Slideshow

Best weird, wonderful, amazing, innovative, dumbass things at Computex 2017

Things to make your jaw drop, raise and eyebrow and exclaim, "I can't believe they invented it!"

  • One of our favourite things at Computex is the mental weirdness that exemplifies technological evolution. It used to be that Asus was the king of this realm; inventing things that surprised and delighted people even if they were never going to work. Throughout the trial and failure some real gems can appear, whether they're netbooks, gaming laptops or robots. Here's the best such examples that we saw at Computex 2017.

  • Ducky

  • If you're going to outrage certain quarters with Booth Babes, you may as well go the whole hog: 6-inch heels, Day-glo mini skirts, carrying automatic weapons, probably teenagers, G.Skill ticked every box.

  • OMG

  • The best robot we saw was playing chess.

  • This Frech startup created a 'self-lacing' shoe which could be 'tied' using an app...

  • ... and also a Digisole for measuring your foot's pressure during a run.

  • An interesting way to track running gait over time.

  • Corsair's promo girls naturally had to have LEDs.

  • 3D-printing was popular. We're not sure if this was our favourite example...

  • ... or this massive Venus de Milo.

  • A keyboard where the keys aren't labelled at the top but on the side. We have our doubts but G.Skill will be releasing this soon. Apparently.

  • Nvidia went and created a Holodeck - Vive VR-based environment where multiple people could collaborate in a 3D work space. Here's a team working on an exploded view of the Gogoro electric moped.

  • One aim for the Holodeck is to plan the products and the product lines and the entire factories in a virtual space before building them in real life.

  • The Holodeck also provided a space to run A.I.s - many at once. Here 16 are learning how to score a goal in Ice Hockey. After a while the most successful A.I. gets implanted into the other 15 and they all carry on. We can't help wondering what happens when it starts to rebel.

  • This A.I. was tasked with putting a golf ball into a hole using a club. It didn't know which way up or which way round to hold the club at first, but after many many attempts, it learned what to do.

  • This 'Goonies Smart Palette' pad plugs into your phone and lets kids do 'physical' colouring in.

  • It's supposed to help install an appreciation of fine art (amongst other things).

  • These 'VR' goggles work with any phone and let you watch a movie in the maximum definition offered by its screen (rather than half the screen divided into two - one for each eye). Movies can look better and it's certainly very effective.

  • The VR headset also compacts down quite thin.

  • A table-top PC

  • This virtual store lets you enter your key measurements and then try on virtual clothes...

  • ...The app shows analysis of your body.

  • Colourful, ruggedised cables were a big thing for modders this year. This example is from Corsair (there's no word on the LED version though.)

  • Gigabyte and 3M partnered to created a server which doesn't need expensive cooling - because it's immersed in liquid.

  • A peephole camera set up on a toilet door. Who is the target market?

  • Bloody computers.

  • Acer's new gaming notebook has a translucent area above the keyboard which acts as the trackpad.

  • Asus Zephyrus laptop had the oddest name of Computex. However, it's ability to rise up and reveal an exhaust port when gaming (using a GTX 1080) impressed all who saw it.

  • One of MSI's more impressive gaming laptop, the GT75VR Titan had a new SteelSeries mechanical keyboard...

  • The keys are similar to Cherry Blue (light and clicky) and feel very different to any keyboard we've ever seen on a laptop. They feel good but aren't half noisy.

  • The Eve Tech 'Eve V' was a Surface Pro-like laptop that was designed by asking the forums on Eve Tech. It looks seriously impressive and has some nice touches, like the backspace key being labelled, "Oops!"

  • Acer has some VR goggles. Apparently.

  • The HiMirror Plus virtual mirrors help with 'Daily Beauty." It has a 'smart-ambient make-up light' can assess your skin's condition and has better WiFi than before!

  • MSI loves showing off the cooling mechanism to its big gaming laptops. And they are kinda interesting... and anatomical.

  • MSI also displayed some dispersing screens which mask the joins of multiple monitors. The one on the right isn't working so well.

  • MSI also had loads of M.2 gadgets. This motherboard comes with two slots on one PCIe card. Many motherboards also have heatsinks to cover board-mounted drives.

  • Deep Cool showing its RGB fans off.

  • An AR Advertising System - get things flowing around pictures of your punters.

  • Credit: IDG

    G.Skill's LED RAM looked particularly pretty.

  • G.Skill's huge overclocking stage was also impressive.

  • World's best overclocker, Kingpin, showing off his own new, branded, EVGA Kingpin hardware.

  • We don't always post late-night, beer-fuelled photos of people we met in the pub, but when we do...

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