This New Year’s Eve addition of the Viodi View offers a glimpse of CES 2026 through some just-published interviews from CES 2025. The topics range from small modular nuclear reactors to devices that assist the visually impaired to on-demand trash pick-up. Interestingly, none of these stories deal with the consumer gadgets and devices that were foundational to CES in its early decades.
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Rethinking Decentralized Thermal & Electrical Energy Generation
As the global demand for clean, reliable baseload energy intensifies, the nuclear industry is pivoting from massive, centralized plants to agile, localized solutions. One of the startups leading this charge is France-based Otrera New Energy, which. promises to revolutionize how we power mid-sized cities and energy-hungry infrastructure like data centers.
A Smart Cane Improving the Mobility Experience for the Visually Impaired
At CES 2025, Gokhan Mericililer, CEO and co-founder of WeWalk, unveiled the Smart Cane 2, a device designed to transform the traditional white cane into a high-tech mobility companion for the visually impaired. By integrating advanced sensors and AI, the company aims to modernize a tool that has remained largely unchanged for over a century.
A New Angle in the Fight Against Macular Degeneration
For millions of individuals worldwide, central vision loss due to Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) can make simple tasks like reading or recognizing faces nearly impossible. At CES 2025, Al Schubert, SVP of Soliddd Sales, gave an overview of their solution for improving the loss of sight. SolidddVision™ smartglasses leverage “fly’s eye” optics to restore sight by projecting images onto healthy areas of the retina.
The Guide Dog Alternative – The Wearable Mobility Aid
For the millions of people worldwide with severe visual impairment, independent mobility often relies on tools that haven’t changed much in decades: the white cane and the guide dog. While effective, they have limits. Guide dogs are expensive to train and rare—there are only about 20,000 guide dogs globally, leaving millions without advanced assistance. French startup Kapsys is stepping into this gap with KapX. KapX is a wearable AI device that promises to digitize the experience of having a sighted guide.
Human-Based Health Care in a Remote Pod
The American healthcare system is facing a “perfect storm” as an aging population increases demand while the supply of primary care providers continues to shrink. At CES 2025, OnMed CEO Karthik Ganesh emphasized a crucial point. The solution isn’t just better tech. It is a new layer of easily deployable healthcare access infrastructure. OnMed’s solution includes a satellite broadband connection to bring health-care professionals to rural and other health-care deserts.
Space Communications Via Laser Beams
In the noisy exhibition halls of CES2025, Viodi caught up with the emerging world of optical (laser) satellite communications. As the space economy grows, the “pipes” used to send data back to Earth—traditional radio waves—are becoming congested. SangHoon Oh, Ph.D., Research Director for SpaceBeam, explains how their new optical ground stations unlock a new form of space-to-earth communications: a fiber-optic cable to the stars.
The Korner – On-Demand Trash Pick-Up with HARR-E
Imagine never again hauling heavy bins to the curb or waking to the rumble of garbage trucks at dawn. That’s the promise of HARR-E (Hail-able Autonomous Refuse Robot – Electric), an innovative electric robot unveiled at CES 2025 by Oshkosh Corporation’s Pratt Miller division. In a captivating interview with Autonomy Engineer Devin McCulley, the technology’s potential shines through—delivering convenience for residents, environmental gains, and operational efficiencies for waste agencies.
HARR-E is the potential solution to the overflowing garbage cans that result from a wild New Year’s party. It is also another good example of how drive-train electrification and autonomy will reshape our relationship to the physical world. With that, Happy New Year and look for Viodi’s camera at next week’s CES 2026.
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