- [Narrator] Life in the 21st century certainly has its perks. The chances are, if there's
something you need doing, there's a gadget that'll do it for you. And even though this makes it sound like we're finally living the
futuristic dream of our ancestors, there are gadgets out there that take things a little too far. From music made by spiders to a smart toilet that scans your behind, here are some of the most
ridiculous pieces of tech the world has to offer. (upbeat music)
(mascot screaming) Rotating TV. If you've ever tried to
mirror your phone to a TV, you'll understand the frustration of having to play vertically-shot videos on only 1/3 of the screen. But with the overwhelming rise of TikTok and other smartphone-based video sites, this pesky digital shortcoming has become more and more common. But, instead of just making all videos pleasantly horizontal, the world may soon be forced to adapt to this annoying vertical-only trend, and Samsung's latest invention is hoping to pioneer this
leap into the vertical future. I present to you, the Samsung Sero, a rotating TV that basically
looks like a giant smartphone, aimed at making binge-watching
social media videos easier than ever. In its default state, the Sero sits in a vertical,
TikTok-ready position which, coupled with various
screensavers and clock faces, looks like anything but a TV. At one touch of a button, the screen spins into landscape view, ready for old-fashioned video-viewing. But you might wanna make sure there's enough space around the TV first, because the Sero's 43-inch screen doesn't come with protective edges, and considering the
$1,400 you'll pay for it, having it smack into your other furniture would be less-than-ideal. On top of that, the
various potential problems that tend to arise from adding
mechanical, moving parts to an electronic device begs the question, is it even worth it? Sure, its vertical
orientation mirrors your phone to a much larger proportion
than a regular TV, but outside of social media, there isn't much use for
the Sero's capabilities. At best, the Sero transforms the way you watch funny cat videos and stalk your ex's Instagram, but is full-screen
resolution really necessary to see that they're already
dating someone else? Well, I suppose it's
slightly less humiliating than finding out while using one of these finger-nose smartphone styluses, designed by Dominic Wilcox to facilitate hands-free
scrolling, even in the bath. See? Thanks to technology, you can
always be more ridiculous. But of course, technological advancement
isn't always a bad thing. Just take newspapers for example. Nowadays, you can get all
the most relevant news delivered right into your email inbox, thanks to Morning Brew. This ground-breaking service has saved me aimlessly scrolling through the dry, dense pages of traditional news sites by curating the most
informative business, finance, and tech news in a
refreshingly concise format. Now, thanks to Morning
Brew's daily news packages, I'm up to date on the latest stories like crazy ol' Jeff
Bezos's space vacation, in only five minutes! And you can be too, by signing up using the link
in the description below. It's totally free and takes less than 15
seconds to subscribe, so do yourself the favor! All done? Great. Now, back to some tech
that's not quite so handy. Musical spiderwebs. If you thought after
2020 you've seen it all, buckle up and get ready to rethink everything you've ever known, why? Well, because it looks like
scientists are well on their way to establishing
communication with spiders. Sorry arachnophobes, but it's true, and it's even stranger
than you might imagine. Researchers in the US
have brought the structure of a spiderweb to life by, of all things, translating it into music. That said, it's not exactly
the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" song. Take a listen for yourself: (eerie chiming music) Sounds like something
right out of a horror film, doesn't it? The unnerving sounds,
created by researchers at Massachusetts's
Institute of Technology, is the product of hi-tech
laser scanning technology and image processing tools. The research team
continuously scanned a web as it was being built by a spider, then assigned each strand an
individual sound frequency, which could then be triggered to form the nightmarish
symphony you just heard. But why? Well, spiders, not usually having
particularly good eyesight, rely on vibrations to tell them what's
happening in their web. Prey getting trapped, for instance, generate different
vibrations than raindrops, or another spider paying a visit. In fact, spiders have even been observed tapping their limbs on their
webs, triggering vibrations, as a method to communicate
with other spiders. So, researchers hope that, by analyzing these
