Tech show nails it with sweet 3D printers and Kardashian app

Printers that churn out sweets rather than paper documents have gone on display at the world’s largest consumer electronics show.

The 3D printers can produce sweets using chocolate or sugar flavoured with vanilla, mint, sour apple, cherry, and watermelon flavours, and are capable of creating complicated shapes that are usually difficult to mould.

At present, 3D printers are more often used for creating design prototypes and models using plastics and metal.

The smaller, countertop Chefjet can only produce monochrome creations but the bigger and more expensive Chefjet Pro can churn out treats in colour using an inkjet head filled with food colouring instead of printer ink.

Technology company 3D Systems is displaying the machines at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. Both printers are expected to go on sale in the second half of the year, with the Chefjet priced at about €3,500 and the Chefjet Pro at about double that.

Kyle von Hasseln, co-founder of Sugar Labs who designed the prototypes, said they would one day be in family homes.

Standing in front of a printer creating a chocolate sculpture, he said: “These are the very first commercially certified, kitchen-ready 3D food printers.

“We spread a very fine layer of sugar and cocoa powder and an inkjet head that is just like the one in a desktop 2D printer squirts out cocoa butter and makes chocolate in real time and creates a chocolate sculpture in real time.

“The geometry is very precise and very mathematical and that is traditionally a very difficult thing to do with frosting or chocolate, and can’t be done with a traditional mould. We can make interlocked shapes which is a very exciting possibility for candy.”

He added: “One day they will definitely be in homes, these first ones are commercially-certified professional printers for bakeries and restaurants.

“But any kind of food is very possible to 3D print, anything that can be powderised and printed, so savoury is in the future for everyone.”

Close shaves and virtual hotels the new face of gadgets

- Just what tech-savvy fashionistas have been waiting for — fake nails that have been made to work on a touchscreen.

From Elektra Nails and developed by a dermatologist, these patent-pending glue-on nails use a light, fibre-based material to connect with touch screens, acting as a stylus that extends from your finger. You only need to wear one (on your index finger), and it can be painted to match the colours of your other nails, just as long as the bottom half of the plastic isn’t covered.

So ladies, take note. Whether you are crazy fly, like Rihanna, or just plain crazy, like Lisa Vanderpump, you can now text and swipe with more ease on a phone.

- Once upon a time, tall we had to track our lost items was a bulky As Seen on TV keychain that could only detect items 20m away.

Tile is the modern-day equivalent of this infomercial relic. The slim plastic square is designed to hook onto your valuables — either key-chain style or through an adhesive — and allow you to track the distance and location of them via your phone. The little piece of plastic also contains a speaker, which means you can make it beep.

The company’s cloud-based platform lets you share the location of your Tiles with others. And if something goes missing beyond the confines of your household, you can mark it as lost and alert all other Tile users. If someone comes within range of your item, a “discreet” message will be sent to you with the location of your item.

- Ever wish your face was a little more… well, Kardashian-y?

Now, a web app called CLMTrackr from developer Audun Mathias Oygard lets you imagine just that by placing different celebrities’ faces on your own face, using your webcam.

Oygard outlines the project on his personal blog. Basically, your webcam tracks 70 different points on your face, and then lets you overlay a famous person’s face on your own, so that you can see what you might look like as that person.

Options include Barack Obama, Kim Kardashian, Walter White from Breaking Bad, and many more. It’s like going Halloween mask shopping, except photo-realistic, and with real skin.

As Mark Wilson at Fast Co Design notes, it’s a freaky experience to see yourself, in your clothes, in your home, with someone else’s face, and you will, occasionally, attempt to make the faces that your assumed personage is known for in real life.

- The BornSharp razor, beautiful, balanced, and mirror-finished, claims to be self-sharpening. After each shave, you put the razor into its stand, where a grinding stone sharpens the blade exactly to your tastes. As a bonus, an ultraviolet light disinfects the razor.

The appeal of the BornSharp is not just that it comes with a five-year blade — and you throw away nothing during that time. It’s also that, although it may have the basic shape of a disposable, it’s really a wicked-sharp straight razor.

But at $500 (€365), plus $100 every five years for factory installation of a new blade, the price and the requirement for patience and practice will limit the BornSharp’s audience to a small group of aficionados.

- What if playing music when you get home was as automatic as flipping a switch?

Bang & Olufsen’s latest gizmo, the BeoSound Essence, does just that.

The thermostat-like knob is mounted on your wall, and works with Bang & Olufsen’s wireless speakers. Whenever you want to listen to your tunes, you can press the top circle button on the knob’s front plate. The Essence’s Bluetooth signal will pick up the music you had playing on any of your Bluetooth-capable gadgets and play them from your speakers.

You can change the volume with a turn of the knob, and skip by pushing the arrows on the left and right — sort of like the old iPod’s click wheel. It comes with its own music app, supported on both iOS and Android and compatible with AirPlay, DLNA, Spotify, and most internet radio stations.

- Google is expanding its hotel business, offering several new ways for travellers to learn about accommodation.

The most noticeable change will be the introduction of a series of high-resolution panoramic photos that are stitched together to create a 360-degree experience, similar to that found in the Street View feature in Google maps. These aren’t independent photos but they are another resource for travellers.

Best Western is rolling out photos of its 2,200 North American properties and hopes to have them all online by the end of the year.

Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group is also testing a feature in Google Maps that will let guests move through a floor plan of the hotel. So far, it has only been featured at the company’s Radisson Blu Mall of America in Minnesota.