Bizarre Tech: Debugger AI drone, Oenklen Ozone mouthwash and Nagualep Kitchen Composter

Debugger

Exterminate! Exterminate!

Oh. You don’t kill the bugs with this? That’s nice.

I imagined it being like a UAV (uncrewed aerial vehicle) in the military, pew pewing little insects in its path, destroying any invertebrates in its way.

However, this is not that. To be honest, if people had access to assassination drones, there would be a lot more falling from the sky.

So, the Debugger is a home drone the size of your smartphone, which allegedly can autonomously catch mosquitoes, bugs and other insects.

The AI-powered drone is “eco-friendly and innovative”, and is designed to hunt for the insect, catch it, and move it elsewhere, far away from your person. It is then released to harass others and leave you to be bugless another day.

Or you can guide the drone into your mortal enemy’s house, drop off the buzzy package and chuckle away as they are the victim of your drive-by bug assault.

All jokes aside, the people behind the gadget, Dmytro Titov and Heorhii Shakula, software engineers from Kyiv, Ukraine, say the Debugger can be used to control the mosquito population, especially in areas where diseases are prevalent – malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever, Zika virus, all the fun ones. Mozzies also may be responsible for the decline of native species like birds and amphibians, by being a food source for non-native predators.

Titov and Shakula have big ambitions – they imagine spreading a swarm of debugging drones over affected areas where mosquitoes are rampant. The drones work autonomously, so they would collect the bugs, move them to containers, recharge if needed, and repeat. The makers say “in other words, it’s like injecting a big number of natural predators that would drastically reduce the population of danger species”. Pretty good idea, that.

The Kickstarter campaign highlights that they want to make the “insanely complex project” possible, switching from using smartphones to a dedicated system on chip ready for mass production. They want to make the drone smaller, cheaper and easier to use for many applications, like industrial pest control – and landmines.

Yes, really. The idea is to replace the pumping system with a metal detector and use the vision system for path planning, obstacle detection and navigation across the minefield.

Oenklen

Ozone for your mush

Make your own ozone at home! Then send it back into the atmosphere to help our dying planet!

Oh right. It’s for your mouth. Next best thing!

Oenklen is a home-use device to “upgrade your oral care routine”. By transforming tap water into ozone mouthwash “in seconds via advanced micro-electrolysis technology”, it gives you a “full new cleaning experience”. Ooooo.

In combination with brushing and flossing, using the ozone mouthwash will effectively help your gob, and is a “more effective” long-term solution for oral care.

The product has apparently gone through rigorous testing and careful development. (They all say that, and then your teeth fall out. I jest, of course. Then again, they said Radithor was a good thing.)

Anyway, ozone has been used as a broad-spectrum fungicide for more than 150 years. The team behind Oenklen say studies have confirmed that ozonated water is a safe and reliable oral cleanser that effectively removes bacteria, viruses and fungi from the mouth.

By only using water, it means you can have an unlimited supply of mouthwash – if you pay your water bill.

So, what’s the science, boys? As I wrote earlier, ozonated water is created through an electrolysis process. The Oenklen team write that when an electrical current is applied to the water, diatomic oxygen molecules (O2) are split, creating individual oxygen atoms. These free oxygen atoms combine with other O2 molecules to form ozone (O3). The whole process is “organic and waste-free”.

Tadaaaa. Science.

So, you select your oral problems on the app (there’s always an app) and it provides the “most effective” solution. It customises a routine that syncs to the Daily Clean, Deep Clean, and Flossing modes on Oenklen.

Get ozoning, babyyyy.

Nagualep Nano Electric Kitchen Composter

Make hot stinky slush at home

This composter allegedly cuts your waste footprint by 90 per cent by turning your food waste into organic fertiliser. You can plop it on your plants, give it to your neighbours, throw it over the fence. Whatever, every little helps.

So to get the sexy, probably smelly mush, you press the button on the Nano, and it internally heats up to 260°F (126.6°C) to kill 99.9 per cent of bacteria. It fires up 700W to reach the ideal temperature within six minutes, then it dials down to 60W to maintain the heat and save energy.

Apparently, in as little as 30 minutes (probably would be one small lettuce leaf in there, I guess it probably takes a lot longer with substantial amounts) the organic waste turns into nutrient-rich fertiliser.

The Nano comes with an active carbon filter, so the gadget won’t stink your house out with hot, wet, rotting garbage. Huzzah!

It also has a self-cleaning function (thank god for that), so you just put in a bit of water and press the button and it’s sparkly again.

The Nano is said to be very quiet in operation, which is a plus, and it shuts down when it’s finished turning your leftovers into good stuff, so you don’t have to worry about it burning your compost or exploding and firing sludge all over your kitchen.