patterns of vibrations, they'll be able to replicate them to trigger responses in spiders. For example, certain
vibrations might prove capable of influencing how they build their webs, or how they react to humans, or, in the craziest aspect of all, might even allow scientists
to establish a very basic form of back-and-forth communication with them. Of course, spiders probably
don't have much more to say in their tippy-tappy language
than, "Are you food?" or "Can I mate with you?" But I guess we won't know for sure until we reach that point. But, as exciting as the possibility of inter-species communication might be, did scientists really have to
choose spiders of all things? Once we give them a voice, they might ask for all
sorts of spider rights, and probably demand
that we all go to prison for squashing their buddies. If you ask me, I'd say
it's best we leave spiders, and their musical webs, as far away from the
Billboard Hot 100 as possible. But what do you think? If you're team spider-talk,
hit that like button. If you think spiders should
be seen and not heard, hit subscribe. All done? Great. Now, back to even more
ridiculous technology. The RollBot. We've all been there, nature calls, and you're in too much
of a hurry to realize there's no toilet paper
until it's too late. You're too embarrassed to ask for help and decide it might just be
better to die right there. Well, in a world where
rotating TVs are now a thing, you can bet your bottom dollar that toilet-paper fetching robots have been brought into existence! The RollBot, created by
toilet paper brand Charmin, is designed to have your back, whenever you're stuck with an empty roll. Just use the mobile app, and the bot will roll
along to your rescue. But as simple, and possibly
lifesaving as that sounds, it's also where the concept
springs a few leaks. Despite the RollBot being
equipped with infrared sensors to help it navigate your home, you'd still have to get up
and open the door for it. On top of that, aside from stairs being
totally out of the equation, the RollBot still needs
to be stocked up manually, meaning, in the time you spend doing that, you could just restock
the bathroom itself. And, if you think about it, why keep the RollBot
elsewhere in the house, when it could just be
parked next to the toilet in the first place? With so many snags in the concept, it's no wonder Charmin
hasn't pushed the RollBot beyond the concept stage yet. Whether they're coming
up with a few more specs or rethinking the entire idea, it'll definitely take a lot to make the RollBot worth our wipe. Especially since its
only function right now is basically announcing to
everyone it passes on its journey that you're stuck on the porcelain throne, and in desperate need of TP! The voice mask. If you're someone who doesn't like drawing attention to yourself, you probably try to avoid
public phone calls at all costs. But what if I told you
there might be a gadget that allows you to talk on the phone without others being able to hear you? Only problem is, despite the
intentions of its designers, if you wear it, you might attract even
more attention than before. The Hushme voice mask, which the company hilariously
describes as "stylish," wraps around your mouth
and muffles your voice with the help of dense insulation embedded around the mouthpiece. The insulating, hypoallergenic foam forms an airtight seal around
your mouth, creating a barrier that prevents the majority of
the soundwaves of your voice seeping out into the space around you. It's basically like covering
your mouth with your hand, or a pillow, only hi-tech. A built-in microphone picks up your voice inside the airtight cavity, sending the audio via
Bluetooth to your phone, and then onto the person
you do want hearing you. The bizarre device also
comes with pre-set sounds, which, if enabled, will play
aloud for people around you whenever you speak, further
drowning out your voice. These sounds include monkey,
squirrel, and Minion noises, all of which seem a
little counterintuitive to not drawing attention to yourself. Not to mention the fact that the Hushme basically looks like a futuristic muzzle some dystopian society
might put on someone who speaks too much. On the other hand, if
you're willing to look past the product's absolute ridiculousness, you'd find that the Hushme's abilities are actually pretty impressive. With normal speech being classified as 50 to 60 decibels in volume by the American
Speech-Language-Hearing Association, the Hushme successfully lowers your voice to around 25 decibels, which is the equivalent of a low whisper. That said, aside from being
able to go nuts in a library, you're probably not going to get much use out of the Hushme on a personal level. Unless, you know, you're divulging government
