EBU TECHNICAL's David Wood and Peter MacAvock are attending one of the most significant trend-setting trade shows in the broadcasting and consumer electronics calendar, CES 2009. Filled with more than 100.000 people and with film crews bustling around, many will already have seen news reports on the latest gadgets and trends in the industry. The economic downturn has taken its toll in attendance, but there were still plenty geeks and nerds who could afford to come. The Gurus say there are five areas to keep an eye on.
The first is ‘green’ as a reason for buying specific pieces of electronics. Manufacturers shave off the watts that equipment needs, and the public feels good about buying new equipment. The second is the evolving ‘human-machine’ interface. It used to be knobs and dials to control the TV and change the channel, but human ingenuity has moved on. Now they can be controlled with a touch screen, your voice, or even better, by waving your hands around. Make a note to get one of these so we can change TV channels behind our partners' backs before they notice.
The third is ‘embedding ‘ Internet’ in , well, just about everything. This is the route to what is called the ‘Internet of Things’ - where a fridge displays the Internet pages giving special offers from the supermarket. The car would get embedded Internet too, telling you to buy new things. The fourth is the tendency to make home connections ‘wireless’ rather than ‘wired‘. Home TVs, recorders, and PCs could be completely interconnected without any physical wires that give the carpet a bump.
The fifth is the great ’wellness’ wave. This is consumer medical electronics, which will include portable ’wellness trackers’, which use bio-sensing, and possibly use mobile phones may that have the capacity to even identify illnesses. Maybe your wrist watch will eventually do a CAT scan?
| Sub-woofers
In specific terms, there was the new Windows 7, which seems to the author to be an extension of Windows to take over the home network, all elements of which can be controlled from the Windows desktop.
There was plenty of ’in car’ electronics too. Digital electronics and incredible in car sound systems. The picture shows that the car boot can be taken up entirely by ’sub-woofers’ which provide incredible throbbing for those in the car. But where would you put your shopping?
More next week. |
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