What (and who) I saw at the gadget show
Posted: Thursday, September 25, 2008 5:18 PM by Will Femia
When I attended the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this year I also participated in a smaller gadget showcase press event put on by a group called Showstoppers. Since then I've remained on their mailing list and this week they had a small presentation here in New York City. I should emphasize that I'm not really a gadget reviewer. I haven't compared similar products or used them in my everyday life for long periods of time. I just like cool toys and free food and that's what they have at these things. That said, this is what stood out to me.
Something I've always wanted to see is a digital camera whose video display image shows up in a pair of glasses. Have you ever seen a crowd of tourists all standing with their cameras up over their heads, slightly tipped so they can see the screen? Why can't the screen be somewhere else? I didn't see this invention at the show but the folks making the EyeClops line of toys seem to be on that track. Most specifically I liked their night vision goggles, which has ultra bright infra red LEDs on the face.
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Inside in one eye is a view screen like that of a digital video camera that can see infra red. They say you can see 50 feet with the things. Interestingly, you see with only one eye. The other eye of the goggles is made to snap open to help you establish your sense of depth because I guess it's hard to actually move around when that's your only means of sight. Retail $79.99 the lady said. Looking at their site I see other toys that employ a similar idea. Their video microscope looks like basically a digital video camera with a macro lens.
I also learned that this is the same company behind Spinz pens, the pens designed specifically for spinning - not spin art, I mean twirling on your fingers. I knew it was big in Asia but I didn't realize that it's nearly a sport.
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When I saw the Micro Mosquito 4x4 I asked the guy what made it different from the little mosquito helicopters that Radio Shack has been selling for years. The answer is that the 4x4 means it has four channels. If you look really closely at the picture you'll see that this thing not only has two propellers but it also has two tails. Theoretically this does amazing things to the agility while in flight. The bad thing is that when you're dealing with objects as small and as light as these, they're also very vulnerable to breezes and any imbalance in their own structure. The one below is from the same company. I think he said it's called The DaVinci. He had it weighed down so it wouldn't fly away in the small space we were in but yes, it flies. The MicoMosquito 4x4 comes out Friday. The little one not for a while. I don't even see it on their Web site yet.
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The jewel of the show was definitely the Schwinn Electric Bike. Coming in early 2009, the 6 pound battery takes you 35 to 40 miles and can recharge in a half hour, good for 1000 charges before it starts to degrade. "Popular in Europe" seemed like the understatement of the night for this thing. That's the battery there on the back in the rack above the rear tire. Throttle and power meter are on the handlebars. They were quoting $3200 as the price. Their site has a fair amount of information.
I brought home for review a
Tikitag kit. The idea behind Tikitag is basically a DIU RFID system. So you can write your own program for what you want to happen when a tag is scanned by the reader device. The example the demo woman used was that she put tags on photos for her mentally ailing relative. When you pass the tagged photos over the sensor, it triggers the software in the computer and automatically uses Skype to call the person in the picture. It's not about making phone calls, it's about telling the system what to do when the tag passes the sensor. Could be inventory or customer data but what's cool is that it's not a big complicated system. It's a little sensor with a USB and some tags and a community full of open source software.
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After wandering the showroom and scarfing some tortellini in vodka sauce I left the hotel and walked right into a phalanx of press and security. A guy next to me said he'd heard McCain was doing Letterman so maybe McCain was at this hotel. Never being one to walk away from a spectacle, I joined the cordoned crowd to see who the fuss was for. If I'd waited a few minutes before leaving I might have stepped into the elevator with Sarah Palin (well, of course not but that's how close the timing was). Only in New York.
