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These were the weirdest products at CES

Mixed among the dreck and the legitimately cool stuff was a whole lot of weird.

Justin Jaffe
Justin Jaffe is the Managing Editor for CNET Money. He has more than 20 years of experience publishing books, articles and research on finance and technology for Wired, IDC and others. He is the coauthor of Uninvested (Random House, 2015), which reveals how financial services companies take advantage of customers -- and how to protect yourself. He graduated from Skidmore College with a B.A. in English Literature, spent 10 years in San Francisco and now lives in Portland, Maine.
Justin Jaffe
The Lovebox
1 of 35 Patrick Holland/CNET

The Lovebox

Welcome, seekers of tech oddities, to CNET's roundup of the strangest sights and products we've seen at CES 2018. (Last updated: Jan. 12 at 12 p.m. PT.)

Oh, tiny wooden box, what are you doing here at CES? When the Wi-Fi-connected Lovebox receives a message from your loved one -- sent using the accompanying app -- the tiny heart on the front spins like a pinwheel. Lift the lid to see a screen that shows you the message or drawing. Aww.

The Lovebox costs $99, which converts to £70 and AU$125, and can be purchased on the Lovebox website.

Atari Pong table
2 of 35 CNET

Atari Pong table

A must for every hipster frat house in 2018, this nondigital, magnetic edition of Pong, embedded in a coffee table, pays tribute to the iconic paddle-and-ball video game released by Atari in 1972. 

Available on Kickstarter, the table sells for between $900 and $1,000 (roughly £725 or AU$1,250) and began shipping in December.

Google's booth
3 of 35 Sean Buckley/CNET

Google's booth

Google's massive, three-story structure at CES was more of an art installation or funhouse than a traditional booth and it contained multitudes. A candy-coated playground. A miniature train set. A donut shop. A museum of sorts. A newspaper stand. And a spiral slide.

The Schwarzkopf Professional SalonLab haircare system
4 of 35 CNET

The Schwarzkopf Professional SalonLab haircare system

Henkel Beauty Care has developed the Schwarzkopf Professional SalonLab -- a handheld, Bluetooth-connected device that analyzes your hair and comes up with a customized shampoo formula. 

SalonLab will be available to customers of Schwarzkopf Professional hair salons in the US and Europe in 2018. Consultations are free, but the shampoo won't be. 


Lifx Tiles
5 of 35 Ry Crist/CNET

Lifx Tiles

Lifx's color-changing LED "Tiles" are square-shaped, programmable light panels. Each Tile is made up on an eight-by-eight grid of fully customizable "light zones," giving you 64 different points of light to play with in each. With support for all three of the major voice platforms (Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant), Lifx can display animated lighting effects and sync up with your music.

Tiles will be available on the company's website and at Best Buy at the end of February. A five-panel starter kit will cost $249 (about £185 or AU$315).

The Nokia Sleep pad
6 of 35 CNET

The Nokia Sleep pad

Nokia will watch you while you sleep. Its Wi-Fi-enabled Sleep pad sits under your mattress, studies your sleeping habits and serves up a snooze score and recommendations on how to improve it. Integration with  IFTTT means you can program it to turn the lights on and off and adjust the thermostat when you get in or out of bed. Cool or creepy? You decide. 

The Nokia Sleep will be available in early 2018 for $100 (roughly £75 or AU$125, converted).

Ovie Smarterware
7 of 35 Ovie

Ovie Smarterware

Ovie's Smarterware -- essentially a Bluetooth button you can stick on your Tupperware -- will let you know when your kale is about to go limp. Stick it on to your leftovers, tell Alexa or Google Assistant what you're storing and Ovie's database will take care of the rest.

A three-pack of buttons will cost $60 when Smarterware hits the market by the end of the year. The price converts to roughly £45 or AU$75.

Microsoft Glas
8 of 35 Chris Monroe/CNET

Microsoft Glas

Microsoft and Johnson Controls are responsible for this Cortana-powered smart thermostat. Glas -- we're not sure what happened to that final "s" -- is powered by Windows 10 IoT Core and features a translucent OLED display with touch controls, though it also supports Microsoft's digital assistant, Cortana. It can control your home's temperature, keep an eye on the weather outside and track energy savings. 

Preorders will begin in March 2018 with a retail price of $319 in the US. (Pricing for UK and Australia is not yet available, but that converts to about £235 or AU$405.)

Foreo's booth of skin care horrors
9 of 35 Roger Cheng/CNET

Foreo's booth of skin care horrors

Though the product isn't particularly dramatic -- a 20-second skin care mask that's supposed to replace the 20-minute version -- the stagecraft of Foreo's booth is undeniable. Chainsaws, guards clad in body armor and faces covered in saran wrap are just some of the details designed to evoke the modern skincare industrial complex. 

Foreo's mask is available now on Kickstarter, having raised 19 times its goal of $20,000. 

My Special Aflac Duck
10 of 35 Tyler Lizenby/CNET

My Special Aflac Duck

On a brighter note, there's My Special Aflac Duck -- a cute robotic stuffed animal meant to comfort kids with cancer. Its touch sensors, light-reactive sensors and microphone work together to adapt to different environments and adjust the duck's behavior. When you hold it, it's incredibly lifelike as it dances, nuzzles and seems to breathe. Hands-down, the cuddliest robot at CES this year.

