I don’t know if you’ve heard, but – 3D guys! Whoa, 3D? Yeah!
At least, that was the buzz heading into this year’s Consumer Electronics Showcase. Indeed, the 3D TV was the big thing most companies were showing off. Virtually every hall in the unfathomably expansive Las Vegas Convention seemed to be filled with the headache inducing eye-popping creations. Admittedly, some looked really good. I was surprised by how clean the TCL version was — especially since I’d never heard of the company. TCL also was the only company to display a glasses free 3D TV, which didn’t look all that great, but at least they’re trying.
The big problem with 3D TVs, which I am not the first nor will I be the last to point out, is the glasses issue. The best example being: You tune in to ESPN 3D (coming soon) to watch the big game in glorious 3D, except all your poor friends don’t have 3d glasses and you only dropped the cash to buy four of them. Oops.
That said, I think it’s an interesting step forward and I’m sure a lot of people will jump on them when they’re released. I think they should have never given up on developing hologram technology in the ’80s. Come on, that Sega cowboy game was awesome!
Beyond 3D, the convention showcased the usual assortment of industry specific stuff: speakers, cables, etc. The kind of stuff that I’m neither qualified or interested in writing about, so on to the robots.
The robotics area was surprisingly sparse. No big advances in robot technology this year apparently. I was, however, really impressed with Ugobe’s robot dinosaur (already I’m on your side) Pleo. The small bot, besides being adorable, has sensors beneath it’s scaly skin that respond to even the lightest touch. It also uses similar technology to the Furby that allows it to “learn” behaviors and respond accordingly. One woman I talked to at the booth said that her family’s Pleo had learned to respond affectionately to her son’s voice and angrily to her husband who tends to pick it up by it’s tail. Man, I want one.
Also impressive was the AR Drone from Parrot. The drone itself is a helicopter-type flying machine that uses four propellers to keep it aloft. That alone would make it a pretty fun toy, but here’s the kicker: the whole thing is operated by your iPhone. Once the app is installed, you can move your iPhone around to steer your new robot through the skies. It’s also equipped with cameras that relay back to the phone so you can do some very conspicuous spying. It was fascinating to watch it adjust itself to the wind outside to keep from blowing away.
I made a point on Saturday to check out Kodak‘s Twitter related talk, “Tweet That” for two main reasons. One, we use Twitter and social media pretty avidly for Ice Cream Man so we like to see how different companies are using it and talking about it. Two, the panel featured Punky Brewster herself, Soleil Moon Frye. Surprisingly, Kodak seemed to be pretty up on using Twitter efficiently. They used feedback to help design some of their newer cameras and make a point to connect to their customers.
Despite a long day on Saturday (we ended up getting in too late to attend Friday) and a few hours on Sunday, there was no way for us to see everything. What we did was impressive though and it will be interesting to see where a lot of this stuff goes in the future.
Oh, also, I lost about $150 over the weekend. Damned poker machines!
