CES electronics will stop your heart?
At CES this year, I will definitely be on the lookout for the KOR-FX. It looks a little like a cross between a vest and headphones for your pecs. It is two plastic pieces that sit on your chest and amplify audio signals into what the company calls accusto-haptic technology. You plug it into a standard audio-out jack and it sends audio signals into your body. It will work with any gadget like an iPod or laptop but it is made for PC gamers, although the imagination runs wild at what will happen when the adult industry gets their hands on it. Also, soccer moms will hate it, particularly the ones that think their kids need to be more immersed in their games like they need a hole in the head.
No pricing was given but Shahriar Afshar, president and CEO of IMMERZ Inc., says that it will be approximately the price of high-end headphones, which is around $300.
Another few devices with promise have to do with monitoring home power usage. First off, the PICOwatt. It is a device that plugs into any home appliances and sends data about that device to the Web using your home Wi-Fi network. You can monitor the power consumption of that appliance, as well as turn it on or off from the Web site. You can also send information about those metrics to your social networks, although I'm not sure why my Twitter followers care about how much power my blow dryer is using.
The PICOwatt will cost $79.99 and launch on April 22, 2010, which not coincidentally is Earth Day.
Alternatively, the Modlet from a company called ThinkEco Inc. looks like an outlet but it plugs into your home outlets and monitors the devices that are plugged into it on the Web. The Web site is elegant and easily competes with Google PowerMeter and Microsoft Hohm. It allows you to label, monitor, and set schedules for any given device. There is also a social element that allows you to compare and compete with your friends to conserve energy, as well as provide tips and tricks for living more greenly. (Is that even a word?)
The final presentation was the CubicVue 3D filter, which is a liquid pixel display that makes any monitor a 3D monitor without the need of the kitschy glasses. The company, CubicVue LLC, hopes to license this to manufacturers to build into their displays. It works with content that is optimized for 3D and supposedly does not disrupt 2D content.
I won't disclose how I voted for these companies but I will disclose the winners:
First place: ReNu from Regen, a line of solar-powered chargers and gadgets. They win $40,000 and a turn-key exhibit at CES 2010 in Las Vegas.
Second place: The eDGe from Entourage Systems, an e-reader/tablet. They win $7,500 and an option to display their product at CES Unveiled in New York or Las Vegas.
Fan favorite: ReNu from Regen, a line of solar-powered chargers and gadgets. They win $2,500 and an option to display their product at CES Unveiled in New York or Las Vegas.
Reserved enthusiasm for CES?
PHOENIX--I may be too easily impressed, but I am excited about the technology start-ups presenting at the CEA I-Stage competition in Phoenix. Or maybe I'm just too nice. Today I'm one of four panelists judging start-ups based on whether they have what it takes. I'll admit that most of them may not have it, but I am giving everyone an A for effort. My fellow judges are a bit more nonplused by the presenting companies; however, a few of them are getting unanimous A's and not just for effort. These A's mean that I am excited to see this products and actually want them.
The first is the eDGe from Entourage Systems. Yes, it is an e-book reader, but don't roll your eyes just yet--this one is different. Think of the things that you want from an e-reader: 3G; an open-format book format; an easy-to-access book store; Wi-Fi, a touch screen; the capability to draw, highlight, and annotate; the capability to integrate multimedia; long battery life; plenty of onboard memory that is expandable; lightweight, portability; and without screen glare. Check, check, and check. The eDGe, which I concede is an odd name, folds open like a book and has two screens. One is a touch-screen Netbook tablet that has a Web browser, notepad, and a calculator. The other is an e-ink screen. You can click hyperlinks within the book to play video or audio on the opposing screen. You can also hyperlink to the Web, which will launch the browser on the opposing screen. You can scribble notes in the margin and highlight texts and your notes will be pushed to the Web. You can also click charts and graphs and launch them in color on the tablet screen. The device runs Google's Android operating system.
This sounds like my e-reader pipe dream. It is everything I've been wanting, especially considering my Kindle 2 is on the fritz and I have a replacement on its way to me in the mail. But I didn't touch it. I haven't felt it. If the touch screen is buggy and there is a glare on the screen, then I will quickly swallow my enthusiasm. Also, it is expensive. It will cost $490 when it launches in February, but it has me excited for CES 2010, which is kind of the point of this conference.
Another product that turned my head was the ReNu solar-powered line of gadgets from a company called Regen. Its flagship product will be a window-mounted solar panel that pushes solar energy to a desktop charger that will power any USB-connected device. There will also be a line of speakers and desk lamps that will charge the same way. This isn't quick-fix charging obviously. It will take up to five hours to charge an iPhone on a sunny day, but it is meant for people who can leave their gadgets charging while they are doing something else, as well as people who feel guilty when they look at their chargers plugged into power outlets. (Like me.)
Another technology that is cool, but doesn't really exist yet is a line of headphones that take biometric reading from your body and send to a Web or mobile application. Created by Valencell Healthset, the sensors can measure your heart rate, temperature, caloric expenditure, and so on. The company wants to license this technology to health-related applications that could use this information such as Lose It or Livestrong. I like the idea since it means not carrying another gadget such as a pedometer to get the data. It lives inside the earbuds, headphones, or Bluetooth headsets that I would use anyway. Of course, I reserve my enthusiasm until I actually use it. Also, I won't be testing prototypes of that at CES. No shared in-ear gadgets for me, thank you.
