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CES Wows Attendees
TI, GM, BMW and Intel show off new technology for TVs and cars
Charles J. Murray, Senior Technical Editor -- Design News, March 17, 2008
The 2008 International Consumer Electronics Show kicked off in Las Vegas in early January, setting an upbeat tone for makers of televisions, cell phones, handhelds, displays, semiconductors, software and multitude of other electronic products.
Billed as the “world's largest consumer technology tradeshow,” CES featured a Sunday keynote speech from industry giant Bill Gates, who told a standing-room crowd of attendees the future will involve more touch screens and voice commands.
The show, which boasts 2,700 exhibitors and 1.7 million sq ft of exhibit space, drew attendees from 140 countries. Some 140,000 visitors attended this year's show, with 25,000 international attendees.
TI demonstrates 'his and hers' TV
Using its highly publicized digital light processing (DLP) chips, TI demonstrated 3-D television to hundreds of booth visitors who donned special eyeglasses. Attendees watched clips from such movies as “Beowulf,” “Meet the Robinsons” and “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” as well as viewing 3-D demonstrations of games, such as “Madden Football.”
The electronics giant said its DLP chips represent a step forward for 3-D video because of their fast switching speeds. Unlike competing technologies, which reportedly measure their switching speeds in milliseconds, DLP features switching speeds in the microseconds, TI engineers said.
“It's a couple of orders of magnitude faster than LCD or plasma,” says Ken Bell, TI's product development manager for DLP TV.
The technology's fast switching speeds enable the concept of “his and hers” TV. TI demonstrated that concept by allowing attendees to flick a switch on their 3-D glasses and view separate images at the same time.
Formula one comes to CES
BMW treated engineers to the sights and sounds of Formula One racing at CES.
Building a short stretch of fenced-in track in a parking lot across the street from the main convention center, the automaker allowed a racer to provide short demonstrations of the sights and sounds of a Formula One vehicle. The racer, Graham Rahal (son of legendary Indy racer Bobby Rahal), ran the vehicle's engine to about 19,000 rpm and did a series of short, ear-splitting (130 dB) turns to demonstrate the power of the car.
Joerg Csallner of BMW Motor Sport Marketing says BMW teamed with Intel Corp. as a way of showing off Formula One racing to American racing fans and as a way of showing how Intel has helped the automaker with its aerodynamic design efforts.
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