Brilliantly Bad Weekend Edition

TV landing gear, derpy robot dogs, keyboard hats, shocking smartwatches, housekeeping robots and more!

Oct 07, 2023

1. This battery-powered TV sucks (and that’s how it sticks to the wall)

Displace TV is a battery-powered 4K OLED TV that mounts to the wall with vacuum suction. It runs on four big batteries, and you can swap them out one at a time and replace them while the TV is still playing and the vacuum connection is still sucking. The batteries let you watch TV for six hours on a charge and keep the suction going for months. But here’s the best part: If the TV decides it’s losing its grip — dying batteries, paint peeling or a crack in the wall — it automatically tapes a back panel to the wall, deploys foam landing gear and gently lowers the TV to the ground with a rope so it doesn’t fall and shatter. (They’re hoping this won’t be “ground-breaking” technology.) If you’re having trouble picturing Displace’s “Landing Gear Technology,” here comes the video!

2. A new algorithm turns a robot dog into a derpy puppy

AI geniuses from Stanford University and Shanghai Qi Zhi Institute created a new algorithm for robot dogs. It’s vision-based, and optimized for creative solutions to scampering over and under challenging obstacles. The result? It moves like a derpy, over-excited puppy.

3. Google made a keyboard hat

Google Japan prototyped a functioning joke keyboard hat, called the Gboard CAPS, and then open-sourced all the designs and specs on GitHub so anyone can actually make it. Here’s how it works: You turn the hat until it reaches the character you want to type, then you press down to type the character.

4. This shocking wristwatch zaps you awake

The Shock Clock 3 is a wristwatch that tries to wake you up with gentle alarms and vibrations. And it that doesn’t work, it zaps you with electricity. The watch can detect if you drift back to sleep, then shocks you again. The product includes features a connected app for tracking sleep and adjusting the level of electrocution.

5. Stanford builds the closest robot yet to The Jetsons’ maid Rosey

Stanford University eggheads (working with engineers from Princeton University, The Nueva School, Columbia University, and Google) created a one-armed “TidyBot” rolls around the house, picking things up and put them away. The robot uses a ChatGPT-like large language model AI to identify clothes, toys and other objects so it can put them away in the right place. It can put toys in a toy box and laundry in a laundry basket. It can even sort your laundry by color.

6. Amazon will give you a million dollars if aliens invade your porch

Amazon’s Ring announced a competition this week called the “Million Dollar Search for Extraterrestrials.” If your Ring Video Doorbell or other Ring device captures “unaltered scientific evidence of a real extraterrestrial lifeform,” Ring will give you $50,000 per year for twenty years. “Space and Extraterrestrial Experts” chosen by Ring will decide if it’s a real alien or just Jeff Bezos. The company also launched another competition called “Out of this World,” for submitting fake footage of aliens. The winner will be chosen based on creativity, humor and quality.