My trip to the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show was unlike last year, or any other years I’ve gone, because I cut myself short on time.

The organization of the show changed quite a bit, and in the past, all of the breakthrough inventions were situated in one giant hall, over at the Sands Expo Center.

After last year’s downsizing of the show, I was able to make it through that entire emerging technology area in just one day, and I found myself with a lot of time on my hands, so this year I decided to only come for one day.

Little did I know, that this year, likely due to the economy, they would downsize even further and cut out the Sands entirely, cramming everything together in the big convention center.

To make matters worse, rather than group all of these inventions in one space, they spread them throughout the entire show on red carpeted “Tech Zone” areas, so I had no choice but to try and make it through the entire show in one day.

Anyone who’s ever been there before knows that it’s impossible to see everything in one day, not to mention that it’s totally impossible to find all of the separated tech zones.

Amazingly, I can swear that I’d pretty much walked and jogged up and down almost every square foot of the entire North Hall, Central Hall, and Southall, along with at least two of the second floors that I can remember.

It was a whirlwind tour, and something I’ll never try again, because I really do feel somewhat slighted.

Why Do I Attend?
My goal in going each year is to seek out new technology, products, trends and inventions, then buy domain names and begin development of some web properties to start to become visible in the SERPS.

Generally, in the beginning there are no revenue opportunities, but soon, as they catch on, merchants create affiliate programs, and we’ve got several well earning sites based on thing’s I’ve discovered at CES.

CES 2010 Was in 3D
What struck me most all day long, was that I saw more 3D TV signs than I could believe. Nearly every manufacturer seems to have 3-D TVs, and nearly all of them require that you wear glasses.

Having just seen Avatar in 3D, I was pretty impressed, but I’m amazed that everyone is banking on the average American family wanting to put on glasses to watch TV.

In the international area, I saw aftermarket vendors of fashionable 3-D glasses, all the way down to toddler size, and it wouldn’t surprise me if you could get 3-D lenses put in a set of Ray-Ban frames.

I also saw screens to go on top of your monitors and handheld multimedia devices too, that would eliminate the need to have glasses. If you’re looking at non-3-D content you just take the screen off.

Only Intel had a 3-D television that did not require glasses showing, so I’m sure we can expect that having to wear glasses will soon be a thing of the past.

Besides my short stay, I also apparently forgot my headset and microphone, so dictating my summary when I got back that night was impossible.

Instead, I used my Blackberry to make a few audio notes, and have only now finished organizing my thoughts and photos.

Here, in no particular order, are my own personal CES 2010 highlights.

BlueTooth Rear View Mirror

Oregon has now passed a law that you can’t hold your phone to your head while you drive because steering takes two hands, so I was wondering if there would be any solar Bluetooth speakerphones, and there were.

I was pretty impressed with the idea, as I wandered through the auto area, but then I came across this unit. This would be great, since I’ve usually got a dead Bluetooth headset.

Caller ID scrolls across the mirror, and it’s a speakerphone AND it comes with an earpiece too, for when you prefer privacy.

USB 3.0

This isn’t really a particular product it’s just a technology, which will soon be everywhere, as it becomes widely adopted standard.

This is a chart showing how fast USB 3.0 or the trademarked term “super USB” – You can transfer 27 gigs in 70 seconds!

Unless I miss my guess, would be increased size of flash drives, and these increased speed of data transfer, there’s no reason why my entire computer won’t someday be able to fit on my USB drive.

For years we have been able to boot a computer from a USB stick, but with these increased speeds it’s going to be possible to do a lot more. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if by this time next year, I’ll bet we are able to boot to the Google OS from a USB stick, browse the web, use Google docs, check mail etc., and even store local copies of documents that are created with the Google Docs platform.

If you haven’t said goodbye to Microsoft already, I’d say that’ll be the day to sell your Microsoft stock.

Data Jack

In many cases, a brick-and-mortar location may be effectively “out of business” when their Internet connection goes down and there’s a company that’s being marketed as an “Internet access backup service”.

