We did catch someone saying "this makes the Wii look stupid." And, actually, it kind of does. The 3DV Z Cam is a minuscule video camera equipped with an infrared beam, roughly the size of a web-cam, that sits on the bottom of your TV. That's where the fun starts. Flash gang signs to change channels or flick various components on or off; have a virtual dance-off outside of a specific square; KO a cartoon boxer with real jabs. But don't just take our word for it, check out the video above.
We test plenty of cars here at PopSci, but it's not everyday we get to try one as forward-looking and promising at the Equinox. The car runs on hydrogen fuel cells; turn the ignition and the car instantly (and silently) churns out enough electricity to power six houses. So how does that much raw, green power feel? Check it out as senior associate editor Sean Captain takes the Equinox on a spin up the Vegas Strip.
You could spend a lifetime documenting the hilarity that is the CES demo stage—last year's crazy Intel lady was a highlight in '07, and thankfully she's back again this year—but something about the way this promo harpist for Canon gets neatly tucked away behind a curtain after her performance made me wish for this kind of setup in my own home. Take note, Canon! —John Mahoney
Samsung is Korea's largest single corporation, and they have one of the largest booths here at CES. Aside from a bevy of new TVs and a ton of Wi-Max Asia-only mobile phones, Samsung packed in a few other interesting tidbits. Here are a handful that caught our eye.
Sony is impressing a lot of people at CES this year. Their booth is an excellent mix of forward-looking prototypes as well as currently available products—and a few that are treading that line finely (like the soon-to-be-released three-millimeter-thin OLED TV seen above). As impressive as their TVs are, Sony's up to plenty more. See what else caught our eye after the break.
Pioneer invited us to get a first look at its Advanced
Design Concept TV last night before the start of the show. Even this TV weary
tech reporter was agog at the thing. The 50-inch diagonal screen plasma
measures just 9 millimeters thick—less than an iPod and way skinnier than any
other full-sized TV. (Sony’s Lilliputian OLED set notwithstanding.)
Like JVC’s thin LCD, the Pioneer does have a small dirty
secret—a hump on the back that holds the electronics for the panel. But even
this is a mere 20-some millimeters thick. (Pioneer reps couldn’t remember the
exact figure.) And this is the real innovation.
Turns out 9 millimeters is about the same thickness of the glass panels inside all Pioneer’s current TVs. But the power supply and
extremely complex drive circuitry makes the whole thing about 100 millimeters
(4 inches) thick. It’s not clear whether this also includes the power
supply—probably the bulkiest component.
How did Pioneer do it? Well, they’re not saying. But there
is clearly some serious foo involved. So when can you get it? Pioneer says it
won’t be out in the coming year, but they definitely will sell it—combined with
their amazing new infinite contrast screen technology prototype (also revealed
at CES) as soon as they can. My bet is sometime in 2009.—Sean Captain
Want more? Check out our entire CES 2008 coverage here.
People who have thought much about it have concluded that
projectors are the one way to reconcile ever-tinier gadgets with the ever-more
data and media we have on them. And plenty of companies have been trying to
build a micro projector that you can carry in your pocket or even get built
into your cellphone or iPod.
But no one knew that 3M (yes, the Post It people) would be the first company to do it.
After two years of stealth development, they popped out a little press release
on Friday announcing that they had a working projector in hand—just as I was
finishing an article proclaiming Microvision to be the company that won the
race.
Back in March, we told you about Casio’s prototype
supercamera that shoots 60 six-megapixel still photos per second (better than
even pro SLRs) and standard-def video at up to 300 frames per second to make
some pretty impressive slow-mo movies.
Well today Casio took the wraps off the EXILIM Pro EX-F1–
the real version of the camera that you’ll be able to by in a few months for
$1,000. And they’ve added even more power.
At CES this year, toymaker WowWee continues its tradition of taking what had once been military- or millionaire-grade tech and selling it for less than the price of dinner for two at The Olive Garden.
Our favorite new creation is the FlyTech Bladestar a $50 autonomous flying robot. Essentially a helicopter blade with a set of perpendicular rotors to give it stability, the Bladestar uses infrared sensors to detect its proximity to obstacles walls, ceilings, pets and parents and avoid collisions. At least sometimes. The models we saw did a fair amount of crashing.
WowWee techs blamed that on the bright lights in the ballroom that messed with the infrared sensors.
In any case, it's just as much fun to watch whether it flying or crashing.—Sean Captain
Want more? Check out our entire CES 2008 coverage here.
