CES gadget fest

Some entrepreneurs at the annual CES gadget fest that ends Sunday in Las Vegas were eager to combine real and virtual worlds to help people stop and smell the roses. Immersive technologies that can better lives, whether helping people treat dementia or learn to pilot fighter jets, is the future of the metaverse, virtual reality startups say. Some entrepreneurs at the annual CES gadget fest that ends Sunday in Las Vegas were eager to combine real and virtual worlds to help people stop and smell the roses.…

At the CES tech megashow in Las Vegas, it is unusual to see an entrepreneur hold up a plant and present it as the latest breakthrough in consumer technology. But for NeoPlants co-founder Patrick Torbey, the gathering held annually just after the new year should not be thought of as "only about machine technology and electronics." "It's also about natural technology that we can leverage using these really cool engineering techniques," Torbey told AFP. NeoPlants, a Paris-based startup, was showing off a bioengineered…