IFA 2020: best gadgets for a pandemic, from sex toys that operate remotely in lockdown to a face mask that sterilises itself
- Technology on show in Berlin for coping with the coronavirus included toothbrushes, razors, and even a mini-dishwasher, that all use UVC light for sterilisation
- Wearable air purifiers, which clean the air around the wearer, and sex toys couples can operate remotely if lockdowns keep them apart also featured
New products for a new normal. That’s one way to sum up the “special edition” of this year’s IFA, Europe’s biggest tech trade show, and the world’s only such event since the coronavirus pandemic took hold.
Normally visited by 225,000 people, the Berlin venue had only 6,100 attendees and 150 exhibitors during the three-day event last week. Organisers created an online “Xtended Space” and a “virtual market place” for companies to present their latest products, and deliver keynote speeches, without travelling.
As a unique new blend of the physical and the virtual, IFA 2020 was the first true hybrid expo, and to report from it was an odd experience. Masks had to be worn at all times, contact-tracing forms filled out all too frequently, and instead of snaking queues to attend press conferences there were mostly empty halls with chairs 1.5 metres (5ft) from each other.
If this is what the world now looks like, it was fitting that the trade event also saw the debut of technology that could help us all cope.
“Coronavirus has changed the focus of the tech industry from just being about convenience to being about things that are relevant now – hygiene, remote working, sustainability and other things that are actually impacting the world,” said Nick Sohnemann, founder and chief executive at Future Candy, an innovation agency based in Hamburg, Germany, who helped curate part of the IFA NEXT start-up zone.
