Here’s a smart toothbrush that’ll show you how clean your teeth are
One of the current trends in technology right now is inventors jamming wireless radios in objects that you wouldn’t expect to find ‘em. For instance, the HAPIfork, a smart fork that sent your eating speed to your phone in an attempt to get you to chew your food more slowly, became an unexpected hit at last year’s CES. Kolibree hopes to recreate that success with its connected toothbrush. Yeah. Once you’ve cleaned your teeth (in the usual fashion), the Kolibree pushes your stroke count to your smartphone, telling you if you did a good job and showing which parts of your gob still need some attention. Naturally, the company will request your cash via Kickstarter at some point in the summer, where you’ll be able to pick up a model priced somewhere between $100 – $200.
We were able to spend some time with both the Kolibree prototypes and the device’s founder, Thomas Serval. Serval is an ex-Googler who went back to hardware design after several years with the software giant, was inspired to build the device after getting tired of asking his children if they’d brushed their teeth. Containing an accelerometer, magnetometer and gyroscope, the hardware builds a model of the inside of your mouth and then offers you a percentage score of how well you’ve done in keeping it clean. The model is built in two ways: firstly, when you get the device, you can calibrate the hardware by showing it around your gob, but also the company has a dentist-supplied list of measurements that help it understand the size of your mouth compared to your age and gender.
Hold the hardware in your hand and the prototype is surprisingly light, despite the built-in battery that is re-juiced on a wireless charging plate. It’ll push the data over Bluetooth to your smartphone or tablet, and you can monitor your family’s statistics with a league table that, it’s hoped, will encourage kids to out-do their parents. That same data can also be shared with your dentist, should you wish them to know how well (or not) you’re doing in the oral hygiene stakes. Depending on the hardware you’re buying, an individual Kolibree will set you back between $100 – $200, but the company will offer discounts for family packs when it’s finally ready for public consumption.
Filed under: Misc
Parrot’s MiniDrone climbs walls, rolls across the ceiling, is really, really small
Parrot’s been offering up relatively small updates to its AR.Drone line each year at CES, and while the quadcopter is, without question, one of the most immediately recognizable in the space, we’ve been waiting to see a genuinely fresh take on the product. The MiniDrone delivers — and then some. It’s exceptionally small and light, so far as these consumer drones go. It’s quick, nimble and fairly user-friendly thanks to on-board autopilot and myriad built-in sensors, controlled via smartphone or tablet via low energy Bluetooth.
Size aside, however, the coolest thing about the product may well be the removable wheels, which let you drive the ‘copter across the ceiling and up walls. And if the demos we got ahead of tonight’s CES Unveiled event are any indication, the little drone is quite a bit more rugged that it looks. The MiniDrone will be available at some point later this year for an undetermined price.
InAir Smart HDMI adapter overlays the web atop television content with a custom user interface
Televisions are no longer simply screens for viewing video content: Folks want to have the internet on them, too. SeeSpace is a startup building a device called the InAir Smart HDMI adapter that plugs in-line between your set-top box and TV to deliver web content to your big screen. The system then overlays an intelligent layer atop your video feed that analyzes what you’re watching and supplies relevant web and social content as well. InAir’s UI is controlled by a companion app (for iOS and Android) that turns your phone or tablet into a trackpad that lets you navigate by swiping and scrolling on the screen. Additionally, interested developers can use an API to build new features for the platform. As is the case with so much of what we see at CES, the InAir adapter won’t be available until the second half of the year and when it does land, it’ll cost $99. Wanna see what your dollars will buy? A demo video awaits after the break.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
Source: SeeSpace
LaCie partners with Christofle on Sphère: a silver-plated limited-edition hard drive
Last year at CES, LaCie unveiled the Philippe Starck-designed Blade Runner to grab the attention of those who prefer their storage gadgets to be extra dapper. This time around, the outfit has teamed up with French silversmith Christofle on Sphère. The globe-influenced external hard drive is silver-plated and touts a 1TB capacity. File transfers are sorted via a USB 3.0 connection that doubles as the device’s power supply. Just like its predecessor, the shiny Sphère is going to be in short supply when it arrives later this quarter with a $490 price tag, ready to upgrade the look of that workstation.