secrets or something. Vacuum shoes. These days, it's not
that unusual for brands to branch out into different
product departments. Unfortunately, though, the outcomes don't always
make a lot of sense. At the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show, DENSO, an auto part manufacturer, branched out into both the fashion and home-cleansing worlds, by revealing giant shoes that suck dirt from the
floor while you walk. Introducing, the vacuum shoes, otherwise known as the
lazy person's Hoover. Unfortunately, alongside
their terribly uncomfortable and garish appearance, the
vacuum shoes don't really shine in the walking department either. Intended solely for indoor use, the shoes switch on every time
your heel hits the ground, as a dynamo lever in the sole turns a gear that generates a small
burst of electricity. That tiny burst powers an
equally-short burst of suction from the nozzle at the tip of the shoe. No external power source is
necessary, which is cool, but that also means the shoes
don't have an off button. Not that it matters, though,
as, even without an off button, the few journalists who got to test-drive DENSO's vacuum shoes said
the laughably-bad suction and minuscule storage compartment render them pretty much useless anyway. (groans) Looks like, for now, the world of foot-based
cleaning will remain limited to these wonderfully hideous inventions. The FLIZ Bike. Many people buy a bike to either avoid having to walk everywhere or because they find pedaling much less grueling than jogging. But for anyone who
likes strenuous jogging, but hates painful seats
and mangled chains, the FLIZ bike has them covered. This bizarre invention sees
its users trying to steer while they hang from a
harness in between two wheels. And they're not motorized if
that's what you're thinking. In true Fred Flintstone style, the FLIZ bike requires the
rider to build momentum by running before placing
their feet on a set of treads near the rear wheel. The German company, FLIZ,
first came up with the idea when they set out to
refine a similar vehicle invented in 1817, by Karl Drais. The 19th-century laufmaschine,
or walking-machine, had no pedals and relied on the rider creating a scooting motion to get along. Sounds pretty whacky, but
at least the laufmaschine didn't have you suspended in
mid-air like the FLIZ bike! But the uncomfortable-looking harness is only the first snag
in the overall concept. If the FLIZ has no pedals
and is powered by momentum, can you imagine the struggle
of traveling uphill? I mean, riding a normal bike up a slope isn't exactly a joyride either, but at least you don't
have to unstrap yourself before you're able to get off and push it. And speaking of being strapped in, with the FLIZ being designed only for people who are
around six feet tall, I doubt the more vertically
challenged end of the population will have much luck reaching
the ground while hanging. In the end, the idea of the FLIZ bike may be worth praising for
its fun, downhill potential, but I don't see it
leaving the concept phase and replacing the bicycle anytime soon. It definitely won't be making headlines in the next Tour de France. 3D printed sushi. Unfortunately, not even the world of food is safe from the intrusion
of ridiculous technology. I mean, the fact that you
can purchase toasters online with custom-cut heating elements to bring your selfies to life
on bread is proof of that. But you probably wouldn't
expect that kind of tomfoolery with sushi, of all things. Whether you love the stuff or hate it, you'll probably agree on drawing the line at 3D-printed sushi that looks like it
belongs in a video game. I'm not kidding, this
stuff actually exists. Open Meals is a company
that wants to do for food what Apple did for digital music, make it easy to download
and access all in one place. Sounds impossible, right? Well, apparently not. In 2019, Open Meals showed
off a Pixel Food Printer that prints completely edible sushi. But I know what you're
thinking, a slow-moving, 3D-printing machine filled
with little cubes of fish? - You haven't thought of the smell! - [Narrator] But don't worry, there's actually no fish involved at all. Instead, the printer contains a database with different codes relating
to the flavor, shape, color, and nutrients of various different foods. Once you've chosen your sushi, the Pixel Food Printer
produces little cubes made from an edible gel, stacked into a specific
shape and color pattern. Before they emerge, each
of these cubes are injected with different flavors,
colors, and nutrients. But, as the company openly admitted, there's still a lot to be done before it will taste like normal food. Not exactly what I'd