Functioning through the cellular phone provider networks GSM / 3G connections, your connectivity is assured from almost anywhere, at speeds that are about three times faster than your old dial-up connection.

They also offer daisy chaining and routing capability for multiple users, so at 40 bucks a month, seems like a pretty affordable insurance policy.

Personal Cell Tower – 5barz

A clever name for a clever solution to an ever frustrating problem, this is a cellular signal repeater, it’s going to be marketed as your own personal cell tower.

It works with any carrier by multiplying any signal, even under “half a bar” into a full strength five bar connection. (Don’t ask me why they can’t just build that into phones in the first place).

Thumb ring Blue-tooth

Fashion and technology are merging in many forms, and Bluetooth clothing is nothing new, but I thought this piece of jewelry was pretty slick.

This is a Bluetooth cell phone accessory, with a vibrating thumb ring, with an LED display that’s large enough to read the caller ID.

Should you decide to answer, simply twist it, and stick it in your ear. I I didn’t stick around long enough to see if it had a speakerphone, but I’m guessing it does.

Man-powered Generator

What makes this unique, is that you can charge up this big box of power, and take it with you wherever you need to, since it has all of the necessary electrical connections to plug in any device from anywhere in the world.

There are adapters that allows you to use your bicycle, tricycle (so your kids can do the work), and for all I know, a hamster wheel adapter will be coming next!

The Storm – Digital TV Receiver

This dongle just plugs into your smart phone or laptop, and gives you free digital TV reception. Of course, since free TV is probably going away entirely, its life may be limited, but it still seemed like a fun thing to have.

I can remember being stuck at charity auction during a World Series game, and one of these would’ve been awesome to have.

With this device, you can open up a TV screen, drag it to a second monitor, and if you’re on the road with a dual monitor laptop, you don’t have to try to figure out the hotels TV computer system

Extra Laptop Monitor

Speaking of two monitors, I’m pretty spoiled with my multi-monitor setup at home, and when I travel, I can usually work just fine on my laptop. Some people though, are real road warriors, and need multiple monitors to be productive. For them, there’s now a solution.

Stylish Dresser Valet

Get rid of unsightly cord tangle, and the mess of having your E- equipment strewn all over the dresser with this stylish and fashionable electronic device caddy.

Okay, maybe it’s not that technologically amazing, but it would make a pretty good Father’s Day present, wouldn’t it?

Tiny DVR

The camera doesn’t do this one justice, because the guy apparently moved his hand and I had my camera on a weird zoom thing, but it’s a full functioning DVR that records to removable Flash memory.

It’s designed to be a wearable or clip on spy cam, and it has motion sensing technology, easy on off switches, and the option to have the red recording light flash or not.

Solar Wing

This solar car was built as a school project by engineering students in Japan. If you look closely, you can see that in the background the pictures on the wall show that this “wing” is visible on a flying airplane. I couldn’t tell if it was an artist rendering or a photograph of an existing prototype, but I think you get the idea.

Audio Egg

Okay, I do have to admit that I was impressed by the sound. It really was every bit as good as any pair of headphones I’ve ever tried. However, with the size being roughly 400 times larger than a good set of headphones, and a limited fashion colors available, I just don’t see them becoming widely adopted.

Bone Conduction Audio

It’s probably been two years since I first tried on a set of these bone conduction headphones, but there have been some technology breakthroughs and now, their popularity is spreading.

The concept is that instead of sticking something in your ear, you can more comfortably wear it on top of your ear, and the vibration in your skull actually sounds as clear as a bell, just like you wearing a standard earbud.

The technology was at multiple booths, and I believe it will continue to grow in popularity since so many people absolutely hate the way some of these things feel when they are inside your ear.

65 inch HD Combo Touchscreen Monitor & Interactive Whiteboard

Need I say more?

Video Game Seating

Due to cutting myself short on time, I didn’t get to drive a single lap or single mile this year, and as a former gameaholic, it was pretty disappointing. I didn’t get to try any of the flight seats, cockpits, driving consoles, beanbag chairs with speakers, or any other gaming furniture that only the most spoiled children on the planet usually get to own.

