Tongue-zapping spoons, tea-cooling catbots, lazy vacuums and more from CES
All the consumer electronics weirdness you didn't want to see in person anyway
CES As the gadget-filled spectacle that CES draws to a close, there's much to anticipate and just as much that leaves us completely baffled.
We've already talked about the worst finds in the repairability and sustainability categories in our the worst of CES 2025. Now we turn an eye toward all the weird stuff that occupies the nooks and crannies of the Vegas show floor and has us wondering who decided to dedicate an engineering team's time and salary toward such projects.
There's plenty of weirdness to pick through at CES every year, and we've whittled it down to these six items.
Let a robot cool your coffee
Tired of waiting for your hot beverage to cool down? Japanese startup Yukai Engineering has the solution: A $25 mug-clinging robot that cools it down for you.
This isn't just a glorified tiny fan: The Nékojita FuFu includes several algorithmically-differentiated blowing modes meant to mimic the various ways a human might blow on a drink to cool it, like "Look at That!," described by the biz as a gradual ramp up in strength "as if [the bot] is captivated by how the food looks," or "The Princess," which involves a series of "elegant, slow and steady increases in strength."
The startup claims the silicon-encased bot can cool a hot drink from 88 degrees Celsius to 71 degrees or 66 degrees in three or five minutes, respectively. Sans robot, those same drinks would be 80 or 77 degrees Celsius in the same three to five minute timespan.
What a great use of all that circuitry and plastic.
Speaking of cat-themed stuff that won't get used …
Korean tech giant LG took to the CES show floor with lots of stuff, and tucked away in its "Inspire & Innovate" exhibit was a fancy cat bed called the "AeroCat Tower" that includes an integrated air purifier.
The towering, scoop-shaped cat bed reportedly includes sensors that track a cat's health and weight while it sleeps, and thanks to integration with LG's suite of ThinQ smart home products, it will deliver all those insights to a smartphone.
But let's be realistic: It'll make noise, it'll get scratched, and the cat would probably prefer the box it comes in. No pricing or availability details have been shared for this likely-to-go-unused device.
A robot vacuum that rewards the lazy even more
It's one thing to let a robot vacuum the floors for you, but when one maker of the things is adding a five-axis mechanical arm to pick up stuff in its way, you know humans have reached new heights of laziness.
The Saros Z70 does a lot of the typical stuff a robot vacuum does, but the outfit clams it stands out with a robotic arm capable of lifting up to 300 grams - enough to move small items out of its way.
Designer Roborock says the Z70 is able to recognize a limited few items right now - including dirty socks, crumpled tissues, shoes and towels - and can move them "toward" their intended location, with plans to train it on other objects later on.
Folks on the show floor said the Z70 won't do that in a hurry, though: It reportedly takes around a minute for the arm to move an object out of the vacuum bot's way, so you should probably stick to just not being a total slob.
L'Oréal invents a machine to sell you more skin serum
There's something a bit cynical about developing a machine that'll supposedly tell you exactly what skin products you need to stop the appearance of aging when you're a company that makes said products, but here we are.
L'Oréal, in partnership with Korean startup NanoEnTek, took to CES to show off the Cell BioPrint, a "lab on a chip" device that provides personalized skin analysis "using advanced proteomics" using nothing but an adhesive strip placed on the face, removed, and inserted into the tabletop box.
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Of course, given L'Oréal sells countless de-aging skin serums, the Cell BioPrint is naturally able to test skin samples to figure out which ingredients one's facial derma will respond best to in order to sell more products. The beauty giant was apparently telling CES visitors that it's meant to be used repeatedly, of course, because the products one's skin responds best to might vary over time.
No pricing details or availability were available, with L'Oréal only saying it had plans to pilot the device later this year in Asia.
Who needs to type comfortably when AI can complicate things?
Sometimes CES tech is plain dumb; other times, it's over engineered into absurdity, as is the case with the Autokeybo.
Larger than some laptops, this two-piece mechanical keyboard uses "AI machine vision" to detect when a user wants to switch between halves of the keyboard and a hidden trackpad/mouse tray and numpad, all so you can escape the need to move your hands the bare minimum of distance to reach a mouse or trackpad.
Autokeybo also includes a built-in Linux machine, but that still doesn't excuse the fact that now there's an awkward forearm-sized piece of metal between the user and their keyboard that might end up causing more frustration than it relieves when the machine vision system ultimately mistakes small movements for a desire to switch active parts.
When I work from my home desk, I use a split keyboard, and I make my life easier by popping a trackpad between the two halves. Problem solved, without the need to spend the $700 the Autokeybo will reportedly cost whenever it comes out.
Talk about a shock for the taste buds
Japanese beer maker Kirin is worried that people might be oversalting their food, so it developed a $125 electric spoon that zaps the tongue into thinking food is saltier than it is.
First made available last year but only sold briefly via lottery, the Kirin Electric Salt Spoon was brought to CES to be shown off ahead of Kirin's hope to distribute it more widely, because let's face it - most of us like salt a bit too much.
Able to be toggled in four different saltiness modes, the spoon is reportedly able to enhance the perception of salty tastes by as much as 1.5 times compared to the amount of salt in a dish.
It's not risk-free, however: Given the device is using mild electric current to modify flavor, Kirin recommends [PDF, machine translated] that those with medical implants like pacemakers, or who use ECG machines and the like, avoid using it. ®