UPDATED 13:35 EDT / JANUARY 07 2013

NEWS

CES 2013 Innovations: Smart Forks, Android-Powered Ovens and Throwaway Tech

The first few hours of CES 2013 have dazzled us with a deluge of delicious devices so far, with dozens of new Android tablets weird and wonderful Smart TVs stealing the show so far.

But while the big guns have given us plenty of tech to chew over so far, a number of smaller companies have also impressed with some innovative “intelligent” products that no one was quite expecting.

Intelligent Cutlery

Hidden away amongst the likes of Samsung, LG and Lenovo, a small French outfit by the name of Hapifork has offered up one of the most inspirational new devices we’ve seen so far – the Smart Fork.

That’s right, a fork.

Admittedly it’s one of the wackiest of “smart” products we’ve seen anyone come up with so far, but it might just hold promise for those who have tried every diet and exercise regime under the sun and still failed to lose weight.

See all CES coverage here!

Hapifork describes its product as “Intelligent cutlery”, and basically what it does is to try and make you eat your meals more slowly. It works by keeping count of the time you take to eat your dinner or lunch and calculating how many mouthfuls of you wolf down per minutes. It’s capable of measuring the interval between bringing the fork up to your mouth and back to the plate again – should it decide you’re doing this too quickly, a gentle vibration will warn you to slow down.

The vibration feels much the same as your smartphone vibrating when it’s been switched to silent.

Once you’ve finished eating, the Smart Fork can then upload your ‘dinner data’ to the Hapifork web portal via USB to your PC or by Bluetooth, allowing you to share this and keep track of your meal times.

It remains to be seen how much of a help Hapifork can provide, but perhaps it will appeal to desperate dieters with nothing else to lose. The company plans to launch its device at next March’s Kickstarter event, with products going on sale this April.

The Android Oven

Wouldn’t it be great if someone designed and developed an oven that knew how to make any meal you ever wanted – preparing all the ingredients, dicing them up, slicing and mixing in the right amounts, adding seasoning and then cooking it to perfection?

Well, Dacor’s Android-powered oven isn’t quite capable of doing all that, but it is a step in the right direction.

It’s new, 30-inch Discovery IQ Wall Oven is certainly capable of lending a helping hand in the kitchen, allowing budding cooks to surf the net, look at recipes and, for those who are less than confident in their cooking abilities, providing step-by-step guidance as they prepare their meal.

Its usefulness extends to calculating various food-related queries too – for example, if you’re not sure how long that rack of lamb is supposed to take, simply key in its weight and the Discovery IQ Controller will do the hard work, adjusting itself to the optimal temperature whilst setting a timer for you. There’s also a corresponding smartphone app that syncs with the cooker, allowing you to keep track of what’s cooking whilst outside the kitchen.

The Android oven ain’t cheap though – when it’s released later this year, it’ll set you back a cool $4,499 for a single oven or $7,499 for a double.

Throwaway Fitness Tech

Technology has progressed to the point that we can now just throw it away once we’re done with it. In fact, that’s exactly what Bodymedia wants you to do with its latest new gadget – an adhesive patch that’s worn on your arm or leg for up to seven days before being disposed of.

Once your time is up, simply rip of the patch, tear it open, plug the small internal device into the USB port on your laptop and download all of the data it’s collected.

The stick-on gadget records information about how active you were over the last week, as well as how many calories you burned off (and what time you did so), your sleeping habits and more. From all of this data, it’s able to come up with suggestions that can help you lead a healthier lifestyle.

Bodymedia plans to sell its new adhesive devices “less than $50”, with the hope being that they will appeal to those who might be curious about their products but unwilling to shell out over a hundred dollars on one of their longer-lasting products, reports MobileHealthNews.


A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:

Your vote of support is important to us and it helps us keep the content FREE.

One click below supports our mission to provide free, deep, and relevant content.  

Join our community on YouTube

Join the community that includes more than 15,000 #CubeAlumni experts, including Amazon.com CEO Andy Jassy, Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, and many more luminaries and experts.

“TheCUBE is an important partner to the industry. You guys really are a part of our events and we really appreciate you coming and I know people appreciate the content you create as well” – Andy Jassy

THANK YOU