Hovering Spy-Craft

In just a tiny booth from an inventor, this little XWing is precisely maneuverable, and you can easily hover, go forward, backwards, and make tight corners. Check out this Cnet video

Believe it or not, the unit can be radio controlled from up to a mile away! Never mind the fact that you can’t see it, but the guy does claim it works from a mile away.

The black ones, from a bigger vensoldor, look like little military drones, and had similar maneuverability.

How long it will be before civilians can attach one of those little cameras to these drones, and it also has internet or cell access to broadcast photos?

People will be flying spy vehicles around their neighborhoods from their home computers pretty soon! Here’s a still image of one, and a quick video of the Xwing.

The Hall of Innovations
I usually linger for a couple of hours in here, since it’s where the awards are given for best of the show gone through the best of the entire show. This year though, I had to plow through pretty quickly, trying to reading the description lines of each sign, but I’m sure I missed some cool stuff. In many cases the device was too small or obscure looking, so it took a picture of the sign instead.

Start Your Car with an iPhone

This is an iPhone app that will unlock or even start your vehicle. I hope there are safety precautions that would prevent you from starting a manual transmission vehicle while in gear, jumping it through your garage wall!

Power Line Gigabit Networking

I really don’t know how slowly data used to travel over a network, but in 1997, if I had networked your office, we would’ve run cable everywhere in your office that a computer needed to be.

Although there was technology for running data over phone lines, and even running data over all electrical lines, it never really caught on, and data typically traveled at 10 mb, and it was quickly multiplied by 10 times, and 100mbs became the norm. That jumped by 10 again, as 1000mb, or Gigabit speeds were introduced and today’s standard is “gigabit networking”.

Now, gigabit speeds are available directly over your power lines, so no additional wiring is necessary beyond regular electrical. Since this is 10 times faster than wireless, computers support it natively, right through their ethernet port, it sure sounds to me like it’s poised to take over as the industry standard. Does new construction still typically have ethernet cable run? I’ll bet it won’t for much longer…

Family Storage and Networked
BluRay

An LG network storage device that was (umpteen?) terabytes in size, and even had a built-in Blu-Ray player to watch movies from anywhere in your home.

Built In Speakers

Speakers are being built into everyday devices, in all sorts of furniture and appliances. The technology really surrounds you in sound, and sounds great even over wireless connections. with no freestanding speakers to worry about and even no speaker wire for some of the models, I’m sure there’s lots more to come.

The Dorky Geektoy Award

Last year, the silliest thing I saw, (although functional) was a wire coat-hanger type device for holding your cell phone to your head to be “hands free”… seriously.

Does this look equally as silly when you wear it? Um, yeah…

Hat’s off, (literally) to this thing, designed to tuck your iPhone into the holder at the end of the visor, then slap it on your head, and put on your headphones, retreating into your own little universe of “private” viewing. Amazing.

I have a few things I’ve held back, primarily because my wrists are sore, they weren’t that fascinating, or in a couple of cases, I need to get a site up first, before touting the technology.

Next year I’m definitely staying for at least two full days…

This year I spent only a bit more than a half day at CES and I stayed only in the Sands Expo Hall, unlike previous shows CES 2006, and CES 2007.

Last year for 2008 I was able to write three posts nearly all from the Expo Hall, but it was nearly a third smaller than it was last year, and there was far less variety. We were able to make it through the entire hall, seeing every single booth in just 4 1/2 hours.

I’m sure that the economy played a major role in many vendors making a decision not to show up, and it was a bit disappointing after seeing how large it had grown last year.

At any rate, here’s of all the cool stuff I saw (in no particular order) and a few others that for some reason caught my eye. I don’t claim to be a gadget reviewer, a photographer or even a CES expert, so if my facts are wrong about anything, please correct me nicely!

Bug Labs
A 21st Century Erector Set. BUG is a collection of easy-to-use electronic modules that snap together to build any gadget you can imagine, like a camera, keyboard, a video output, etc.

Pogo Plug

Plug an external hard drive into the Pogo Plug, then hook the Pogo Plug to your home or office network router. Once you do that, all of your files are safely and securely accessible from your I-phone, your PC, or any Internet connected device imaginable.

