CES Tech Highlights: Biodegradable Battery, Biofeedback Sensor and Holographic HUD

LAS VEGAS – There’s always a lot to take in among the acreage of displays spread out in four massive exhibition halls and scattered around various hotel convention centers and suites during the annual CES confab, and this year was no different.

Here are just a few of the innovative automotive products and concepts that caught our eye last week:

Flint Paper Battery

Among the problems with the transition to electric vehicles are the environmental hurdles potentially posed by having to dispose of their huge battery packs once the useful life of the lithium-ion cells has been depleted.

Schemes to repurpose and recycle packs are well underway, but what if cells were biodegradable and could be disposed of in landfills with little to no impact on the environment?

That’s the proposition of Singapore-based Flint, which showcased its newly developed paper battery. Paper batteries are not new, but the 4-year-old startup says it has solved the problem of too-low power generation and lack of recharging capability and manufacturing scalability, clearing the path for potential use in BEVs someday.

Like other batteries, the cells in development at Flint include an anode, cathode and electrolyte but are cellulose-based (where the term “paper” is derived from) and made of 100% renewable materials (specifics remain guarded), with no cobalt, nickel or lithium required. They’re lightweight and flexible, meaning they can be formed into things like a watch band or packaged into other products, potentially even cars, more creatively. And they are fire-resistant, eliminating one of the biggest safety-related issues for BEVs.

Cost per kW is claimed to be 1.8 times less than today’s lithium-ion batteries. With further scaling, Flint believes it can reduce cost to $50 per kWh.

Of course, the startup has a long way to go to prove its concept will work, particularly in something as big as an EV battery pack. And it would have to overcome what likely would be a skeptical and cautious auto industry.

But Flint says the cells have been designed for high-volume production on existing lithium-ion battery manufacturing lines – a huge hurdle it says it worked hard to overcome. Its small consumer-product batteries now in development will decompose in a landfill in about six weeks, company officials say.

The startup, backed with $2 million in seed money to date, says it will launch its first pilot project (non-automotive) this year.

Hyundai Mobis M.Brain

Driver monitoring could go to the next level, with suppliers beginning to show off brainwave detection devices designed to tell if drivers are tired, distracted or otherwise agitated.

Among the latest is Hyundai Mobis’ M.Brain demonstrated here. The system triggers four response modes in the vehicle based on the driver’s state of mind, determined by measuring their brainwave activity.

If drowsiness or distraction are detected, the software can trigger a vibrating seat, play music and/or turn up the volume and adjust the interior lighting in order to stimulate the driver. Hyundai Mobis says in testing, M.Brain has been able to cut down driver inattention up to 30% after meals – when drowsiness most often occurs. M.Brain also reduced driver distraction 20% on highways during testing, it says.

The system purportedly can get drivers refocused on the road in just 2.3 seconds, about a third of the time required when not using M.Brain.

The Hyundai Mobis system requires drivers to wear a small over-the-ear piece that is connected to the car to collect the biometrics.

Others are exploring similar technology, including Detroit-based Neumo, a startup that launched in December with a solution that can be embedded in a vehicle’s headrest and capture brainwaves passively up to 12 ins. (30.5 cm) away from the driver’s head – no hardwiring. required.

Ceres Holographics’ Head-Up Display

Scotland-based Ceres Holographics’ holographic optical element head-up display is based on the company’s 2-year-old HoloFlekt roll-to-roll film production technology capable of producing holographic film in large sheets that can then be sandwiched between layers of glass to act as the otherwise transparent reflective surface required for HUDs to work.

In addition to the windshield-size sheet of reflective film, Ceres designs the displays using its proprietary software to build holograms on a pixel-by-pixel basis up to a sheet of paper in size.

On display at CES 2025 is an experimental windshield being tested by Ford in the U.S. in a Bronco model, but Ceres says it has projects under way with several other automakers –  including a German luxury-vehicle producer – and is particularly active in China and India as well.

The graphics produced by the prototype HUD are bright, crisp and clear, and they don’t disappear if occupants are wearing polarized sunglasses, as is the case with some current systems.

The panoramic display across the base of the windshield in the prototype demonstrated is divided into three zones, one in front of the driver, one over the center console and one in front of the passenger. The driver can’t view the passenger’s screen while in a normal driving seating position.

There’s potential to project images across the entire expanse of glass – a concept demonstrated that could become reality if automakers want to use more of the windshield for critical displays or alerts or Level 5 automated vehicles emerge in which the glass can become a full-blown movie screen to keep passengers entertained.

The high-resolution projectors used to display the images are tiny and can be angled to the glass in a variety of ways – unlike those used in most HUDs today, meaning they can be easily packaged into the dash.

“The projector does not need to be in line with the film – it can be to the side,” says Barry Jack, principal engineer. “There’s a lot of advantages that get beyond some of the fundamental problems with HUDs. We can do things (in terms of packaging) that can’t be done with other technologies.”

The system also will have a cost advantage – in part due to the smaller projectors, which come from Ceres’ China-based partner Appotronics. Also partnering with Ceres in the technology are German polymer materials manufacturer Covestro and U.S. specialty materials company Eastman. Ceres says the concept is fully safety certified, and it has production programs on tap for launch around 2026 and 2028.