call a solid sales pitch, and visitors at the 2018 SXSW
trade show backed this up by describing the taste as bland, which I guess is better
than tasting awful? But I guess it doesn't matter because if Instagram
has taught us anything, it's that nobody really
cares about edibility as long as the food looks good on camera. And pixel sushi is sure
to get you all the likes. When it comes to practicality, though, I don't see people purposefully abandoning their seaweed-wrapped fish for gelatinous cubes anytime soon. From a commercial perspective, artificial food still has a long way to go before 3D-printed Big Macs become a thing. Especially, since the Pixel Food Printer, like most of the technology
we've seen so far, is currently only a prototype. But that doesn't mean you can't still get a taste of the future. Open Meals have their own
Tokyo-based restaurant, Sushi Singularity, where they serve 3D-printed sushi based on your body's
specific dietary needs. The problem is, in order
to book a reservation, you need to submit samples
of your DNA, urine, and other bodily fluids beforehand, as this will be used
to determine your meal and the necessary
nutrients your body needs, at least you won't have to stress over what to choose from a menu. It's probably not the best place to go if you're in a hurry, though. While Open Meals haven't
specified the time it takes to print the sushi, going by how painfully slow
most regular 3D printers are, it's probably not going to be fast food. The smartest smart toilet. We've already seen a robotic
toilet paper carrier, but in the game of smart
bathroom technology, there's one advancement that takes the unnecessary
inventions crown with a royal flush. And I mean this quite literally because, in the game of porcelain thrones, there's one smart toilet
that makes heated seats and automatic flushing
look like child's play. Designed in an experiment
by researchers at Stanford, this out-of-this-world toilet identifies users by not
only their fingerprints but also their behind. Whenever you sit on the toilet, it scans what your momma gave you to recognize which user profile you are. Once you're identified,
all of your, uh, waste is analyzed for various diseases and certain forms of cancer. Sounds pretty genius, doesn't it? Well, you might be a little more hesitant once you hear exactly how the toilet goes about doing these analysis. It turns out, one of the things that allows these capabilities is the fact that there's
an actual video camera on the inside of the bowl. It starts to record as
soon as you sit down, and all footage is put through algorithms which determine things like stream time, waste consistency, and volume. Meanwhile, uranalysis strips
measure the white blood cell and protein counts in your stream, which are then used to
determine your health status. Regardless of whether
there's anything amiss, the collected data is stored
in a cloud-based system for doctors to access later. I certainly don't envy the
doctors reviewing that footage. Of course, the overall
concept can be really useful in detecting diseases early on, and it might be perfect for those who suffer from chronic illnesses, but I doubt many users will
be particularly attracted to the toilet's video function. With most devices being
merely a couple taps away from being hacked these days, I'm sure any celebrities using this toilet would fall prey to the
occasional leak of their behind, if you'll excuse the pun. But what do you think? Is the smartest smart toilet biting off more than it can chew, or are you willing to keep your backside camera-ready at all times? Let me know in the comments. (cell phone keyboard tapping) Long-distance kissing simulator. Long-distance relationships
are hard, everybody knows it. That's exactly why researchers
at City University London came up with a gadget
that promises to solve at least some of those
dreaded long-distance woes. No, they didn't invent
a teleportation device, but they did unveil the Kissenger, a device intended to replicate
the feeling of a kiss between two users, regardless of distance. Sounds crazy, but it's totally real, and, in its own bizarre way,
it actually kinda works. The Kissenger substitutes real lips for a round piece of silicone
that you press your mouth to, which is filled with all sorts
of technological wizardry. Now, isn't that seductive? After pairing your
phone with a special app that allows you to send kisses while still video-calling your partner, the device measures the pressure of different parts of the sender's lips. Those measurements are then
sent to the recipient's device, and the forward-moving
actuators inside the silicon exert outward pressure to
replicate the sender's kiss, live! The Kissenger simply plugs into