Acoustibuds
Jeez, about frikkin time. These things are cool, and should soon be available at a store near you, for making those horrible headphones that come with nearly every device much more usable and comfortable.

Dashboard Devices LLC

This in car computer system does ALMOST everything. I need one of these in my car, but it would be even better with a display on the windshield so we could use Twitter while driving

Mind Control by Mattel – Mindflex
Ok, I kid you not, I saw this in action first hand, and was floored. My friend Al Carlton, the gadgetmaster is the one in this video.  I didn’t get to try it myself, because it looked like those that were in line were going to be a while,  and we wanted to move on. Now however, I wish I had.

Talking to Al, he’s told me that you’re really controlling the fan, and moving it left and right is done with a knob.  In the still photo, you can see how it attaches to your ear lobes with clips, where it reads your biorhythms…

What is this?
What’s happening here? Is it Mattel’s Hydrogen Bomb Kit? I wish I could remember, and have no notes to go with the picture, but Brad understood, and said to get a picture, so maybe someone can comment if they know wtf it was.

Spyball Camera by WowWee
You steer it via a remote, it as it rolls around, then stops on a dime, and then you can control, broadcast, and presumably blackmail someone with it’s videos.

Micro PC
Not really new, just smaller, cheaper and way cooler. I could fit this in my winter coat pocket!

CyWee
Better than Wii, ’cause it works with PC games. It’s a dongle the size of a USB thumb drive

Portable Power Bank
This is a universal adaptor with a gearless wind generator and a solar panel. Hook it to yourself while you run skate or bike, and charge & use anything you have on you.

Unichal
This is a USB Dictionary for printed material. When you click the device, it opens to the relevant Wiki-pedia page, dictionary page and google search. Personally, I’m not sure there’s actually a market for it, bot it was neat.

Vue Personal Video Network

This innovative little video camera broadcasts and operates wirelessly, has a clever and simple positioning system, is said t obe easy to install, and looks to be seriously cool.

I’m thinking about applying to be a beta tester, and you can too until Jan 19 – but if they pick you instead of me, I’ll be mad.

Nice writeup here where i took the photo from…

USB Missle Launcher -
The first year it just launched foam missles. Last year, they added a model that had a camera lens and a viewing window you coul use on your PC to target trajectory. This year, it can be controlled remotely over the web, so on days that you call in sick, you can still taunt your fellow employees by shooting missles into their coffee.

USB Hand Held Microscope with integrated software – $400
Sorry, but I didn’t make a note of the company. I was so enamored with looking at the back of a penny and details of a circuit board that I totally forgot!

PC Microscopes are nothing new, but the palm sized version of this one, along with portability and ease of use, AND the on-screen software that displays actual measurements as you click and drag with your mouse made it a hit in my scorebook.

3d Rendering Glasses by Vuzix

Okay, this requires an explanation. They are virtual 3-D rendering glasses that allow you to interact with a 3d compouterized item simply by looking at a spot on a piece of cardboard that’s lying on the desk.

Just point the glasses at the spot on the cardboard, and a 3d rendering appears in your field of vision, looking as if it’s sitting on the desk. I tried them, and the view changed pretty smoothly as I moved my head.

What you see in the picture below as a log cabin is what I saw in my glasses, but when I removed my glasses, all that was there was a piece of cardboard.

Remember the holographic chess game from Star Wars? well, it looks like it’s coming soon, and I think they’re trying to get a sponsorship from Dramamine…

Aqua Power
Ok you skeptics… Two years ago, I reported that someone was claiming to be able to generate electricity out of plain tap water, or melted snow, or even, in a pinch, soda or beer from a can or bottle.

I can’t tell you how many people I’ve told this who didn’t believe me, and I’ve been forever pulling out the flyer I keep at home when we have guests that bring up the subject of any alternative energy research.

That science-fiction story is now a reality with Aqua Power, and I’ve seen it for myself.

