German IT show gives glimpse of tomorrow’s world
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There’s the intelligent yoga mat, the coffee flask that’ll give you and your smartphone a jolt, and a super-smart dinosaur toy with his head in the cloud.
Love it or hate it, this is a glimpse of the world of tomorrow according to the gadget makers who’ve shown up in force at the German IT fair CeBIT.
The start-up founders and architects of the “Internet of Things” have an app for everything to help the connected citizen get through the day.
For those who like to get the blood pumping at the crack of dawn, there’s the Smart-Mat, a digital workout assistant. Its 6,000 sensors keep count of your push-ups, sit-ups, crunches and your breathing rate.
“It measures different exercises and creates meta-data for your personal workout regime,” said Bo Zhou, who developed the mat for the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence.
Although the mat is still a prototype, he said, it could in future be connected to any number of sports apps, like those that talk people through yoga routines.
Peace of mind
If the Smart-Mat is good for body and spirit, there’s another innovation for peace of mind — the “easierLife” system that lets you check whether an elderly relative living alone is following their usual routine.
Its wireless sensors are fitted in an elder person’s apartment to detect when they get up or leave the house. It sends a message by SMS, e-mail or phone to the concerned relative when there is a break with daily routine.
“If something goes wrong, you get a push notification,” said company chief Sebastian Chiriac.
“With this information, the elderly feel more safe and the relatives know everything is alright at home, and if something is wrong they can react instantly to it,” he said.
The system respects privacy to the extent that it doesn’t rely on cameras or microphones and “works in the background,” he said.
Having worked out and checked on the grandparents, it might be time for that morning cup of tea or coffee, perhaps on the run.
But what if the batteries of the mobile device are low and need a jolt of energy as badly as its user?
No problem, there’s Terratec’s HotPot 1200, a digital thermos flask that also has a USB port to power up an Android or iPhone mobile device.
When filled with a hot beverage of at least 80 degrees Celsius, it generates power that is stored in a battery.
Terratec says the device, which takes several hours to quarter-charge a common phone battery, might be better suited to campers than busy city life.
The kids, of course, also want to have new toys.
Perhaps a little green dinosaur that knows everything?
That’s the concept behind “Cognitoys,” which can talk with children and, through the powers of wireless communication and cloud computing, instantly answer questions such as “What’s on Mars?”
(The dinosaur’s answer: “Red dirt and Martians.”)
To satisfy children’s curiosity, the toy draws on data from IBM’s supercomputer Watson.
“It can hold simple conversations with children, and as the child uses the toy, the toy learns about the child,” said developer J P Benini, co-founder of New York company Elemental Path.
“If a child says they like pizza or they play soccer or what their favorite color is, then in a counting exercise it will count soccer balls or pizza slices, and in a story it will use their favorite color.
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