It wouldn’t be a tech convention without a handful of weird and wonderful devices.
The annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2025 in Las Vegas brought together more than 4,500 exhibitors.
These stalls featured bizarre gadgets, including a spy camera for your garden, a vacuum cleaner that picks up socks from the floor, and a cheese maker that makes mozzarella in two hours.
DailyMail.com has chosen several wacky ones like an adorable fluffy robot that imitates a shy baby.
An animatronic animal like a shy baby
Mirumi has sensors that detect people approaching, prompting him to either look around curiously or appear to duck for the sake of hiding.
It also has two long arms that wrap around a strap or handle of a bag or purse, clinging to it like a small child.
Made in pink, black, white or gray, its Japanese start-up Yukai Engineering hopes to launch the robot in 2025 via crowdfunding. The models will cost around $70 each.
These cute little animatronic animals are called Mirumis and are able to cling to straps or poles while moving their heads.
This photo shows another Mirumi
The booth was packed at CES, with many stopping to pet the adorable robots and talk to them in a gentle voice like that used for a pet cat or dog.
Last year, Yukai Engineering released an adorable circular pillow with a cat-shaped tail.
The pad contains sensors that change the movement of the cat’s tail depending on how quickly or slowly someone strokes it.
This product, called Qoobo, is available online and can currently be purchased for $253.44 on Amazon or $125 on eBay.
Garden spy camera
Many have invested in doorbell cameras to check who is at the door, but what about a camera to check who is eating your vegetable garden?
That’s the idea behind Petal, a 12-megapixel 4K camera sitting on a plastic pole that can be positioned anywhere in the garden.
Powered by a solar ‘leaf’, the camera monitors the garden throughout the day and uses AI to identify garden visitors before sending the details to the user’s smartphone.
It can be positioned near flowers to find out which insects are visiting them, or in a vegetable garden to find out which creature is eating all the vegetables.
The above shows the Petal Camera, which could reveal to keen gardeners who has been eating their favorite vegetables.
The camera will be available this spring and will cost less than $100.
It’s sold under the Wonder brand, which is owned by Bird Buddy, a Michigan-based company behind a solar-powered bird feeder that uses a camera to photograph birds as they visit to collect seeds.
Making cheese at home with a cheesemaker
A cheesemaker could soon be coming to the kitchen near you.
Fromaggio – whose name is a mix of the French word for cheese, Fromage, and the Italian Formaggio – was released late last year and is already sold out.
The machine can make at least 17 different cheeses, including family favorites like cheddar and parmesan and artisan cheeses like blue cheese.
Mozzarella is the quickest, taking just two hours, but it also has instructions for an aged parmesan (made in two hours, then aged in a cupboard for a year).
Pictured above is CEO Glen Feder with two of his Fromaggio cheese making machines.
Its cheeses take an average of eight to nine hours to make, and many require people to come back halfway through to add a new ingredient.
The cheeses don’t make the home or kitchen smell cheesy, the developers said, but more than make up for that with their flavor.
DailyMail.com tried machine-made feta and must say it is absolutely delicious.
CEO Glen Feder told DailyMail.com that he got the idea to develop the machine after returning to the United States after a decade in Europe and discovering that cheeses simply weren’t up to par.
“Our cheeses often tend to be a lot more processed,” he told DailyMail.com, “you just don’t know what additives or chemicals have been added to it either.”
Fromaggio has already sold 200 machines and expects another 1,000 to hit the market in February.
Their price ranges from $745 to $800.
The above shows the robotic turtle sold by the pool cleaning company. It could hit the market in the next two years
A turtle robot to monitor water quality
Pool cleaning company Beatbot has made a turtle robot to track water quality.
A spokeswoman told DailyMail.com that the robot swims like a turtle, has a camera in its head and a solar panel as a shell, which allows it to come to the surface to recharge.
Called RoboTurtle, it was designed for ecologists to allow them to study a natural environment without disturbing it.
But staff said many people stopped to ask if they could buy one for their children to play in the pool.
There is no information at this point on what the turtle might cost, but it is likely to be at least four figures.
Beatbot sells the “world’s best pool cleaners,” many of which cost over $2,000 each.
The RoboTurtle is expected to be released in the next couple of years, after being shown off at this year’s CES.
Above, the vacuum cleaner picks up a sock with its retractable arm.
A vacuum cleaner capable of picking up socks
A cleaning company has come up with an ingenious way to prevent your robot vacuum cleaner from getting stuck on discarded socks and underwear.
RoboRock launched a new vacuum cleaner at CES, the Roborock Saros Z70, which was still autonomous but also had a crane installed inside with a claw on the end.
During a demonstration, spectators saw the machine approach a sock, pick it up and throw it into a trash can.
Staff told DailyMail.com that it was just a pre-programmed demo version.
They hope to be able to market a version of the vacuum cleaner that can pick up and move socks as they find them within five months.
The invention was recognized with numerous awards at CES, including a gong for best smart home or home technology.
