5 Everyday Appliances with Surprisingly High-Tech Features

In an age where more and more devices are getting into the Internet of things (think smartphones, smart TVs and even smart refrigerators), it’s not too far-fetched to imagine a future where every appliance is fitted with some sort of high-tech contraption. A toothbrush with a camera, maybe? Or a fork that vibrates to warn you against eating too quickly? Actually, the future is already being heralded by these everyday items turned cool gadgets as we speak.

1. A toothbrush with a camera

Prophix by ONVI | There’s a camera tucked in the handle of this electric toothbrush, but it’s not for taking selfies. Instead, the camera is designed to provide you with a closer look of how well you’re scrubbing every nook and cranny of your teeth.

As you brush your teeth, the toothbrush beams a live feed (in full-HD glory, no less!) of what you’re doing to your smartphone via an accompanying app. OCD types can even zoom in on one tooth.

Post-brush, the app lets you save snapshots of your teeth to your phone’s photo album. Yay to sharing close-ups of your teeth on Facebook?

Prophix by ONVI (US$299, excluding shipping) is available for pre-order now from www.getprohix.com.

2. A fork that tells you that you’re eating too quickly

Photo: Hapilabs

HAPIfork | The chubby handle of this smart fork is packed with sensors that measure the number of times the fork travels from the plate to your mouth. The results are displayed in real time on an accompanying app that also monitors the duration of your meal.

Like a treadmill, the app comes with select ‘workout’ profiles to help you eat at an ideal pace. If you eat too quickly (i.e. more than one bite per 10 secs), the fork immediately vibrates to warn you.

Eating too quickly can cause weight gain and digestive problems, so we appreciate a fork that helps us eat healthily.

HAPIfork (US$79, plus US$25 for shipping) is available now from www.hapi.com.

3. A bread maker that bakes instant bread

Photo: Easy Bread

Easy Bread | With this machine, making bread is as easy as popping a capsule of pre-mixed flour into it. Fill up the water tank, press start, and a fresh loaf will be ready in 2hrs 10mins.

Easy Bread can even be programmed to only start baking at a specific time, so you can leave the ingredients overnight and have a perfectly good loaf ready for you in the morning.

The capsules come in six flavours: wheat bread, multigrain bread, sourdough, gluten-free bread, light bread and the ol’ classic white bread. No one says instant bread has to be boring.

Easy Bread (S$299) is available now from TANGS. Each instant bread capsule costs S$4 – S$7.

4. A switch that turns into a remote control for your lights

Photo: WisQo

Dynamic Switch | Who’d have thought that you could yank the switch from your wall, take it with you to anywhere in the house and still control your lights? This wireless approach comes courtesy of an accompanying controller that’s connected to the circuit.

When you hit the switch, it transmits a radio signal to the controller, telling it to close or open the circuit to turn the lights on and off respectively. This is the same method used to unlock the doors of your car from a key fob.

Too lazy to get off your bed to get your lights switched off? No longer a problem.

Dynamic Switch + Controller set (S$129) is available now from www.wisqo.com.

5. An egg tray that detects how many good and bad eggs it’s carrying

Photo: Quirky

Egg Minder | Eggs are such a major part of our diet that we tend to want to be well-stocked with them. However, this often leads to us overbuying and creating a messy egg tray filled with eggs from various cartons (and hence, of varying freshness).

The Egg Minder simplifies this process by keeping track of the number of eggs in storage and notifying you of the oldest eggs in its collection.

The information can be remotely accessed from an accompanying app, so you always know whether you should get any or more eggs during your trip to the supermarket and which eggs to first use.

Egg Minder (US$10.99, various promotional prices, excluding shipping) is available now from www.amazon.com.