IFA shows gadgets

For the year's biggest consumer electronics show, IFA just doesn't seem to be the spectacle that it once was. Indeed the local press was quick to write off the annual trade fair this year as a faded relic that has seen better days.

Long gone, lamented the Berlin Morgenpost, are the days when then-Vice Chancellor Willy Brandt ushered in the era of color TV with the push of a button. That was in 1967. These days, the technological advances that turn up at IFA from year to year have gotten considerably more incremental.

"Today, one can only admire the small steps forward of innovation. Tiny steps," the paper wrote.

Still, the biggest industry players are stealing the show with their latest flatscreen TVs that offer sharper pictures than ever before. There are also new smartphones with larger screens and improved functionality. Not to mention an array of wearables whose manufacturers are betting that smartwatch and fitness tracker sales will offset the slumping PC market.

But this year's IFA wasn't only marked by improvements - however slight - to last year's technology. Some of the most interesting products on display were from lesser known companies whose booths were tucked away in Hall 11.

Whacky gadgets: A giant eyeball...

Take Panono, for instance, a Berlin-based startup that invented a spherical camera with 36 lenses that is capable of taking a 360-degree photo. When a user tosses the camera into the air, a sensor inside recognizes when the camera-ball begins to fall back down to Earth and simultaneously activates all 36 shutters. Stitching the photos together takes about five to seven minutes on Panono's servers and the final image is sent to a user's smartphone.

A social media panic button...

There was also Gaspard, essentially a community watch program for social media. Users attach a small, plastic button to their clothing or keep it in their pockets that when pressed, activates a panic signal to any friends in their network or other Gaspard users within a radius of 150 meters. Police officers could also download the app to receive others' distress signals, but a company spokesman said Gaspard was aiming to build a "community of supporters" rather than law enforcement officials.

Rain on down, world...

Down the aisle from Gaspard was HZO, a Utah-based science company that waterproofs electronics via a process known as chemical vapor deposition. As the HZO's marketing director explained it, a tray of electronic devices is placed into an oven-like machine which also contains a special powder.

When the heat is turned up, the powder vaporizes and leaves behind a 5-micron thick layer of monomers on the electronics inside the chamber, allowing them to remain submerged in water for extended periods of time.

HZO doesn't recommend swimming with products coated in their technology, but sweating on them or dropping them in puddles is fine.

Subtle twitches for your switches...

There was also Aria, a company that makes digital watchbands that can read a person's finger gestures by the movement of tendons in the wrist. Users can decide which functions they want certain gestures to control, but picture someone pressing his or her forefinger and thumb together to click 'enter' or making a flicking motion to scroll up. One major benefit of Aria's wristband, which can be connected to any smart device that can be remotely controlled by a smartphone, is that two hands are no longer needed to operate a smartwatch.

And something to make Homer Simpson bubble with glee

Brewie, a Hungarian company, was showing off its fully automated beer-brewing machine. The boxy device, which includes two large chambers for water and malt and four smaller chambers for hops, reduces the time and expertise required to brew craft beer at home.

A user only has to know two things before hitting 'Go': how much beer is needed, and what kind. The machine then automatically mashes the malt, steeps the hops and pumps the mixture into a separate keg for fermentation.

The company will begin accepting pre-orders in October for 1,400 euros ($1,563).

For beer and booze aficionados, there was also Floome, a portable breathalyzer that can be attached to a smartphone via the headphone jack. A quick blow into the mouthpiece reveals a user's alcohol level - and the local regulations against drinking and driving. The Floome app can also hail a cab, or even send a person's location to a friend's smartphone for those nights when a cab just won't cut it.