We have just finished the morning panel. I'm heading back for the afternoon panel and, hopefully, I won't be so effusive about so many of the presenting companies. It is giving me a reputation as the softy in contrast to my fellow judges Ross Levinsohn from Fox Interactive Media, Jeff Pulver from pulver.com and co-founder of Vonage, and Blake Krikorian, founder and CEO of Sling Media. I can't have that.
CEA i-stage: And the winner is...
And the winner is...
Although there were worthy competitors in the afternoon, the winner of the CEA i-stage event here in Las Vegas was Boxee, the "open, connected, social media center." (Though I did talk to a venture capital guy who said he was following my pick, Occipital.) I suspect that Boxee won through sheer slickness of interface, defined value proposition, and possibly presentation value. It's a good product, there's no doubt. Boxee walks away with the $50,000 and the coveted CES booth space, and we'll probably try to keep tabs on it on its road to CES. Keep an eye out for that!
I-stage also featured an official fan favorite vote, and said fan favorite will get a "pod" in the CEA TechZone at CES, so they don't make out too badly, either. In this case, the fan fave winner was the Minoru 3D Webcam. The Webcam itself is adorable, it takes images exclusively in 3D, and, best of all, the presentation required the audience in front of me to don 3D glasses en masse! It was like being in front of a 1960s movie audience! But judging from their responses, the experience was worth it. Judge Jeff Pulver noted that he was looking for a "wow" experience out of the last two presenters of the day (Minoru was second-to-last), and the audience was definitely murmuring "wow" as they watched a cute little girl blow bubbles in 3D.
The afternoon session included some interesting innovations as well, but also the show's one serious bloodbath: judges raked three presenters in a row over the coals for presenting products (a digital picture frame, a video-from-mobile-phones streaming service, and a people-powered search database) that couldn't be easily differentiated from others in the marketplace. But that's not to say that all the presenters didn't offer something innovative and valuable--it's just that some were a little too similar to products already on the market.
And thus endeth CEA's first venture into trying to create a Best of CES-worthy booth on the show floor. I can't wait to see what all of you think of Boxee when it has its big Las Vegas debut!
CEA i-stage: Round one
It's lunchtime now and we've seen the first half of the i-stage presenters. It's been interesting and occasionally contentious, with a few notable standouts. First thing in the morning we saw a voice-activated remote control (Amulet) that manages Windows Media Center (cool, but with some minor hiccups that belie the difficulty of voice-recognition technology) and a portable, wireless video-camera system from Avaak that comes paired with an online streaming service. And a company called Frontline showed off the future of the treadmill--an Internet-connected exercise device that lets you virtually run through various locations, like the route of the New York Marathon or, apparently, the interior of the Louvre. The technology will, its founders hope, be funded by advertising that will pepper the interface, so you can shop and research while you run--anything to distract from the pain. (Of course, you can also upload and share your athletic feats.)
The next set of three presenters definitely got sexier: There was Boxee, which is free software that aggregates your media, online media sites like Hulu or Last.fm, and even recommends movies or music from your friends. It has a very slick interface, and unlike almost everything else we've seen, it was demonstrated on a Mac (probably because of that nice remote control). We saw the totally nascent LightGlove, a virtual reality device that's not really a glove. It's actually a bracelet that uses light to translate finger movements into digital signals. It's fancy, and its founders showed off some very impressive "air piano," playing Bach seemingly out of thin air. But the judges pointed out that it appears to be looking for a purpose.
I personally found the most interesting presentation of the morning to come from Occipital, which showed off a "pedestrian navigation service" that is basically an "augmented-reality GPS." The technology, designed for mobile phones, combines real-life views of an area with mapping data and then overlays a graphical walking route over a street view. And it can even--and this is the augmented reality part--provide an X-Ray view through a building, for a crow's-eye view. Occipital says it will deal with all the image hosting on its servers, and deliver only the giant chunks of 3D visual data you need over your 3G connection. That part is a little tough to swallow, but they're going into limited beta soon and I hope to have the chance to try it out. Occipital's software currently runs on Windows Mobile phones, but the company hopes to be supporting Android phones by CES.
I'll have more from the afternoon sessions, which will include, near as I can tell, a revolutionary digital photo frame, a 3D Webcam, and some stereo equipment. It never sounds quite as cool until you see it in person, you know? Stay tuned!
CEA i-stage: The kick-off to CES!
I'm in Las Vegas right now, because tomorrow I'm hosting the i-stage event at the Consumer Electronics Association's Industry Forum event. By "hosting," I mean that I am sort of the Ryan Seacrest of the event: Kevin Kelly of Wired, Jeff Pulver, and Ryan Block are the judges. It's a pretty interesting and cool-sounding contest, actually: It deals with software, hardware, and services, and the winner gets $50,000 and a free booth at CES. And while the organizers assure me they've got a really big check for the winner, I think it might be the free publicity (and preshow publicity) at CES that's the really big draw.
The finalists haven't been much-publicized, but from what I gather, they include everything from a price-comparison engine to a glove that can control your car doors. It should be pretty cool. Kara Tsuboi is covering it for CNET TV, so look for video of the finalists late Monday or the next day. The event goes on all day, with voting in the evening, and I'll try to blog as much as I can during breaks. You can also follow me on Twitter for updates throughout the day.