Other notables…

Stuffed animal Characters that danced pretty well to the beat of your Ipod

Dishwasher Safe Computer peripherals -
Note the reflection over the keyboard? That’s not glass, it’s water, and I was able to type with my hand submerged…

Alphabetical Keyboard –

What makes this keyboard so special? Just the fact that there’s a hot key pre-programmed to allow you to change the order of the keys from QWERTY, to alphabetical. That’s right, all the keys can be ordered ABC – DEF – GHI – JKLMNOP, QRSTUV, and WXY & Z. isn’t that a great thing to teach your kids?

Wowpen
One of the few things I saw at the Consumer Electronics Show that really made me say “Wow” was this invention, that enables the user to write on a regular pad of paper with a wireless pen sized device, and have the words pictures and characters instantly displayed on the computer screen. I got to try it out and it worked flawlessly.

There were other similar items at the show that involved a cabled unit, which in retrospect might actually be better to prevent loss, but the cabled units that I saw also required purchasing special paper from the company. The Wowpen required no special paper, and the only thing cabled was a small “reader” unit that went into a USB ort and sat at the top of your desk to monitor hand position. Wow.
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PowerAir – Zinc Energy Source
Until today I had never even heard of zinc as an alternative fuel source. I have a few affiliates in the alternative energy space, but this one really stood but, as I got to see the world’s first indoor generator. It was only about the size of two monster gaming PCs side-by-side, and it runs indoors, with re-cycleable fuel.

The fuel it runs on is a little bit smaller than a BB, but colored silver, and with a rough texture. When the fuel is spent, the owner can return the fuel for reprocessing, so there is literally no waste created.

The home size generator pictured above will not be around for a while yet, and vehicles powered by zinc are at least three years away according to Don Ceci, the company’s vice president of sales and marketing. However, they do have andheld units available now, that are about the size of an old palm pilot, and provide up to 40 hours of electricity for recharging your cell phones, iPods, and handheld electronic devices.

Once activated, the 40 hours of electricity can be accessed instantly for up to 90 days of use before the unit gets sent back to the company for a trade in.
Retail pricing on the handheld units is going to be $39.99 for the first purchase, and substantially less for the trade ins.
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CallPod
This company had three very cool products that thet unveiled at CES. The first was a Bluetooth headset that would work from 300m away, which is more than a football field. I can barely get from my desk to the printer against the other wall of my office before I start hearing the signal fade when I’m on a conversation. The unit is pretty large, so not exactly unnoticeable. However, as technology improves it will undoubtedly shrink.

The second was a wireless charging device that acted as a pod in the center of your table for putting everything in all at the same time, eliminating the unsightly cable mass that plagues us all. Very useful, and well monetized, since every unit requires its own short cable be purchased from the factory.

The final item was a Bluetooth conference call system, enabling the extended range headsets to be, a conferencing system. Obviously this eliminates the need for people to be gathered around a table speaking into a center unit, and will enable people to have conference calls with their coworkers in the same building, without having to go to the conference room.
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VieVu – No Hands Personal DVR
About the size of an old Motorola pager, this is a video camera that you wear on the front of your shirt or jacket, that only has two modes – on or off. There are not switches t ocontrol, and just sliding the lens cover open or closed with one hand is all it takes. It includes a microphone and you’ll see everything that you see recording up to four hours, at 640×480.

If you want to capture the details of an event you’re attending or perhaps protect yourself from liability in certain situations, without the need to go through the hassle of a handheld camera, this seems like it will fit the bill quite nicely.
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Lumus – Electronic Eyewear
There were lots of manufacturers with glasses that you could hook up to your TV, video game or video iPod, while showing you what appears to be the equivalent of a 50 or 60 inch TV from about 10 feet away. Those are great, and the resolution on those glasses is pushing 1080i, getting better every year. Most hhave built in sound too. However, but all of them completely block your vision, and this company has added a new twist.

