com's touchless doorbell, Chinese TV manufacturer Konka launched 10 smart home products, several of which were smart security cameras. The affordable brand could be competition for brands such as Wyze and Blink.
We also saw an interesting security monitoring system called the Origin Hex Home security system, which claims to monitor motion in your home via Wi-Fi waves for up to 1,500 square feet with just two devices.
