We’re hours into CES week and I’ve already lost count of the number of TVs I’ve laid eyes on. Don’t get me wrong, all those 8K, perfectly contrasted, punch-you-in-your-face-colored demos are a pleasure to watch — but they’ve also become repetitive and, dare I say, boring. Instead, the one TV that’s actually raised my eyebrows this year — and is deserving of the Las Vegas limelight — is the wireless TV by startup Displace.
You heard that right: A TV that doesn’t rely on any dangling cables or wires to power it. None. The method to the madness? Four hot-swappable batteries that Displace says should give the TV a month’s worth of endurance before needing to be recharged, WiFi 6E to sync your inputs from the separate base unit to the TV, and what the 6-person company calls Active Loop Vacuum Technology, two adhesive strips that seal the TV onto virtually any surface without a mount.
For the demo, which took place in a tech-filled suite in the Venetian Hotel, Displace demoed the capability of its proprietary mounting system on a fabric-coated wall, as well as a glass window. Installation was as simple as pushing the sub-20-pound TV against the surface and letting the adhesive do the rest, all while a vacuum-like sound signals the beginning and end of the process. As for how long the display can stay attached to a wall? Displace CEO Balaji Krishnan says the Active Loop Vacuum technology will reinforce itself ever so often to keep the TV in place. In other words: forever.
And if the wireless aspect isn’t future enough, the other key feature of the Displace TV is gesture controls. Don’t expect a remote control to ship with this TV. Instead, the appliance comes with a pop-out camera at the top that detects hand gestures for navigating through channels and even copying and broadcasting the visual content from one Displace TV to another. This is using technology similar to what powered the Xbox Kinect and was popularized by PrimeSense, an Israeli acquired by Apple.
January 3, 2023
Written by June Wan