Each duck costs approximately $200 (around £150, AU$255), but Aflac will donate these robot companions at no cost to any children newly diagnosed with cancer.

Somnox
11 of 35 Somnox

Somnox robot pillow

And here's another robot you might want to sleep with. This pillow-looking creature comes equipped with everything you want in a bedmate: an accelerometer, an audio sensor and a carbon dioxide sensor. Hold it to your chest and you'll actually feel Somnox pulse as if it's breathing, which is meant to help you relax and fall asleep.

The Somnox is due out this fall for $550 (roughly £400 or AU$700).

Mitipi Kevin
12 of 35 Chris Monroe/CNET

Mitipi Kevin

If you don't already have a homebody roommate, you might be interested in Kevin. This smart speaker simulates the lights and noise of a populated house -- whether that's the flickering blue light and noise of an action movie playing late at night, a conversation in the kitchen or the shadows of someone walking around the living room doing the vacuuming. 

Mitipi will launch Kevin on Kickstarter in the coming weeks for $150 (that's roughly £110 or AU$190). When it launches officially, that price will go up to $300 (£220, AU$385).

Spartan Radiation Underwear
13 of 35 Spartan

Spartan Radiation Underwear

Spartan claims its boxer briefs block 99 percent of phone and Wi-Fi radiation. As the company puts it, the boxer briefs are a Faraday Cage for your private parts. 'Nuff said.

The Spartan boxer briefs are available now and cost 42 euros (roughly $50, £40 or AU$55).

The Skiin underwear, for women and men, has sensors to monitor things like pulse and breathing rate.
14 of 35 Myant

Myant's Skiin smart underwear

Finally, after years of inconvenience, we can now charge our smart underwear wirelessly! Myant's Skiin underwear, for women and men, which uses sensors to monitor pulse and breathing rate, now supports Energous wireless charging technology.

Pricing an availability were not announced.

Modius headband
15 of 35 CNET

Modius headband

The Modius headband is designed to help support your weight loss efforts. Two electrodes attached to the headband stimulate the parts of your brain that affect homeostasis in order to reduce your appetite, increase your metabolism and adjust your body fat set point. 

Pricing and availability has not been announced.

Nanoleaf
16 of 35 Nanoleaf

Nanoleaf

Searching for that perfect hallucinogenic accent for your home? Just touch Nanoleaf's panels to turn them on and off, dim them up and down, or change their color. The integrated music sync microphone and motion sensors will make sure your panels light up whenever you walk by. Very trippy. 

Name, price and availability all remain unannounced.

YaDoggie smart scoop
17 of 35 Ashlee Clark Thompson/CNET

YaDoggie smart scoop

YaDoggie is like a Blue Apron for dogs: It delivers its brand of dog food and treats to your door so you'll always have your pooch's food on deck. If that's not enough, the company has developed a Bluetooth-connected food scoop and app that keeps track of who fed the dog. 

You'll have to sign up for a subscription plan before you can get the smart scoop, which will be available in the spring.

Toyota's e-Palette concept vehicle
18 of 35 Antuan Goodwin/Roadshow

Toyota's e-Palette concept vehicle

In the future, your pizza and mail may be delivered by Toyota's newest and  strangest vehicle, which takes its aesthetic cues from both the shipping container and the toaster. With a boxy, modular design, the e-Palette comes in a variety of sizes and is highly reconfigurable. Partners on the project include Amazon, Pizza Hut, Uber and others.

Pricing and availability is not currently available.

ForwardX CX-1 suitcase
19 of 35 Screenshot by Jacob Dekker/CNET

ForwardX CX-1 suitcase

Solo travel need not be lonely. ForwardX's hands-free, autonomous carry-on suitcase will dutifully follow you anywhere.

The company plans to launch the luggage sometime later this year, but hasn't announced pricing. 

NeoMano robotic glove
20 of 35 Josh Miller/CNET

NeoMano robotic glove

This glove helps people with a spinal cord injury perform everyday tasks like holding a cup or brushing their teeth. It has titanium wires that can move the thumb and index and middle fingers and a controller that can set or release a grip.

The NeoMano will seek funding through a Kickstarter campaign in the spring and is expected to be available later this year.

Ingenious Things Myteepi Woody
21 of 35 Chris Monroe/CNET

Ingenious Things Myteepi Woody

The company: Ingenious Things. The device: the Myteepi Woody. (They're French, obviously.) The Woody offers all-in-one monitoring for temperature, humidity and motion, and it'll keep an ear out for alarms, too.

The Woody is scheduled to launch in Europe and the US following a Kickstarter campaign in the coming months. At retail, it'll sell for 199 euros, with US pricing yet to be finalized (that European price tag comes out to about $240, £175 or AU$305, converted roughly).

Vuzix Blade
22 of 35 CNET

Vuzix Blade

Vuzix has embedded a camera, microphone and side-mounted touchpad in this pair of chunky, black shades, which takes phone calls and puts Alexa's giant brain between your ears. 

