Lenovo shows off its latest concepts, including a smart speaker with a built-in projector

Lenovo shows off its latest concepts, including a smart speaker with a built-in projector

Lenovo is working on several ambitious concepts centered around AI.

Back in 2015, Lenovo showed off a laser projector built into a smartphone. Last year, the company revealed a flexible phone. At its Tech World 2017 summit, Lenovo showed off its latest concept products, and this time around, the manufacturer is focusing on AI.

First up is the CAVA, a smart assistant that relies on deep learning to build facial recognition systems and natural language understanding technologies to better understand your queries. CAVA learns based on your usage habits, and it can parse messages to serve up recommendations. For instance, if you have an upcoming calendar event, CAVA will analyze the weather and traffic data and suggest the ideal time to leave.

With SmartCast+, Lenovo is looking to go beyond the likes of Echo and Google Home by offering a smart speaker that recognizes sounds and objects. The speaker also has a built-in projector that delivers AR experiences by projecting images to a wall, with Lenovo looking at educational use cases for the device.

The DaystAR headset is an independent vision processing unit with free-formed surface lenses and a 40-degree field of view, offering untethered AR experiences built on Lenovo's own AR platform.

Lenovo's SmartVest has 10 textile sensors built into the ECG-equipped clothing to continually monitor cardiac activity. The vest records ECG signals 24/7, and alerts users if it finds any abnormalities like tachycardia or atrial fibrillation.

Finally, Xiaole is a service aimed at businesses. The AI-based service learns from customer interactions, allowing it to tailor its responses to sound more personal.

Like previous years, there's no telling if any of the concepts Lenovo highlighted today will turn into viable consumer-ready products.