We were able to take a closer look at the Sphère just ahead of the proper start of CES 2014. Despite what appears to be a weighty silver shell, the drive is quite light. The shiny exterior may double as a mirror in a pinch, but mucking it up with fingerprints will happen quickly. Aside from the branding inscriptions on the front and the iconic blue light, there aren’t any other details aside from a cable slot around back on the unit’s black base. Of course, less is more definitely applies here.
Filed under: Storage
Seagate’s Backup Plus line expands with Slim, Fast and desktop external drives for appropriately named file storage
We’ve been familiar with Seagate’s Backup Plus line for quite some time now, and the company has just announced three new offerings under that moniker here at CES. The storage outfit has pulled the wraps off of Backup Plus Slim, Fast and desktop external hard drives, living up to each of those names with both automatic and scheduled backups. First, Fast is being touted as the first 4TB portable drive with dual 2TB drives in RAID 0. The unit is bus-powered at the hands of its USB 3.0 connection and claims speeds of 220 MB/s with a metal-topped plastic enclosure. It’s set to ship for $300. Join us on the other side of the break for details on the rest of the group.
Next, the Backup Plus Slim has been labeled by Seagate as the slimmest (12.1mm, to be exact) portable drive on the market with 500GB, 1TB and 2TB capacities. This option is also powered by USB 3.0 transfers and sports the same plastic shell with a solid aluminum top. If color coordination is your thing, black, silver, red and blue paint schemes can be yours for the taking at prices ranging from $100 to $180. Last but not least, for those that don’t mind keeping their storage repositories at a workstation, the Backup Plus desktop serves up 2TB, 3TB and 4TB capacities inside a metal housing. This option is larger than the other two, as its meant to be left at home rather than stuffed in a jacket pocket. Pricing for the trio has been set at $130, $160 and $230, respectively, and the entire new Backup Plus line ships next month.
In addition to the new hardware, Seagate has also updated its Dashboard app that’s used with all of its Backup drives. The software still acts as a PC backup and allows for social sharing, but this time around, mobile-device backup has been added. Apps for taking advantage of the update will be available for both iOS and Android, however the Apple-flavored version will only back up the Camera Roll. The option for Google’s OS protects pictures, videos, contacts, messages and your call log in case of a gadget failure. For a closer look at the whole lot, visit the gallery above for a quick gander.
Michael Gorman contributed to this report.
Filed under: Storage
Okidokeys smart locks let you manage your front door remotely
There are goofy product names, and then there’s Okidokeys, a moniker that achieves new levels of silliness. All said, however, the company seems to take its line of smart locks pretty seriously. Its parent company, OpenWays Group, already provides smartphone-based door lock solutions to hotels. The company’s leveraging the 256-bit AES cryptology security it’s used in those products for Okidokeys, home locks you control with an Android or iOS handset via Bluetooth. There seems to be a pretty wide array of options here, letting you enable a hands-free unlock when you’re near the door or associating objects like an RFID card, in case your smartphone should run out of juice. Using the company’s online portal, you can manage accounts, giving people limited access to the door so, say, your babysitter can only get in during a designated time, and if anyone tries to break in, you’ll get an alert on your phone. You can also unlock the door from afar, should someone forget their key. The line of locks starts at $179. Pre-orders open up this month, with the product is set to ship in the spring.
LaCie Little Big Disk Thunderbolt 2 wields dual 500GB SSDs, Intel’s latest port tech
When Intel officially ushered in Thunderbolt 2 back in June, it promised that we’d see devices sporting those blazing-fast speeds soon. It seems LaCie was one outfit poised to embrace the tech as the storage company has just announced the Little Big Disk Thunderbolt 2. The successor to the original model, version 2.0 touts transfer speeds of 1,375 MB/s, thanks to Intel’s port, and a new all-black paint scheme on its aluminum shell. Inside, two 500GB PCIe Gen 2 SSDs in RAID 0 can wrangle 4K and 3D video edits — power that should properly arm the creative lot for hefty fieldwork. That interior space has also been designed to properly handle heat distribution so that the virtually silent, thermoregulated fan need only kick on every now and then. There’s no word on pricing just yet, but the storage gadget is set to arrive later this quarter.
