Written by Chris Albrecht
Posted Sunday, January 11, 2009 at 9:01 PM PT

 

TVs Transform at This Year’s CES

No longer the passive box that just displays moving pictures, television just got a whole lot more interesting at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Three big stories that emerged from CES will change how you control your TV, where you get your video content from, and what you do with it.

No longer pushing buttons Who wants to push buttons to control your TV when you can flick your wrist? Two new remote control technologies are emerging that use gestures instead of the traditional multi-buttoned remote. Hillcrest Labs, which has been working on a motion controlled remote, announced a partnership with Texas Instruments on a handheld that supports air pointing, similar to the Nintendo Wii. Hillcrest’s technology lets you control the TV by moving a remote up and down, and side to side. Here’s a demo video we shot of Hillcrest’s Freespace-based remotes at a tradeshow last year.

Or, you could dump a remote altogether and just wave your hands. That’s what a new Hitachi set does. Using a combination of technologies from chip company Canesta and aptly-named gesture-tracking software GestureTek, the Hitachi set has a sensor built in that creates a 3-D map of what’s in front of it. Wave your hand in front of the TV to turn it on. Swipe from side to side to control options, or use both arms to move through different menu functions. