From feces to head hair: devices to quantify everything

BarcelonaEvery January, while we're excitedly unwrapping our Christmas presents, Las Vegas hosts CES (Consumer Electronics Show), one of the world's three major consumer electronics trade shows. Since we already take for granted giant TVs, laptops with rollable screens—Lenovo's Legion Pro Rollable unfolds to 23.8 inches—hyper-connected cars, and the AI invasion, we'll focus this report on a roundup of the most original gadgets from the 2026 edition of CES, which closed its doors on Friday.

In the kitchen and in the laundry room

Opening the refrigerator door isn't exactly an urgent problem for humanity, but Samsung's are. Bespoke Family Hub They open and close with voice commands through the Korean brand's Bixby assistant. You say "Open the refrigerator door" and a motorized mechanism does the work for you. It also has a giant 32-inch screen, cameras for food recognition with Google Gemini, and an AI Wine Cellar Manager that identifies wine labels. I don't know... if your hands are too dirty to need voice commands, maybe you can push the door with your elbow.

The LG CLOiD humanoid robot –just a concept; no price or sales schedule yet– has two articulated arms with seven degrees of freedom, two hands With five independent fingers and a wheeled base, LG envisions a "work-free" home where the robot makes breakfast, does the laundry, and folds it, according to a meticulously choreographed 15-minute demonstration. But it only works with LG appliances that cost thousands of euros, confirming that to have a truly work-free home, you have to spend a fortune on connected appliances.

For BlackBerry nostalgics

He Clicks Communicator (around 470 euros) is an Android smartphone with a physical keyboard, designed as a "second phone" connected to the main one for communication, not for consuming content. It has a 4-inch screen, a MediaTek 5G processor, a 4,000 mAh battery and –get this–, two technologies "killed" by the big brands: minijack with a headphone jack and a microSD card slot. At CES, they were selling one every 6.5 seconds. I, who still miss my BlackBerry, would buy it.

The Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold –priced between €2,300 and €2,400 in South Korea, but sold out in minutes– folds twice –not three times, despite the misleading name– with two hinges connecting the three panels. Unfolded, it offers a 10-inch AMOLED screen. Folded, it's 12.9 mm thick and weighs over 300 g. Basically, it's like carrying a brick in your pocket. With the Z Fold 7, we finally had a convenient foldable phone, but the TriFold undoes this progress. Six years to perfect the single fold, and now we'll have to wait another six to make the double fold acceptable.

Vacuum cleaner with legs and autonomous tractors

He Roborock Saros Rover (around €2,800) is the world's first robot vacuum cleaner with legs and wheels. Two articulated legs that resemble chicken drumsticks with wheels at the ends allow it to climb stairs, descend them, and clean each step as it does so. Ideal for those of us who live in semi-detached houses. It can overcome obstacles up to 10 cm high and make small jumps: in demonstrations, tennis balls are thrown at it, which it dodges and maintains its balance. It's the natural evolution of the Last year's Roborock, with a mechanical arm for picking up socks.

A very different vehicle is the X9 combine harvester (costing over a million euros) that John Deere brought to CES. It has 16 stereoscopic cameras, NVIDIA Jetson processors, and 70 million lines of code. It claims to process 250 corn plants per second. What's a 27-ton tractor doing at a consumer electronics show? While Waymo and Tesla are still fine-tuning self-driving cars, John Deere already has driverless tractors operating in real fields. Autonomy is easier in agriculture: low speeds, well-defined fields, and no pedestrians to avoid.

Quantification of body functions

The device Throne —what a fitting name— (€320) attaches next to the toilet bowl and uses cameras, microphones, and optical sensors to analyze feces and urine in real time. It measures the frequency, volume, size, and texture of bowel movements and urination patterns to create a "baseline digestive profile." The camera points downwards and automatically turns off when guests are present, respecting their privacy.

The understood Vivoo FlowPad (between 3 and 5 euros per unit) is the first menstrual pad with an integrated hormone test. A microfluidic diagnostic system analyzes the FSH hormone directly during menstruation. The reading is taken directly from the pad or via photo using a mobile app. According to the company: "We started with a daily panty liner that changed color with vaginal discharge, and we've evolved to a pad with microfluidic channels."

Lego is getting technologically advanced again

The Danish company Lego already has experience incorporating technological elements into construction toys. The new Smart Brick It looks like a standard 2x4 garment, but it contains a programmable chip, accelerometers, light and sound sensors, and a miniature speaker. In the Star Wars-themed set—which costs between €66 and €152—lightsabers hiss, vehicle engines roar, and the Imperial March plays when the Emperor sits on the throne.

Utensils that nobody had asked for

The Lollipop Star (€8.50) is a lollipop that plays music directly into your inner ear via bone conduction. You have to bite it with your back teeth so the vibrations travel from your jaw to your ear. It comes in three different flavors with associated artists: peach features Ice Spice, blueberry features Akon, and lemon features Armani White. I see a serious problem: each disposable lollipop generates electronic waste.

The Knife Seattle Ultrasonic C-200 (around 470 euros) is the first ultrasonic kitchen knife for home use. The eight-inch blade—made of Japanese steel, to justify the price—vibrates more than 30,000 times per second invisibly and imperceptibly, allowing you to cut with half the effort.

The Glyde AI hair clipper (€140) guides inexperienced users. It combines with a sensorized headband that you wear on your forehead, marks where the fade should begin, and communicates with the machine to stop at the correct point. If you go too fast, the sheet is automatically rejected.

The iPolish press-on nails (kit Initial price 90 euros, replacements at 6 euros) change color in five seconds by applying an electrical charge with a wand connected to the phone. The electrophoretic nanopolymer technology claims to offer more than 400 shades. However, if your phone battery dies, you'll have to go out partying in the same color you wore to work.

And that's not all. The S6 FollowMe Hisense's TV is a wheeled, battery-powered device that follows you around the house so you can't ignore it. Pawkeyland's AI Smart Collar lets you talk to your pet via chatbot. Project AVA Razer's is an assistant with a holographic avatar ofanime who watches you with his camera while you play video games. He also watches you V1TAL Food Camera Amazfit's AI Panda records your meals and automatically calculates your calorie intake. An'An's AI Panda is a panda robot that keeps elderly people company and alerts caregivers in case of an incident.

We finish with the Safety StrawA drinking straw that changes color when it detects any of the date rape drugs used by rapists. It's possibly the only truly useful product on our list, and sadly, it's necessary.