Instead of blocking your vision entirely, this one allows for an opaque control screen to come up and still allow you to look through it. The demo they had to try was hooked up to a handheld Windows mobile device and it really worked very well. The glasses themselves were heavy, but fairly stylish, and I could see wearing these in public, unlike any others I’ve seen. Remember the old IBM commercial with the guy waving his arms in the air while sho uting voice commands to his computer? We might not be quite there yet, but these glasses will definitely make it easier to drive down the freeway while you’re reading and sending e-mail
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Data Locker
A simple idea, but one sorely needed. This company has a portable USB hard drive that includes a screen on the front requiring that a password be entered before data can be accessed. They offer it in several sizes and versions, including (I believe) one that’s just an encasement to use your own size drive. The password gets embedded to the drive, so there’s no way someone could just break open the case either. On occasion I have carried around a couple hundred gigs of information and I shudder to think what might happen if I were stupid enough to lose it, and for the additional $90 premium that this adds to the price of a drive, it’s peace of mind worth having.
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NoahPad
A sub compact notebook computer, that folds, up, and allows the screen to flops over backward like a tablet pc, (but it’s not a tablet). The twis is that , rather than run the whole desktop on such a small screen, they have turned the keyboard into two large touchpads, allowing you to “one touch” pan around the screen as needed in any direction. Another “touch” and it’s right back in keyboard ode easily enough.

I used it for a few minutes, and the lack of tactile feedback on the keys made it seem a little funny, but I got used to it quickly. With it’s compact size, a 10 hour battery life and a sub $600 price tag, I can see these catching on big time.
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Redfly
Why didn’t someone think of this one sooner? It’s simple, but brilliant, and worked perfectly. It’s just a compact laptop sized unit, with a screen, touchpad and keyboard for using your Windows Mobile device. Easy to use and instantly plug-in, this thing is very useful. An interesting thing to note is that if you’re using one, it actually ADDS power to your mobile device and will extend the life of the charge, even when the Redfly is running on batteries. If you had one of these, you could probably do just fine without your laptop on an extended trip.
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S-Xgen by Seamless Internet
Holy cr*p, now THAT’s what I’m talkin’ about! I WANT one of these bad boys… Forget Windows Mobile, Blackberry and Palm, this is next gereration stuff baby – Woohoo!

This unit weighs in under a pound, comes with a 20 gig hard drive, TFT screen, 2 USB ports, a Webcam, speakers and microphone, connects with WiFi, Bluetooth and cellular access.

This thing has he power of a laptop, the portability of a PDA, and the connectivity of a cell phone, and promises t ocontinue to change the way we think of mobile computing. Very cool.

Website

Nothing from CES that I picture here will change the world, but it was stuff I found pretty cool all the same. Most of the pictures I took on the fly as I was going by, and I really have no other information about them, so I’m unable to provide a link. However, I’m sure that they’ll be show up in the search engines and in the stores soon… Well, most of them…

Ring Box Video
An engagement ring box w/ display screen lets you add your own still pictures or video to the screen which plays when she opens the box. They had handouts of an October Yahoo news story featuring Rand Fishkin, our keynote speaker for Portland’s upcoming Searchfest 2008.

Motion Simulator
This was a motion simulator designed for flight games and it won an innovation award at this years show. At a mere $2800, what kid wouldn’t want one of these hooked up to his PC? The pedals and the joystick and the three screen display are definitely a requirement for the true filght sim buff.

Tank Chair Robot
With this Tank Chair I found in the robotics area, rugged terrain is no longer going stop someone who’s disabled from going wherever they want to go. It reminded me of the old MechWarrior games, and it was actually operational. They wouldn’t let them demo it there because it would tear up the floor. When I asked the guy what they buiilt it for, he said”because we could”

Flash memory with meter
This 100 gigabyte stick of flash memory has a display screen right on the hardware itself showing how much space is left. Did you read this correctly? I said it’s 100 gigs, and has a built in display screen. The entire thing is not much bigger in surface area than a postage stamp, and even though it costs $1000, it should make you realize where things are headed, and maybe much faster than you think.

The Hand Dryer in the Bathroom
This unit was actually in use in one of the downstairs restrooms, and the line to try it was much longer than the line to grab a paper towel or use the old-fashioned air hand dryer.

