A window-cleaning robot and a phone cover with a gun included

Ciara O’Brien picks a few of her favourites from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas

PulseWallet: We've all had that moment of sickening realisation that your wallet is still sitting at home/in the office/in the car just at the very moment you need to pay for something. But that could be a thing of the past if a new technology becomes a widespread thing. PulseWallet uses a scan of your palm to verify your identity and take payment from a card linked to your biometric data. Designed to be more secure than fingerprint reading or other methods of identification, the technology has been developed by Fujitsu and could be in use later this year.

Yellow Jacket Stun Gun case: You may never see these products in Ireland, and with good reason too. The Yellow Jacket phone cases aren't your average outerwear for your delicate technology; they team protection for your phone with protection for your person – in this case, a stun gun. Stun guns are, last time we checked, illegal in Ireland. The latest product from Yellow Jacket is a stun gun case for the iPhone 5/5S; the company previously offered the case for the iPhone 4/4S. There are plans to introduce a similar option for Samsung Galaxy S4 users. The stun gun delivers 650,000 volts of electricity, and the entire thing comes in a choice of colours.

Bamboo Kitchen stand for iPad with Knife Storage: Last year, CTA Digital gave us the iPotty, a plastic child's toilet with a holder for your iPad, so your toilet-training toddler could keep up to date with world events. Or more likely watch Disney films and mash their fist on the screen in an attempt to play Angry Birds. This year, the company is offering a stand for your iPad that also doubles as a knife storage block. Made from bamboo, the stand will hold the iPad in portrait or landscape mode, and has an adjustable stand to make it easy for you to view it. There's a stylus too; just don't get confused with your kitchen implements.

Intel's dual boot PCs: Sometimes you want your tablet to do a little more. And sometimes you want your laptop to be a little simpler. Now you have the best of both worlds, thanks to Intel's dual boot devices. At the touch of a touch of a button, you switch your devices between Windows and Android. The idea is that your notebook can be a PC when it's needed, but change to Android when it's required.

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Winbot: Who actually enjoys cleaning their windows? No one we know, that's for sure. So it stands to reason that someone somewhere would come up with a better way to get the task done. Hopefully involving robots. And lo and behold, here's the Winbot. The device will automatically clean your windows, using sensors to determine when it's reached the edge of the glass, and avoid collisions. Think of your robot hoover, but vertical.

Ciara O'Brien

Ciara O'Brien

Ciara O'Brien is an Irish Times business and technology journalist