The world’s biggest tech event – CES – is returning to full operation this week after two years scaled down due to the COVID pandemic.
Before the show floor at the Las Vegas Convention Centre has even officially opened, huge Silicon Valley conglomerates and ambitious start-ups alike are already living up to the conference’s reputation for showcasing the great and the good – and the just plain weird – of consumer electronics.
Here are some of the product announcements that have caught our eye so far – for all sorts of reasons…
Ring in the new year
The Evie ring is pitched as the first medical grade smart ring designed uniquely for women, offering period and menstrual symptom tracking alongside familiar wearable features like monitoring heart rate and calories burned.
Like other wearables, data is displayed in a smartphone app, and its creator – Movano Health – says it will cost less than $300 (£248) when it releases later this year.
Livestream your cooking
A strong contender for the most ridiculously named product of the show is Samsung’s Bespoke AI Wall Oven, which comes equipped with an internal camera, so you can keep a closer eye on your cooking.
But Samsung also reckons it is perfect for taking photos and even livestreaming your meals to social media, allowing those with more money than they know what to do with to launch their own cooking show from home.
Hug this pulsating cushion
If you need to wind down after a stressful day of work, Fufuly could be just what you need.
Shaped like a cloud, tooth or deformed marshmallow (take your pick), Japanese firm Yukai Engineering says the pulsating cushion aims to reduce anxiety in the same way holding a baby or having a cat on your lap might do.
This gadget wants you to urinate on it
Generally it’s a bad idea to soak electronics in any sort of liquid, but French firm Withings has made a device that it wants you to urinate over.
Easy as one, two, pee, U-Scan hooks on to the side of a toilet bowl, and uses an onboard replaceable cartridge to analyse urine for things like detecting a menstrual cycle or giving dietary feedback. It will start at €500 (£440).
Need a hand with your lipstick?
Cosmetics giant L’Oreal has developed a gadget to help those with limited mobility apply makeup.
HAPTA uses motion controls and a suite of customisable attachments to give the user a range of motion, which the company says will offer the precise control required for the perfect application.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Mask up!
As Britons are advised to once again mask up as cases of scarlet fever and COVID circulate, this rather bulky battery-powered accessory from Airxom has made a well-timed return to CES.
First shown off last year, the mask is essentially a wearable air purifier that claims to filter out and destroy airborne particles – including viruses.
Knock-knock, who’s there?
Plenty of us have kitted out our front doors with smart doorbells in recent years, and it turns out that not even birdhouses are safe from the trend.
Bird Buddy is a smart bird feeder that snaps pictures of any visitors, sending photos to your phone and identifying the species using an app like a real-life Pokedex from Pokemon.
The best of the rest…
