IF YOU’RE interested in the coolest and
craziest tech gadgets, the annual Consumer
Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas is the
biggest and arguably best event of its kind. As
this year's CES starts to wind down – it runs
from 7 to 10 January – here are ten bleeding-
edge gadgets making waves in the desert.
A 3D printer that makes sweets
Sure, 3D printers are exciting, but they
seemed the preserve of inner-city industrial
designers. Until now, that is. 3D Systems has
used CES 2014 to unveil ChefJet, a printer that
will make sweets and other sugary treats.
There will be two models, says The Register.
The standard ChefJet is a monochrome,
countertop sized device with a build volume
of 200 x 200 x 150mm. The ChefJet Pro can do
multiple colours and has a 250 x 250 x
200mm space for pastries and such. ChefJet
printable nibbles come in a variety of
flavours, including chocolate, vanilla, mint,
sour apple, cherry and watermelon.
The white goods you can yell at
Feel the urge to get angry with your
appliances? No problem. LG's Home Chat
allows users to control their kitchen gadgets
using voice commands. The Las Vegas Sun
says: "You can even ask your fridge what
groceries its out of — in person at home and
through text while at the supermarket —
ensuring that you’ll never forget to buy milk
again.
Curved TVs
Flat televisions are so 2013, right? TV
manufacturers are leaping onto the curved
screen bandwagon thanks to the technology's
ability to deliver a better viewing experience.
One of the standouts at CES 2014 is LG's 77-
inch flexible 4K OLED TV which lets you
control the curvature of its display using the
TV remote. The range of curve "takes the
screen size and viewing distance into account
to give you the best viewing experience",
reports PocketLint . You won't be able to get
your hands on one for a while, but the set
"marks the future of curved TVs", says the
website.
The Lamborghini with the $50,000 sound system
Something for the person with everything. The
Lamborghini Veneno Roadster is a $4.5
million monster that goes from 0-60mph in
less than 2.9 seconds. Why is it at CES 2014?
Well, the soundsystem is also supercharged. It
features an Android-powered touchscreen
interface that allows you to control the music,
along with subwoofers in the driver and
passenger footwells. "To say it was loud would
be an understatement," writes PocketLIint.
The drone you can own
Drones don't have a great reputation. But the
Phantom 2 Vision aerial system from China
promises to take spying on the neighbours to
a whole new level. Kept aloft by four rotors, it
contains a 14-megapixel camera that can
shoot RAW files or 1080p video. You can
either watch a live stream of the video or
store it on an Android device or iPhone.
Smart socks for runners
The most sophisticated thing about the socks
worn by joggers used to be an ability to
disguise unpleasant odours. Not any more.
Sensoria is a new range of socks from a
company called Heapsylon that can track how
a user's foot hits the ground, analyse the
rhythm of each footfall and calculate stride
length, reports the Daily Telegraph . Over
time, the socks learn how you run and could
alert you to "the possibility of injury or over-
exertion". The sci-fi socks will go on sale in
March priced at £100 a pair.
An intelligent toothbrush for oral obsessives
Electric toothbrushes are so last century. The
product making visitors to CES bristle with
excitement this year is the Kolibree. Designed
in France, it's a smart toothbrush that
analyses users' brushing habits and displays
the results on a smartphone app. You'll never
miss a molar again. Priced at $99, the
Kolibree will go on sale later this year.
The ultimate VR suit for gamers
Microsoft's Kinect promised to turn gamers'
bodies into controllers when it was launched
in 2010. But Kinect often "failed to capture
your movements with true fidelity", reports
tech website The Verge . That's not an issue for
the full and half-body game controller suits
being demonstrated by PrioVR at CES 2014.
They use state-of-the-art motion-capture
technology to "render your gameplay with
great accuracy", says the Verge. Sure, you may
look like a heavily-bandaged A&E patient, but
the suits offer the "most accurate gesture-
based gameplay seen to date". Priced at $270
for the half-body suit and $400 for the full-
body suit, the products should be available
later this year.
The return of the medallion
OK, the Bluetooth jewellery unveiled by UK
company Cambridge Silicon Radio (CSR) is
more elegant (not to mention functional) than
the chunky medallions worn by fashion-
forward men and women in the 1970s.
Designed as a prototype rather than a
commercial product, the pendants will flash
blue light when a call or text is received by
the wearer's smartphone. If blue's not your
thing, the colour and sequence of the flashing
light can be programmed to suit your mood
No comments:
Post a Comment