The fantastic innovations at Berlin's IFA 2017
Berlin's mega consumer electronics show, the IFA tradeshow located in Berlin, offers the most creative array of the latest in high-tech gadgets. Home appliances and consumer electronics products and markets are converging all the time. IFA was first to recognize this trend and transformed it into a successful event. Here's a look at very few eye-catching product inventions out of hundreds that exhibited at the IFA show. Another prototype from Panasonic, this wardrobe will wash, dry and fold away the laundry —all without a hint of human intervention. Users just place dirty clothes on a shelf, from where they're whisked into the built-in washing machine, dried, then ... 
The Panasonic laundry robot been developed with Seven Dreamers laboratories – now part of the Panasonic stable, and the same team behind the Laundroid folding robot that Panasonic previewed last year. It’s just one of the company’s Better Living Tomorrow concepts that also includes a moving fridge that brings you food and drink when you’re hungry. But this machine doesn’t just fold your clothes – it washes them, dries them, irons them and stores them within built-in wardrobe space. Given that that the average person spends more than a year of their lives – or 375 days to be exact – folding, sorting and putting laundry away, it’s clear that this is going to be the biggest revolution in home appliances since the dishwasher. So how does it work? Well first, you drop your dirty into the machine, as demonstrated by this Guy.. 
Next, sensors detect how soiled said garment is, and what material it’s made from, before the machine selects the ideal wash and drying cycle. Our robot friend also picks the amount of detergent, temperature and water pressure to use.
In other words, it never uses any more resources than needed, saving you money every time.
Now comes the washing stage, and then everything is dried and ironed. Finally, the technology within the Laundroid comes into play, and your laundry is folded with space-age arms… 
…then presented for you to store where you like. 
The plan is that the Panasonic laundry robot will be able to magically transport clothes to the right spot in your wardrobe automatically. But we’ll let Panasonic off for not being able to demo this just yet.
Rumour has it, production could start as soon as next year. And the price on all this genius? Well, we’ll take it with a pinch of laundry detergent, but we were quoted a figure of around £25,000.
Here are a few more fantastic innovations at the IFA Tradeshow: Ultra-HD TVs IFA's aisles are wallpapered with OLED screens this year. The technology dispenses with a backlight as each pixel illuminates itself—making for a very sharp image with strong contrasts, even in moving images. And the ultra-thin displays can be made transparent or even flexible. The images buyers will be screening are also getting an upgrade, as the ultra-high-definition 4K standard becomes more widespread with sets starting at around 2,000 euros ($2,370). More video is being filmed in the high-resolution format that makes owning such a display worthwhile, with manufacturers betting public interest will follow. And more and more TVs boast connections to internet video-on-demand services or applications, like Sharp's latest models with an Android interface. Mobiles get chatty Manufacturers are still vying to cram as much screen as possible into their smartphones, like LG's LGV30 with its "borderless" 5.7-inch display. But the action can be found in the guts of the devices, where firms are racing to offer the most intelligent voice-activated digital assistants alongside typical upgrades to storage space or cameras. This chatty artificial intelligence looks set to implant smartphones even more deeply into daily life, controlling connected gadgets around the home. Samsung said it would strengthen its work with the Open Connectivity Foundation, aiming to help its voice assistant Bixby to talk more easily to other manufacturers' products. And Chinese giant Huawei said it would join the vocal race with a chip known as Kirin to be built into upcoming smartphones. Second wind for smart watches Could 2017 be smartwatches' turn to be a hit with the general public after years being seen as a gimmick? Consultancy Gartner expects more the 67 million of them to be sold worldwide this year, more than doubling the 30 million shifted in 2015. At IFA, makers of high-tech "wearables" are vaunting their water resistance to appeal to fitness fanatics. Fitbit is offering a large-faced watch with a plastic strap that's waterproof up to 50 metres, while Samsung tempts potential buyers of its Gear Fit Pro 2 with an offline version of Spotify aimed at runners. The business version can be used to control Powerpoint presentations. Not neglecting accessories to the accessories, the Korean firm also has colourful earbud headphones with simple touch controls. AI butlers share the load This year has seen tech titans Google and Amazon join the battle over intelligent personal assistants—voice-controlled AI helpers built into speakers that sit in the user's home, organising online shopping or domestic chores. And the IFA is a showcase for connected home devices that allow people to control appliances and manage energy usage via a smartphone or tablet. Tying into Amazon's Alexa assistant, Siemens' "home connect" offers interior views of the fridge at home, one-hour delivery of needed groceries, or the ability to turn on the oven from afar—all from the driver's seat of the user's car. Once dinner guests are gone and the crockery is cleared away, a scanner can judge how dirty the tablecloth is and programme a custom wash into the washing machine. "Robots are arriving in your house, and they're going to know a lot about you," joked IFA co-organiser Roland Stehle.
Dave chats with Martin Brandenburg from DJI about their line of drones. [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUDV8ku2xNk[/embedyt] Source: The wackiest innovations at Berlin's IFA 2017