Pricing and availability have not yet been announced.

Helite Hip'Air
23 of 35 Josh Miller/CNET

Helite Hip'Air

Try this on for size: airbags for your hips. The Hip'Air looks like a fanny pack, but is filled with sensors, a battery, airbags and an air cartridge. When a sensor detects a fall, the airbags deploy to break a person's fall.

The Hip'Air will be available in Europe this spring for 600 euros, which converts to $720, £530 and AU$920. It will be available in the US starting in the fall.

Heatworks Tetra
24 of 35 Heatworks

Heatworks Tetra

This represents some of the best out-of-the-box thinking we've seen at CES this year. Heatworks and Frog Design has partnered up on the Tetra, a connected countertop dishwasher that uses just a half gallon of water per cycle. Very cool.

Tetra plugs into any household electrical outlet and is slated to cost $299, which converts roughly to £220 or AU$380. It's expected to go on sale in late 2018.

Rokid Glass
25 of 35 Sarah Tew/CNET

Rokid Glass

Would you wear these? The Rokid Glass projects a single image using a 1080p embedded OLED with roughly a 40-degree field of view and features a voice assistant for all of those visuals. 

Pricing and availability has not yet been announced.

L'Oreal UV Sense
26 of 35 Josh Miller/CNET

L'Oreal UV Sense

If you no longer live with your parents, L'Oreal's battery-free wearable, will be more than happy to take their place nagging you about sun exposure. At only 2mm thick and 9mm in diameter, the tiny electronic UV sensor can be worn on a fingernail or pair of sunglasses.

It's available exclusively through dermatologists in 2018 with a global launch planned for 2019. Estimated pricing is $40 or less (roughly converting to £30 or AU$50).

Planet Computers Gemini
27 of 35 Josh Miller/CNET

Planet Computers Gemini

The Gemini hopes to ride the '90s wave with its retro clamshell design. But the inside is pure 2018: 10-core processor, 64GB of storage and 4G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. 

It's not yet in stores but you can preorder via Indiegogo. The 4G LTE model sells for $599 (about £440 or AU$765) and the Wi-Fi-only model sells for $499 (around £370 or AU$635).

Kolibree Magik smart toothbrush
28 of 35 Josh Miller/CNET

Kolibree Magik smart toothbrush

Brush teeth, kill monsters, prevent cavities. Hang on, what was the middle one again? The Magik smart toothbrush uses computer vision technology, motion tracking and your phone's front-facing camera to power an augmented reality gaming app. Sounds like fun.

Availability and pricing unknown.

Numi Intelligent Toilet
29 of 35 Tyler Lizenby/CNET

Kohler Numi Intelligent Toilet

Smart toilets have invaded CES this year and Kohler's new top-of-the-line model delivers hands-free flushing, bidet cleansing, feet warming, air drying, odor control, music, a night light and automatic seat temperature management. Plus, you can ask Alexa to flush. 

Availability and pricing unknown.

Moodo scent machine
30 of 35 Moodo

Moodo scent machine

Gather up all of your scented candles and oils and throw them in the garbage. Feel better? If not, you may be interested in Moodo's Wi-Fi-connected, Alexa-supported scent machine that can make your home smell like an ashram spa or beach party. 

Pricing starts at $189 (about £140 or AU$240 converted), available now at moodo.co.

Volkswagen I.D. Buzz
31 of 35 Ingo Barenschee

Volkswagen's I.D. Buzz

The brilliant teams at Volkswagen and Nvidia teamed up and decided to name this thing the I.D. Buzz. The graphics card maker's just-announced Drive IX platform will help this odd vehicle recognize and unlock the door for the owner and tailor the in-car experience through personalization.

The I.D. Buzz concept will become a reality, but when, and for how much, is not yet known.

Elmer Smart Shower
32 of 35 Elmer

Elmer Smart Shower

This Amazon Alexa-powered shower covers every basic self-care necessity: It plays surround sound music and can lather you in essential oils. Everything else is unimportant.

Elmer's Smart Shower range starts at $1,500 (about £1,100 or AU$1,900).

Yevo Bluetooth headphones
33 of 35 Ian Sherr/CNET

Yevo Bluetooth headphones

On a serious note, we've never seen something quite like Yevo's Bluetooth headphones at CES before. The Swedish company manufactures the headphones out of recycled gun parts and hopes to bring more awareness to the issue of gun violence. Pretty cool.

Yevo plans to sell the headphones for $499 (about £370 or AU$640) when they're released in the next few months.

The Foreo UFO
34 of 35 Josh Miller/CNET

The Foreo UFO

The Foreo UFO is the "first smart mask treatment." The device offers 90-second facial treatments that combine LED light therapy, thermotherapy and T-Sonic pulsations. How divine!

The Foreo UFO will sell for $279 and a smaller version, the UFO Mini, will retail for $179 (those prices convert to AU$355 or £205 and AU$230 or £130). For the time being, it's on Kickstarter and customers can pick one up for a little less.

Lots more to come at CES 2018
35 of 35 Sarah Tew/CNET

CES 2018 is full of weirdness

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