I tried it, and followed directions, and it actually it worked pretty well. The air acted almost like a squeegee as I pulled my hands slowly upward. Still, the extra time it takes to dry your hands with air is something I’ve always hated, and although this is faster than the old air dryers, I still prefer paper.

Remote Cooler
This is a remote control beverage cooler that you can drive indoors or out, so you’re not bothered with the task of having to get up to get another beer. I don’t necessarily think it’s all that cool but I do think it’s amazing that someone actually conceived of this and actually brought it to market, so I threw it in here as one of the stupidest things I saw at the show.

Up to 30 users on one PC
Why? I’m not sure… New technology allows you to run up to 30 users on one PC, each with their own keyboard and screen. I know how poorly my computer runs with just one user, and I can’t imagine this could possibly be any good for applications other than instructive environments. Can you imagine multiple users running versions of Microsoft Office 2007 on the same computer?

USB Missle Launcher
Doesn’t every computer need one of these devices? Last year’s USB Missle launcher simply pales in comparison to this year’s where they’ve now included a video camera with a desktop display for targeting of your pets, or your co-workers cubicle. I plan to wait for one of these until they are heat seeking projectiles, or you can plot coordinates for guided missles.

USB Pole Dancer
What can you say about a device like this? At least it gives you something to do while you’re waiting for your beer to arrive from your friends remote control cooler… – That is, assuming you have any friends!

My trip to the Consumer Electronics Show this year was shortened to just one day, so from the time the doors opened until I left for the airport, I roamed up and down the aisles and squeezing through the hordes trying to find the “next big thing”.

CES is made up of several shows all crammed together at the Las Vegas convention Center (home, auto, audio, video, etc) with a separate show held at the Sands Expo / Venetian called “Inovations Plus”, which used to be called “Emerging Technologies”. Because my time was limited, and because that was really my area of interest, I spent the whole day there.

As cool as it is to see the spectacle of the big show with a million-dollar booths and the 150 inch big-screen TVs, there really wasn’t much to offer me compared to the cutting edge stuff at the Innovations Plus show.

For those who haven’t read my CES roundup from 2007 or 2006, my criteria was about the same this year as it has been in the past. I was looking for things that were truly unique, or that offered the possibility of creating a new market, or that would tap into an existing market which was still relatively non competitive.

Because I was in such a hurry, I didn’t take time to stop and chat with many vendors, but I got to see an awful lot of cool stuff.

Unlike years past, instead of putting everything all in one post, I’m going to have to post a few a day, because I just can’t devote the time right now. Here are the first few…

NX6000 Bluetooth headset
Something I saw last year that never quite got developed right was a headset with a secondary microphone on the outside facing away from your body that picked up, then blocked out ambient noise.

They claimed you could mow your lawn while talking on the Bluetooth headset and the person you’re talking to would hear none of your background noise. Because of the “in the ear” design, you would be able to hear equally as well. I searched monthly for the NX6000 to become available, only to give up mid summer.

It turns out that the company sold their Bluetooth headset division to a new company who was here at the show, called Cellpoint Connect. There are plans for resurrecting the NS6000, and while I’ve yet to see (hear) it work, it’s coming soon.
Website

Tributary Technologies – Camera to Web
This was still in the conceptual stage, but company owners Jean and John Matvey have a great idea which could be as little as three months away from working if they obtain the funding they are seeking.

The problem with today’s camcorders is that the user has to be somewhat of a geek to connect up to the PC and then upload their video to the Internet. With the new cameras from tributary technologies, users will be able to take movies and upload wirelessly directly to a web server. If you think the existence of You Tube changed everything, wait until you see what this might do!
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Humanity Online – Virtual You
In the vein of a virtual Web assistant, sort of like Site Pal, but not a cartoon, this company has developed technology that will make it affordable for the small business to have chat interaction via the web, or prerecorded messages, both using a computer-generated talking head that looked far beyond what you see in today’s video games.

Lip movement was replicated very well, and facial expressions of the person speaking were done nearly perfectly, as the demo showed a video of the person on the left, and the speaking computer-generated avatar on the right. It was sort of creepy, but still incredibly cool.
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