EMEA Freitag: IoT gone wrong?

Building on today’s early article about the Internet of Things (IoT) and all of the beneficial things these technologies can do for us. We’ll now focus on those topics that I’m not so sure about or that just simply defy logic.
Here are five questionable ideas, since it is Freitag after all and we should have some fun at the end of the week.
1)   The Oral B Bluetooth Connected Toothbrush, touted as the first connected toothbrush. I can believe that it is the first, as I didn’t know there was a large demand for such a thing. So you work with your dentist to plan your oral hygiene regime and the mobile phone app and toothbrush track what you are doing and rate your performance. In a nutshell. The app reports your ‘achievements’ as shown in the photo to the right. Not sure about you but I don’t really want an app monitoring my dental hygiene and if someone doesn’t already know they need to floss and clean their tongue, then I’m scared on a different level. The time management and pressure alert are important, but some electric toothbrushes already do that for you. Does your smartphone really need to be involved in all aspects of your life?
2)   Quirky Egg Minder in collaboration with GE. Monitor your eggs remotely! Have you ever worried you might run out of eggs or been away from home and not remember if you have any eggs? Then this product is for you. You also have little LED lights to tell you how long each egg has been in the tray so you can use the oldest ones first. Assuming you mix and match your egg purchases, I guess this is good.

3)   Alert Shirt. Feel the impact of the game you are watching by wearing this shirt. Developed for Australian football fans. Basically you feel what the player feels — the nervousness and the impact. Hmmm. Not sure I want to wear something that comes with safety guides on controlling the intensity of your shirt experience.
4)   icPooch. Video call your pets while you’re away from home and then give them a treat. I’m the first to admit I love my dog, but not enough to buy her her own smartphone to make this product work. And I doubt she wants to videochat with me while I’m away. She’s likely too busy sleeping to even hear the phone ringing.

5)   Connected Bacon! OK, this isn’t ‘really’ connected bacon, but if you’re a bacon lover, I’ll leave you with this concept from the Oscar Meyer Institute for the Advancement of Bacon (OMIFAB) — seriously — to take you into the weekend.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiWdF3u9C0w
There are so many great opportunities with the Internet of Things, I don’t mean to diminish all the good work companies are doing. But sometimes solutions to problems that I’m not sure need solving, just make you scratch your head.