From smart shirts to pod ice-cream machines, some technology had excellent marketing with a less than desirable product. We’ve managed to spot some products that seem great at first glance, but lose their charm when looking closer.
A shirt that never gets smelly – but a user might
Recycling is always welcome in tech, especially when it comes to clothing. But now for plastic clothing that never stinks. Koup has created a cinnamon-extract-infused eco-friendly textile that has antimicrobial properties that prevents odour build-up. The only issue: it reduces a user’s need to, well, wash.
The textile is designed for travellers who are active, so the company isn’t expecting office workers to show up wearing this at work after a few wash-free days. Another component is a user’s body, which does host a breeding ground for odour-causing bacteria like staphylococcus aureus. That is as disgusting as it sounds. It’s not a sure-fire way to prevent body smells, but at least the bacteria-causing odours won’t live in one’s clothes.
Keeping the coffee hot with AI (thankfully this AI can’t taste)
Coffee or tea are tricky beverages: leave them for too long and it ruins the experience. BlueBear Studios has introduced the iTemp Smart Mug, which it claims is “the world’s first temperature-regulating Smart Mug”. This is exactly what the world needs right? Unfortunately, experts disagree, because coffee gets more bitter the longer it’s heated up. This can be easily replicated at home: make a cup of ground coffee, take a sip, and note the taste. Then let it cool down completely, reheat it in the microwave, then take a sip: not the best tasting experience.
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Hair today, maybe back tomorrow
According to the Statistic Brain Research Institute, around 1 in 5 men start going bald by the age of 30. A device from HairMax promises to turn back the clock by strengthening hair growth with the Flip 80. It’s a cap that stimulates hair growth, and it’s approved by the FDA. The only issue: if you’re completely bald, there’s no going back. The device stimulates hair growth of existing follicles because a dead follicle isn’t going to spring back to life. That said, if one’s hair is starting to thin, this device may help keep existing follicles alive. Either that or topical minoxidil. Some people really are this desperate.
AI comes to wash basins
The pandemic has made everyone very aware of the importance of hand washing. Now Medic-lead has solved a problem every other basin has: those basins are not 100% WHO compliant. The Handsteco basin uses machine-learned models to make sure users are reaching every part of their hand with soap, then restarting the faucet once the hand washing has completed.
It also has a subscription service for its business customers called Wash basin as a Software service (WasS). This enables staff in food service to be tracked in how often and how well they wash their hands. At least singing happy birthday is now royalty-free.
Go to the next page to read about more of the worst from CES.
Pods come to ice-cream
Pods have to be simple to be sustainable. Simple is filling a pod with ground coffee. What’s not simple, however, is combining ingredients for a soft-serve in a pod. ColdSnap’s new ice-cream machine works off pods, which are cooled down to create a single serving of soft serve ice-cream. Although the device is a CES Innovation Award Honouree, Twitter users have expressed criticism about the machine’s lifespan: if the pods stop being produced, one is left with a big machine that doesn’t do much. We’ve seen this time and time again with food/drink pods: if the pods aren’t simple to produce (i.e. if generics can’t be made easily), they don’t last very long on the market.
I think this is going to fail, based on the price (both for the main unit, and the individual servings). But what do I know? I’m still waiting for the home cheese-making machine I backed on Kickstarter a few CESs ago.#CES #IceCream #Coldsnap https://t.co/VzEh0xGnW3
— AmyOztan (@AmyOztan) January 18, 2021
Personalised essential oils for your “health”
Start-up Family Self Care has created SelfCare1, a robot that dispenses blended essential oils that are personalised to each user. In the face of Covid-19, science-backed medicine is more important than ever, which is why this device seems so strange to launch now. Nevertheless, this device dispenses pleasant-smelling essential oils for the low price of $300 and $70 for the refill cartridges. If one wants a non-peer reviewed medicine device, this is the device to get. But, really?