The Gadget Show Live returned to the NEC this week providing eager technology fans with a glimpse into the future. The beauty of the UK's biggest consumer tech show is that many of the futuristic offerings are available to buy at the event. The 2014 live show coincides with the TV programme's 10th anniversary.
This year's event showcased, a device that turns ordinary objects into instruments, a man that's turned cardboard into re-useable furniture, a simple to install flood guard that could prevent misery for millions of homeowners 'sunk' this winter and poignantly for this Gadget Inspector, an artificial gland promising an innovative way of handling a chronic medical condition.
Five vast halls of the National Exhibition Centre were transformed into one giant gizmo-lovers' cavern with more than 200 exhibitors from around the world headed to Brum to an event that is becoming THE place to launch new technology.
The day began with a press call seeing the return of Ortis Deley to the Gadget Show Live fold, joined by bespectacled ever-present host, Jason Bradbury and the geek's geek, Jon Bentley. Countdown commitments meant Rachel Riley was absent but she's returning for the next five days of GSL 2014.
Jason said his biggest tech regret was that the Sinclair C5 did not take on. He fears Google Glass may suffer the same fate describing it as a 'pain in the a*se'. The TV tech stalwart however does see a future for smart watches as soon as they sort out the battery life.
On the show floor an artificial pancreas invented by Renfrew Group and De Montfort University scooped the Gadget Show LIve British Inventor of the Year Award. The device automatically releases the correct insulin dose to Type 1 diabetics (the Gadget Inspector included) but the finished version is some six years away according to inventor Bruce Renfrew. However, the tech has so far been tested in rats and pigs with remarkable results. The device is implanted and then uses a special gel which responds to glucose levels to release the right amount of insulin to control blood sugar levels. A possible end in sight for daily injections for diabetics - with the device 'refilled' every six weeks.
Elsewhere in the future tech zone HydroGuard
promises to offer respite and protection for flood victims with its one size fits all flood defence for doors. Hannes Floto from Germany and now living in the UK is the man behind the invention, which he believes could help the five-and-a-half million homes that are in a flood risk area. Each guard is simple to install and store and should retail for £189 - a small price to pay compared to the havoc flood water can wreak.
David Graham has already seen widespread interest The One Show and This Morning's Phil Schofield, for his cardboard furniture. The Imperial College and Royal College of Art graduate has found a way of turning industrial cardboard, into cheap, reuseable and recyclable furniture with his Move-It Products company. The company's table is light yet tough and has a carbon footprint which is a third of a wooden table equivalent. The cost is £40 for a table, £15 for a chair and £1 for a cardboard wheel ideal for moving boxes.
A Chinese giant, Cowin , launched its range of bluetooth speakers, its Miniboom (not yet on sale in the UK) being the biggest selling speaker in the whole of China. While speaker/headphone firms were plentiful, Orig Audio offers the chance to customise its range of audio accessories and chargers with your design. The Californian company does so at no extra cost - perfect for that unique gift.
Another competitive market at GSL 2014 were fitness trackers, which seem to be becoming as ubiquitous as smartphones these days. However, sports and navigation tech giants, Garmin
Niche technology firms like Design Mi - gadget loving brothers from Coventry that are making smartphone/tablet stands rubbed shoulders with gadget behemoths like Microsoft, Pioneer and Olympus. The beauty of the GSL is it gives a platform for start-us alongside the world's tech giants.
Gadgets for the home were at the fore - two of which are being put through their paces by out Gadget Inspector this month - from Lightwave RF - complete home electronics automation, making your home smartphone controllable and Energenie offering a plug socket that you can operate via text message. Boosty Limited is about to launch a product which combines your wi-fi signal with your phone's 3G connection to maximise your broadband speed. It 'borrows' signal from your phone to enhance your home wif-fi, especially useful if your home wi-fi connection varies or has lots of users.
Soladapt's Touch GENIE aims to turn every desktop into the modern touchscreen variety at an affordable cost. It was founded in part to help one of the company's founder's brothers who has autism be able to use a computer. The touchscreen interface being far more accessible and intuitive.
Kids had plenty of toys to play with and as is the 21st century way Toca Boca () showed off its gender-neutral apps for young children offering an educational element hidden under tons of fun. The Swedish company's apps have proven so successful that it is now approaching its 70 millionth download!
If there was one showstopper at this year's GSL for this Gadget Inspector it was Mogees - a device that turns any object into an instrument - via a smartphone. The device has been successfully backed on Kickstarter and aims to have a product available to market by Christmas (expected RRP £29.99). Its inventor Bruno Zamborlin demonstrated it by playing a bicycle!
Other gadgets that caught the eye and were still at a developmental stage were a hummingbird corkscrew from Boha - another successful Kickstarter project retailing for £49.99. Euan Lind Design's Splatform - construction strips to make objects, billed as free form fun - and a kind of therapeutic constructive stress buster for adults (£15 per pack but not yet in mass production). A prototype with huge potential - were construction kits for kids to build furniture, shelters and toys - using seven shapes and letting imaginations run free from Designure . And ROAM's folding bike concept, with prototypes fresh from the factory at the show - showed Anderson Garland's flare for design with a bike able to be wheeled in its folded state negating the need for it to be carried (expected RRP around £1,000 - ). While these gadgets were among the latest concepts set to hit (e) shop shelves in the weeks, months and years to come the Gadget Show Live 2014 had plenty of cutting edge tech for young and old to walk away with this week. The hit Channel 5 show's exhibition spin-off maintains its title as the UK's premier consumer tech show. And for fans like our Gadget Inspector, it is little bit of geek heaven teleported into Birmingham for one week only. Enjoy. Tickets are available by visiting: Gadget Show Live .
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