5 (very) unusual Internet of Things applications

Recently, there has been much debate about endless possibilities offered by the Internet of Things. Various sources quote overwhelming data on the prospective scale of this phenomenon. As it were, it is slowly becoming part of our everyday life – mainly thanks to a wide range of practical applications facilitating day-to-day activities. But the human imagination knows no bounds and, in addition to standard inventions, quite (sometimes very) unusual are created. Here is my subjective list of those most surprising:

Rubbish bin camera

Treat yourself to a little pressure today! A smartphone, with an appropriate application, is mounted on the inside of our rubbish bin lid. Every time you open it and dispose of something, a picture of the activity is automatically posted on Facebook. In principle, the idea was supposed to encourage users to rethink their ecological decisions. The result was weird.

Smart cuvette

…will allow you to monitor the health of your cat. It tracks the number of factors such as the current weight of your pet, as well as the weight and frequency of impurities the cat leaves behind… The device will remind you of the need to give your pet medication and notify you if something disturbing should happen.

Another gadget connected to cats!

Necomimi is a headband with fluffy cat ears. It analyzes brainwaves of the person wearing it and adapts the ear movements to the information received – Necomimi can express sadness, joy or frustration. Amazingly, the effect is very smooth and natural.

A thing nearly from outer space

The Aurora helps control… dreams. The idea itself was taken from the phenomenon of “lucid dreaming”. Apparently, there are techniques helping influence the “plot” of a dream. The head mounted device in the form of a headband examines such factors as sleep phase, and influences them using visual and auditory impulses. It also monitors the quality of rest and has inbuilt alarm function.

The last novelty can be virtually categorized into … The Internet of Animals.

Most of you are probably familiar with urban legend saying that cockroaches can survive the explosion of an atomic bomb. It is only a myth, but it confirms a fundamental feature of these creatures – they can survive in very harsh conditions. This feature has been used in a project related to rescuing survivors from collapsed buildings – cockroaches can, for example, carry sensors on their backs which detect people under the rubble.