What Were They Thinking? The Wacky and the Weird

Technology has given the world many wonderful, important things. You won’t read about them here.

Instead, we’ve culled a selection of the wacky, strange and in some cases endearingly odd products on display at the giant Consumer Electronics Show earlier this week in Las Vegas.

Imagine your world with . . .

* Snore Stopper. You strap this device, which looks like a large watch, to your wrist before going to bed. Then during the night when Snore Stopper senses a rumbling noise louder than 65 decibels--a probable snore--it delivers a mild electric shock.

“It’s not enough to wake you,” insisted distributor John Chang, who admitted he has never actually tried a Snore Stopper. The shock is supposed to be just enough to get the snorer to change positions and thus quiet down. Chang, whose company is called Master Products, said Snore Stopper will retail for about $40. “But for the person next to you, it’s priceless,” he said.

* Electric Picture. This product looks like a run-of-the-mill art reproduction--you can choose from a wide variety of works, ranging from Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” to anonymous country scenes.

But these are not just works of art, they are wall heaters.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Jerry Berger said admiringly. He ordered one of the floor samples for his Brooklyn office. “It’s a nice decoration, and it gives off a lot of heat.” The framed artworks, made by a company called Heapa, are technically called “carbon fiber electric physiotherapy picture heaters” and are less than an inch thick. Berger’s country scene set him back $88, wholesale.

* Car Radio Screen Saver. Not all makers of oddities are small companies. At CES, Pioneer Electronics debuted face plates for car stereos on which a personalized screen saver can be downloaded. But only by the car dealer.

When you want to change the picture, which looks fuzzy and somewhat distorted, you have to return to the dealership to re-download.

“We are encouraging dealers to have My Pioneer clubs that will allow the customer to pay, say, $20 to have the screen changed several times a year,” Pioneer spokesman Henry Knoll said.

* SmartPan. This simple black frying pan takes the “skill” out of “skillet.” To make such dishes as tuna melts, grilled cheese sandwiches, burgers, steaks and pancakes, you just press buttons on the battery-operated handle to select the dish you’d like to prepare. That sets the target temperature.

Then you place the pan on the burner to preheat. When the desired temperature is reached, you put the uncooked food on the nonstick surface and watch your meal come to life.

And all these years, Julia Child would tell us to fry something at “medium high” heat. So analog. SmartPan, made by Digital Cookware Inc., comes in a 10-inch model for $89.95 and a 12-inch version for $99.95.

* Natural Energy Stimulator. Why spend hundreds of dollars on a professional acupuncturist when you can give yourself the same sensation of being pricked by needles with this $169 device that looks like a large syringe?

It claims to use 30,000 volts of piezoelectricity to reduce pain in sore or injured areas, according to Scott Darnell, national sales manager for Minnetonka, Minn.-based Natural Life, the company behind the contraption.

Darnell said users should feel discomfort when using the Natural Energy Stimulator only if they have an actual injury. But a perfectly healthy tester found the shocks truly painful. And Darnell recommends administering 16 to 20 shocks to a single area three to four times a day if there is chronic pain.

Sure thing.

* Teddy Bear Phone Holder. Kits to customize cell phones were everywhere at CES this year. You could add covers in a huge variety of colors and fabrics, from fake mink to high-tech gel.

But the ones we liked the best were Teddy Bear phone holders, worn around the neck. They’re from a company called Hey! That’s Cool, and they sell for about $30. “You can use the phone without taking it out of the holder,” said Ross Vick, who identified himself as the “Head Tchotchke” for the company. “If you can’t have fun with this stuff,” he said, “why bother?”

Other cell phone holders included everything from your favorite cartoon character with a place to set the phone to a hand that looks like it came out of “Logan’s Run.”

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Times staff writers Elizabeth Douglass and David Wilson contributed to this article.