Consumer Electronic Show (CES) is known to bring some never-seen-before technology that can easily make your eyes pop and jaws drop. CES 2023 was no different. From fancy TVs to colour-changing cars, CES 2023 definitely followed in the footsteps of its ancestors and showcased some uber-cool, life-changing technology. But apart from the Men-In-Black style futuristic tech, CES is also very popular for all the quirky and weird gadgetry that companies show off at the convention.
Honestly, these are just as interesting and fun to know, if not more, as the cutting-edge tech tools that are often showcased at the event. Now that CES 2023 is all wrapped up, here is a list of the wonderfully unusual gadgets that caught our attention.
Women around the world can attest that however taller they may make you and your ego feel, insoles can literally be a pain in the foot, especially if worn for long periods.
Considering this in mind, Gait-Tech, an Italian company has designed a smart insole which can essentially make wearing heels for a long time a much less painful experience than it usually can be.
Italian footwear designer, Diego Dolcini, who has previously worked with popular brands like Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci, and Balmain amongst others designed the smart insole which can be built into the stiletto at the manufacturing stage, making it invisible and keeping it from looking awkward or odd once the user wears heels.
According to the company, the insole design is based on 30 years of research and would work by redistributing weight and providing a more stable and comfortable walk. The company mentioned that a pair of insoles will cost about EUR 17 (roughly Rs 1,500) including installation, which in our opinion would not be a very expensive price to pay for a comfortable pair of designer heels (considering how expensive designer heels can be anyway).
Blok smart cutting board: Chop-chop, watch
Don’t you hate it when your tablet, phone, or laptop gets a taste of your buttered or battered fingers when you are cooking and following a recipe on your device?
Well, if you are familiar with the sentiment then this particular product shown at CES this year, might be the kitchen tool of your dreams.
After successfully reaching its Kickstarter goal, the Blok Smart Cutting board made its way to CES 2023. This is simply a chopping board coupled with a 13x20-inch display that you can use to read recipes, watch YouTube videos of recipes or take cooking classes.
The display on the chopping board is detachable which would make it easier for you to clean the cutting board and wipe the display when you need to. It also comes with a fancy wireless charger which can hold the display pretty when you are not using it to follow recipes.
The cutting board is on the expensive side and will put you back by $699 and to top this off, you would have to pay a $39 subscription fee to get cooking classes.
For this price you can easily invest in a good quality cutting board and a handy tablet like an iPad mini, but it would not have the bizarre charm of this one.
Samsung Bespoke AI oven: Brainy bakes and streaming
In another attempt to make our kitchen lives smarter, Samsung introduced in-wall Bespoke AI oven at CES 2023. The smart oven is equipped with a camera which will not only help you keep an eye on your food as it is cooking but also allows you to livestream it using the SmartThings app.
Now, if there is one thing we would pay to watch, it would be the satisfying video of dough turning into bread or better, cookies.
Apart from its livestreaming feature which we are guessing will be quite famous with content creators, the AI Pro cooking system of the oven will also suggest cooking instructions, send notifications to the users if it senses that the food will get burned soon and can even suggest users what to cook based on their diet and goals and what they have at home. Was cooking ever this smart?
Withings U-scan: Smart urinalysis
In the list of weird tech items showcased at CES this year, the Withings U- Scan probably tops the list.
It is a small pebble-shaped device which gives you a brief urinalysis every time you pee. It might sound unusual but French Fitness gadget manufacturer, Withings actually believed that people were flushing away crucial data each time they were answering nature’s call.
The round device can be attached to the edge of the toilet like one of those cleaning bars and each time it senses the temperature is going up, it will send you a brief report on your smartphone covering vitamin C levels, hormones and even reproductive health. Bizzare, right?
Nowatch smartwatch: No display, no frills, just health tracking
Would you ever dream of investing in a smartwatch that offers no notifications, would not highlight your activity, in fact would not even show something as basic as time?
It might sound extremely unusual but that is exactly what Nowatch has created — a smartwatch with no display. The invention of the company’s CEO Hylke Muntinga, who suffers from a rare genetic condition and realised he needed to cherish the moments he had instead of constantly looking at a display.
Nowatch smartwatch offers most features that you would expect from a health tracker. It comes with Philips EDA Biosensing Technology which can measure changes in sweat glands. It can send a small, non-harmful current to the skin to measure the change in electrical conductance of the skin over time.
It also has sensors like red and green PPG, an accelerometer, a temperature sensor, and a barometer to cover all the health bases.
The smartwatch comes with a battery life of over four days and can be paired with both iOS and Android devices. Watch out — or don't — for this one.
L’Oreal Brow Magic: Raise your eyebrow game
Those who are into makeup can tell you that getting the perfect brows can be a tedious task. But it might not be any more thanks to a product L’Oreal showcased this year at CES.
The L’Oreal Brow Magic is a product that can literally print eyebrows on your face. It comes paired with an app which can help you select the type of brow you wish to print on your face and also shows how it would look in real-time on your face.
When done, the device can be moved across your real eyebrows and your desired eyebrows will be printed on your face in absolutely no time.
The brow applicator, which is a small circular-shaped box, with a handle for grip has 2,400 tiny nozzles that can apply up to 1,200 drops of printing resolutions per inch. All you need to do is swipe the applicator in one steady motion and you would be good to go! It definitely attracted its share of raised eyebrows at CES.
