Eight eye-popping gadgets launched at CES 2016

A roundup of mind-bending devices at the recently concluded electronics trade show held in Las Vegas
1. Bulb that listens

Yes it can light up a dark room, but that’s just one of things that the Sengled Voice LED can do. You can tell this smart bulb to dim the lights or control the music streaming from its speakers. It also keeps an ear out for smoke alarms or your baby crying, sending you an alarm by text. Want more? Sengled Voice can search the net and send you calendar alerts. ($60 per bulb approx)

2. Drone you can ride in

They can take pictures, deliver packages and be used for warfare. But now, you can actually take a 23-minute ride in the EHang 184. Developed by a Chinese company, it looks like an enormous, well, drone, but with stylish gull wing doors. You can fit a travel bag, and fly it through controls on a tablet in the cockpit. It’s five feet tall, weighs 440 pounds, and flies at a speed of just over 62 miles per hour. ($200,000 approx)

3. Robot butler

Mark Zuckerberg, meet the Ninebot Segway. It’s not the AI butler robot Zuckerberg had in mind when he made his 2016 resolution, but Intel, Segway and Ninebot have joined hands to create a robot that can open doors for you, has an adorable emoji face, and can pretty much do anything you want. Its CES moment? When Intel attached its arms during the demo. Ninebot Segway said, “Are those my arms? Awesome!” (No price yet)



4. Refrigerator with cameras

Forget the TV den. Switch to the kitchen if you have the Samsung’s Family Hub refrigerator. This fridge has a 21.5 inch HD Super AMOLED. That’s a humongous touchscreen that lets you order groceries (it has web connectivity), email, watch movies, share recipes and upload photos so you no longer need those souvenir magnets. But we love its three cameras that show you a photo of the food inside, through closed doors. So if you forgot what’s in your fridge while you’re at the supermarket, just check the fridge camera, via your phone. (No price yet)

5. Helmet to grow hair

Bald men, rejoice. If you’ve dreamt of lustrous hair, the iGrow helmet uses 51 lasers and LED lights to apply low-level laser therapy (LLLT) to naked noggins. The lasers use a wavelength of 655 nanometres to “re-energise” and restore the growth of hair follicles, the iGrow’s creators said. What do you do? Wear the helmet for 25 minutes a day. You can listen to music through headphones while the treatment happens. Oh, and wait for about nine months for total hair restoration. ($970 approx)

6. Scan your calories

Counting your calories? DietSensor understands. This French startup has a tool that scans the dish in front of you (even that soufflé as light as air at the end of your Michelin-restaurant dinner) and calculates the calories. The gadget uses Bluetooth to connect to a sensor, developed by SCiO, that reads the molecules vibrating in your food, giving its nutritional value. ($250)



7. Twist and shoot

Think out of the box, which is what the Boud Flex Camera does with its twisty body that has a camera at the end of a long flexible stick. It has an 8-megapixel camera that records footage in full HD, 1080p at 30 frames per second, a 480mAh battery for up to an hour of video recording, and 16GB memory. Plus, they can be bent around your wrist or even a dog’s collar. With seven “funny faces”, a Cyclops-like eye and some with troll hair or a headphone, these cameras are a riot. (No price yet)

8. Roll up your TV screen

You’ve seen the curved TV, but what about one that rolls up like a newspaper? LG turned heads at CES 2016 with an 18 inch TV. This flexible OLED panel can be rolled upto a radius of three centimetres. The technology builds on LG’s forward-looking OLED work focusing on bendable, rollable, and curving displays. Once you’re done watching, you can roll it up and put it in your bag, or store it in your cupboard so it doesn’t take up space in your living room. That’s flexi-TV for you. (No price yet)