I’ve always loved walking around tech and department stores in Japan ever since I was young. They always had the coolest and weirdest gadgets. Not only that, they would have dozens and dozens of varieties with odd little features here and there for even day-to-day typical products such as alarm clocks.
But, I would have to say, the Konica Minolta Kunkun Body Odor Checker takes the cake as one of the weirder products I’ve seen come out of Japan.
Aside from the fact that this product can not only detect body odor, but it can distinguish between 3 types of body odor such as the smell of your sweat, middle fat odor, and “old person” smell.
Sweat and “old person” smell I know of but I’ve never heard of middle fat odor. That’s definitely a new one to me.
For me, I’ve never really had an issue with body odor as I don’t really sweat and people have actually made this comment before. I even went jogging with some co-workers after work and while they were dripping with sweat with their shirts all soaked, I was still dry. It’s not that I had high endurance or anything, actually the opposite, but my body just doesn’t sweat easily.
Enough about me, back to the product. The product works in conjunction with an app on your smartphone. The app is available on Apple and Android platforms. However, it’s only in Japanese at this time.
To use, you open the app on your phone, bring the device around to various parts of your body and then read the results on the phone. It’ll supposedly give you results based on the 3 types of body odor.
If you look at the video on how it’s done, measuring the smell near your armpit, head and foot makes sense. But near the ear? Maybe it’s just because I barely sweat that I don’t know but do people really sweat in or around the ears?
I don’t consider this a must have gadget. I would say it’s probably a talking point or fun gadget to play around with maybe even at a party to test your friends. But, I don’t consider this something that everybody should have, especially with the price close to $500.