71
CONSUMER
ELECTRONICS
A GLIMPSE
OF THE
GALAXY
Miller Engineering
Dark Skys DS-1
Planetarium
A few years ago,
Christopher Miller
lamented that home
planetariums couldn’t
come close to the beauty
of the night sky. So he
set out to make a more
detailed model. The
result: the DS-1 ($580),
which can project
4.1 million stars onto
your bedroom ceiling
via a chrome-on-glass
disc. (Most other home
units project hundreds
of thousands of stars.)
As 2020 unwound,
Miller noticed that DS-1
customers were not only
astro-geeks, but also
families looking for an
interstellar escape from
the year’s challenges.
“We’re bringing back the
night sky,” he says—and
the wonder that comes
with it. —JESSE WILLARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
A SKILL-BUILDING ROBOT
Embodied Moxie
Don’t let the cutting-edge AI and robotics fool you—Moxie is more like a Mister Rogers’
Neighborhood character than HAL. Created by vets of the children’s show as well as Pixar, Jim
Henson Productions, and experts in education and child development, the robot is designed to
help boost the social and emotional skills of 5- to 10-year-olds. In Moxie ($1,699), children find a
compassionate pal who encourages reading and drawing, and sends them on missions meant to
spur engagement with adults, siblings and peers, such as writing kind notes for their family to
find or talking to a friend about feelings. Paolo Pirjanian, CEO and founder of Embodied, Moxie’s
creator, says it is intended to offer “a springboard into the real world.” —MARJORIE KORN
BEAUTY
A CUSTOM LOOK
L’Oréal Perso
When it comes to beauty, there’s no
one-size-fits-all—which is why L’Oréal
created the Perso, a smart dispenser
that blends lipstick, foundation
and skin-care formulas tailored to
individual users. Simply log on to
the device’s app and upload a selfie,
which the app’s algorithm will evalu-
ate for common skin concerns like
dark spots, wrinkles and blemishes.
For skin-care formulas, the app willalso factor in environmental condi-
tions like humidity and sun exposure
before the product requested by the
user is mixed and dispensed from
the device. The Perso, which will
debut in 2021 for $200 to $300,
uses interchangeable cartridges to
blend its products, meaning users
can toggle with ease between mixing
either skin care or makeup.
—CADY LANG