Every day, there’s a new connected home gadget claiming to make life easier.
When thinking of a smart home, we usually imagine a home that can control the lights and climate on its own and automate everyday routines like making coffee. Sometimes turning it into reality may require doing specific stuff like setting up the rules and teaching different devices to interact with each other. Still, the goal of all the efforts is to make something that you already do, well, just a bit easier. But for all the best intentions of developers to automate and ease our daily lives, often enough, their grand visions fall short in actual use and efficacy.
Here are 5 devices that fit the smart home category but for one reason or another seem completely ridiculous at first sight. Still, they exist and can be purchased.
Onvi Prophix
Credits: Engadget
In short, this is a ‘smart toothbrush’ which comes with its own mobile app that keeps track of your whole tooth brushing experience. It has a built-in 10-megapixel camera that records everything your toothbrush does in your mouth and then uploads it to your app. For $400, you can ‘see what you take care of’, as they say on the site.
But if you don’t feel like dropping $400, we can enthusiastically recommend a cheap substitute… a mirror.
In case Prophix actually piqued your interest, then you’ll get a real kick out of Flosstime. It’s a 30-dollar white puck giving out 18 inches of a tooth rope once you tap it. Since it allows attaching to the mirror, the founders expect you will not forget flossing your teeth next time. But let’s face it: we can simply place the rope on the most visible spot in the bathroom (for free!). And, sometimes, we just don’t want to floss our teeth, even if we are reminded of it.
Juicero
Credits: Ars Technica
This is a Wi-Fi-enabled juicing machine that recently blew up the Internet. Here’s the story.
Having around $120 million of investments, Juicero is considered to be one of the most lavishly funded gadget startups of the last year.
It’s a cold-press juicing machine that transforms single-serving sachets of chopped vegetables and fruits into a beverage. In the beginning, it’s price started at $699, then it dropped to $399. And you also need to buy individual juice packs from the company to keep using the machine.
But when the product hit the market, users suddenly figured out they could squeeze the Juicero juice packets with their bare hands, sans the $399 Juicero machine.
Credits: Bloomberg Technology
Moreover, the Bloomberg journalists were able to squeeze the same amount of juice a bit faster than the Juicero machine itself. The irony is that earlier the company’s founder Doug Evans touted that Juicero wields four tons of force, which is “enough to lift two Teslas”.
The company says the device not only squeezes the sachets, but also scans QR codes to make sure the juice has not been expired or recalled, but you’d probably agree this functionality isn’t worth $400 nor any precious space on your kitchen table.
HapiFork
Did you know that the brain figures out that you have eaten enough only 20 minutes after you’ve begun your meal? Due to this biological delay, many of us tend to get more calories than we need and eat more than required.
Knowing this fact alone should help you control your eating habits, but if it doesn’t, meet Hapifork. It’s a Bluetooth-enabled fork that tracks the speed of your eating. When you’re eating in a hurry, it will vibrate to let you know to cool your jets. Sound great? Even after looking at its design? Then here’s the link.
P.S.: And if you’re problem is not about the speed, but the amount of food eaten, take a look at the Samsung WELT belt. It sports sensors that report if you have overeaten based on your waistline size. Aside from nagging you about your overindulging, it will also remind you to exercise a bit if you’re sitting too long or tell you how many steps you have taken today. Sounds like your mother, or worse your spouse.
Furbo
You may have already heard of Petcube, a camera-equipped cube that lets you watch your pets remotely through a smartphone screen and even play with them using a red laser beam. Well here’s another smart device that takes the next evolutionary step and it’s called Furbo.
Furbo reports to you when it hears barking. It also works as a loudspeaker when you want to say something to your dog. But it’s key function is that you can shoot treats out of it using your smartphone. How do you like that?
The device is available here and costs $249.
Quirky Egg Minder
If you cook at home, you probably use eggs every now and then and have a dozen of them in the fridge. But how do you know if they’re still OK to boil or fry? Well, bad eggs float to the top of a bowl filled with a cold water, but who’s got the time or patience to do that?
Here to save you from your egg impatience is the Quirky Egg Minder an Internet-enabled egg tray. It’ll tell you which eggs are soon to expire, or if you’re running low. (using a patented extremely sophisticated algorithm I’m sure!).
The good news it’ll cost you only $12, so if you’d love to amaze your friends with some amazing egg-freshness tricks, maybe it’s worth it for such a “reasonable” price.
When we think of the future, we imagine spaceships going to other planets, flying cars or at least Marty from Back to the Future on a levitating skateboard. But while we wait, why not enjoy smart toothbrushes, bluetooth enabled forks and internet egg trays?