your phone's headphone jack and is ready to go, but this
presents a bit of an issue. Given that, so far, the prototype only works with IOS devices, the fact that most iPhones no
longer have headphone jacks means long-distance couples probably won't be e-kissing
their way into the future. Android lovers, meanwhile,
won't even have a chance to try. But maybe it's for the best. Because, despite how a kiss
from your distant loved one may be a welcome change
from video calls and texts, kissing a piece of silicon while staring each other in the eyes sounds like just about the
most awkward thing ever. Green gel refrigerator. To many of us, our fridge is arguably the most important
storage space in the house. It's probably the most
visited storage space too, especially during lockdown,
when a trip to the fridge was as good as an international holiday. But why travel internationally,
when your fridge can take you on a trip
to the future instead? In 2010, a Russian
designer, Yuriy Dmitriev, introduced a fridge that
looks like it belongs on a spacecraft from the year 3000. Say hello to the Bio-Robot Refrigerator, a zero-energy device that keeps food cool thanks to a gel-like substance you can push things directly into. This prototype design mounts on a wall, either horizontally or vertically, and has no form of cooling
motor or power source. All you have to do is shove
food into its biopolymer gel, which has no odor, holds its position, and is supposedly non-sticky. So, how does the gel go
about cooling things? According to Dmitriev, the gel is partly made up
of countless biorobots, microscopic nanobots that
automatically draw heat from anything placed into the gel. If Dmitriev's claims are true, this may be made possible by
a complex physics phenomenon where certain materials change the wavelength of
radiation they receive, resulting in a cooling effect. Seeing as all objects, including food, emit infrared radiation, the
gel may absorb this radiation and convert it into different wavelengths, cooling the surrounding
area in the process. Bizarrely, light generated
as a by-product of doing so may even be what gives the
fridge its eerie, green glow. As amazing as that sounds, Dmitriev hasn't actually
confirmed this to be the case. In fact, he hasn't explained much at all about how the bio-robots
would realistically function, nor how the gel would be
made hygienically viable for long-term use. I mean, what would happen if a bag of food leaked inside of it? Cleaning some spilled
soup out of that thing? Yeah, no, thanks. But cleaning aside, if Dmitriev's claims prove to be as legitimate as Electrolux, the company he works for, claims they are, the bio fridge could certainly
be a huge step forward for one of our most-used appliances. If such a low-energy-cost, space-saving device did make
it past the design stage, this nifty invention could be the future of food refrigeration. The only question is, would you be on board
with having a big, green, glowing wall of food in your kitchen? Let me know in the comments. (cell phone keyboard tapping) Biotech gloves. If you're looking for an easy way to begin your transition
into a cyborg overlord, look no further than Youbionic's
Double Hand biotech gloves. These utterly ridiculous pieces of futuristic-looking technology are guaranteed to make some jaws drop. You might also drop a few glasses, depending on how well you're
able to use the Double Hand. Made from 3D-printed plastic, the biotech gloves strap
around your forearm, allowing basic open-and-close
movements of each hand, controlled simply by moving
two of your real fingers. The device, which works on
a deceptively simple system of pulley wires and costs over $2,000, can be aesthetically
modified to the user's taste, but that pretty much marks the
end of its special features. Aside from fetching double
the amount of drinks at a bar, you'll struggle to use the Double Hand to perform any fine motor skills, like writing, painting,
or playing the piano. The fingers, while designed
to grip things more easily, can't be moved individually, which basically makes
them a very expensive and overcomplicated pair of salad tongs. That being said, these biotech gloves could probably come in
handy for any germaphobes looking to shake a lot
of hands simultaneously, or any bartenders
looking to make more tips by impressing customers. But here's how to take
these biotech gloves to the next level, simply attach another set of Double Hands to the end of your first
pair of Double Hands, then another set of Double
Hands to that, and so on. You'll be unstoppable! (laughs) What pieces of ridiculous new technology have you recently seen that
left you shaking your head? Let me know in the comments below. And thanks for watching. (upbeat dance music)
