From cars that change color to smart sprinklers that automatically activate when your yard is too dry, the tech industry seems to come up with fascinating gadgets that improve our lives every year. But sometimes I wonder: Just because the tech industry can do all these nifty things, should it?
CES this year It included some products that seemed more creepy than cool at first glance.like Exercise bike built into work desk Power your computer or other device that covers your mouth in the real world while chatting on a conference call or playing a game. Perhaps most eyebrow rises were toilet bowl sensors for analyzing pee. The ever-expanding prevalence of cameras into our lives could mean more silly things with people live-streaming their Great British Bake-Off style moments from the oven. On the one hand, there are too many cameras connected to the Internet, and there is a very real question of which company is doing what. You can trust access to them.
In any case, these products may have good reasons, but I wonder if they can also help pave the way for the dystopian future that has been warned about in science fiction for decades. I have to ask.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, who attended this year’s CES, said, “I’ve seen a lot of things in the ’80s and ’90s that were science fiction turned into scientific fact.” It unintentionally quashed people’s growing fears about technology spiraling out of control. After all, Schwarzenegger starred as a murderous villain, and in the movie Terminator he starred as the hero’s T-800 robot in the franchise. “In most of my films, machines were the enemy,” he told the show’s audience without sarcasm.
But he has learned from his various roles in Hollywood that companies “have to work with humans, not against us, for technology to really work.” He said that it seemed to be
Here are some products that disrupt that line no matter how well-intentioned their inventors are.
Mutek is designed to make conversation easier, even though it seems to do the opposite.
Getty Images
In the name of protecting your conversation
Balancing work and family life is one of the biggest battles of the pandemic. Whether it’s kids interrupting work with cabin fever or conference call duels between spouses working in the same spare room at home, there are moments when Get Smart’s Cone of Silence is welcome. bottom. That’s where Shiftall thinks his Mutalk can help.
The device looks like a creepy high-tech version of a mouth gag, but it’s actually meant to make it easier to have conversations in the virtual and work worlds you may be interacting with. I’m doing it. It calls itself a “soundproof Bluetooth microphone that makes it difficult for others to hear your voice and makes it difficult for ambient noise to enter the microphone.”
French startup Skyted has created a similar sound-absorbing mask to ensure privacy for calls in crowded and noisy places. While it looks like a bulky version of the reusable masks we’ve grown accustomed to during the pandemic, Skyted says it absorbs 80% of his voice vibrations and instead directs them to your phone or computer via a wireless Bluetooth connection. I’m here.
In a statement announcing his device, Skyted CEO Stefan Hersen said: “My initial concept was from a transportation perspective. We focused on ways to keep the human voice out of the way, to keep it that way.” “We all experience phone calls in very noisy situations where confidentiality is likely to be compromised and noise attacks on people around us can occur frequently, even at home. Not to mention competing conference calls.”
The eKinekt BD 3 Bike Desk is powered by the energy produced by pedaling.
Acer
make you work more for work
There is a moment in Netflix’s dystopian sci-fi TV show, Black Mirror, in which the episode’s protagonist is forced to use a stationary bike that generates electricity in exchange for “merits.”
That’s probably not the idea that Acer’s designers hoped to conjure up when they created it. eKinekt BD 3, an exercise bike that blends into your desk. As the user pedals, energy is pumped into the battery. Acer says it envisions the product as a way to “empower a sustainable and healthy lifestyle,” and perhaps agrees with concerns people might have, saying that the device’s battery will power the pedals. It states that you can charge your device whether you are paddling or not.
I give the product 1 point for trying to create a more sustainable working setup, but deduct 1 point for inadvertently making me relive the 15 million benefits episode of Black Mirror.
Withings U-Scan is a toilet sensor that reads urine.
Withings
very personal sensor
Millions of people today have to pee in test cups or use test strips to track their nutrition, kidney function and menstrual cycle. I think the sensor could use a cartridge to detect and send the results to an app, which would simplify everything.
Withings CEO Mathieu Letombe told CNET:
Of course, their mere existence raises greater questions about our personal data and the trust we place in technology companies to protect it. Advocates, for example, A Digital Trail for Abortion Seekers In states where abortion is prosecuted, it may be used as criminal evidence.
3 months after U.S. Supreme Court Overturns Roe v. Wade Decisionstripping U.S. women of nearly 50 years of guaranteed physical rights, Apple executives say health data and cycle tracking performed via Apple Watch and iPhone are “encrypted on the device.” passcode, Touch ID or Face ID.” The data is further protected between the device and the backup, and “Apple does not have the key to decrypt the data and cannot read it.” Sumbul Desai, Apple’s vice president of health, said at the time.
Meanwhile, Withings says on its website that, as a French company, it is subject to European Union regulations that “guarantee a high degree of protection for personal data”, but also acknowledges that it must comply with “mandatory disclosures”. I’m here. Some authorities ‘if compelled by law. Withings also says that if you delete your account, you will not be able to retrieve any information from the system after 7 days.
The Ring Car Cam brings Amazon’s home security subsidiary to the automotive world.
ring
big tech is watching
This is less about what a product is than who made it. It’s already connected to a lot of technology commercially available drive recorderBut what’s most interesting about Ring’s $250 Car Cam is that it’s designed to work with Ring’s wider range of apps and services. While this could be an advantage for fans of the company’s products, it’s not necessarily a guaranteed win for those following Ring’s close ties to law enforcement and last year’s announcements. We reserve the right to share video footage with the government In an “emergency” situation, with or without the user’s consent or warrant.
Ring’s Car Cam is actually two cameras, one aimed at the street and one at the passenger. Ring said it incorporated a physical shutter on the car-facing side of the device. When someone closes that shutter, the microphone also turns off, but the outward-facing camera continues to record. In an interview with CNET’s Justin Eastther.