We were able to see the new Little Big Disk in action in order to catch a glimpse of its speeds. During our time with the unit, we observed write speeds of 1,200 MB/s and read marks at 1,300 MB/s — transferring a 300GB file in about four minutes. Thankfully, the drives that were set up ahead of our arrival, and had been sorting files for some time, remained at nearly room temp. With two of the Thunderbolt 2 drives set up in RAID 0, we witnessed 2,000 MB/s write speeds and 2,600 MB/s read numbers. Although the front plate of the new unit is glossy, the entire enclosure is still metal and the black paint job looks quite nice beside a new Mac Pro.
Filed under: Storage
Parrot’s Jumping Sumo ‘bot gets some pretty impressive air (video)
Oh, and Parrot’s got one more thing up its sleeve at tonight’s CES Unveiled event, and while this one can’t actually fly, it’s still pretty damn neat. The company’s calling it the “Sumo,” for reasons that aren’t immediately clear — the “insectoid” label it’s also tossing around seems a bit more appropriate, all said. The device is a two-wheeled terrestrial ‘bot that’s controlled via tablet or smartphone, using streaming video from a built-in camera. It’s pretty zippy, and even more impressively, it can stop on a dime. CEO Henri Seydoux was piloting the ‘bot around, making sharp 90-degree turns moments before running into an obstacle. Neater still is the ‘bot’s ability to jump in the air up to 80 centimeters from a sitting position.
The Sumo uses 2.4 or 5GHz WiFi, giving it better range than many remote controlled toys. Like the MiniDrone, it’ll be available in 2014 for an as-of-yet undetermined price.
Filed under: Robots
A closer look at Belkin’s Crock-Pot WeMo Slow Cooker (hands-on)
After light bulbs and smart outlets, Belkin is looking to tackle small appliances with its WeMo home automation line. The company just announced the Crock-Pot WeMo Slow Cooker and we’ve already stopped by to see what’s… cooking. Those familiar with the popular culinary tool can expect a similar form factor to the current non-connected wares. The silver-and-black color scheme does offer a bit of sophistication though, just in case you were worried. Simplified controls are situated on the front with a single button for toggling warm, low and high settings. With the WeMo app, users can adjust temperature and set timers to ensure proper doneness. Around back, there’s a slot for clipping on a lid holder to keep the mess to a minimum when that batch of meatballs needs a stirring. Belkin tells us that this is the first of many partner WeMo devices with items like space heaters and more on the way. If the idea of smart slow cooking already has you sold, this Crock-Pot will hit kitchen counters in the spring for $99.
Filed under: Household
Wellograph is an activity tracker with good looks and fun graphs (hands-on)
One of the latest entrants to the crowded wearables market is an activity tracker that you might actually want to wear on a night out. The Wellograph, a device with a sapphire crystal display, features a heart rate monitor and an activity tracker, and — gasp — it’s a standalone device, with no smartphone integration to speak of beyond syncing with Bluetooth 4.0.
Sarasin Art Booppanon, CEO of Wellograph, told us his product stands out from other activity trackers by displaying information such as steps taken and heartbeats per minute in graph form (rather than simply displaying digits). Another distinguishing feature: the sapphire crystal display, allegedly the first to appear on a moderately priced consumer product. This type of screen is known for its scratch-resistance, and while that’s not something we could easily put to the test here at CES Unveiled, we can tell you it looked (and felt) pretty sturdy.
You’d expect a device focused on fitness to look rugged — even clunky — but the Wellograph is anything but. Its leather strap and stainless steel design scream “money,” and we’re pretty much thrilled that Wellograph took a sophisticated approach. It’s a nice change from the more utilitarian designs we’ve seen, but it’s definitely not unisex; the timepiece looked a tad ridiculous on this female editor’s small wrist.
The Wellograph features a 168 x 144 e-paper LCD display, and we found that visibility was limited with strong overhead light. To navigate the interface, you press one of two buttons on the device’s right side: the top one to toggle pages within a certain feature (i.e., clock or fitness stats) and the bottom to move between the different features. It’s simple, yet engaging, especially because the stats are more interactive than what we’ve seen on other activity trackers (numbers — so boring!). You can see your fitness level, and your fitness age, pinpointed on a bell curve, for example. The Wellograph slides into a magnetic charging dock thanks to a connector on the back — the rear side of the tracker, incidentally, is also where you’ll find the heart rate sensor.
Booppanon told us the Wellograph will go on sale in April for about $300. Lucky for you, though, we have some hands-on photos below.
Alexis Santos contributed to this report.
Filed under: Peripherals
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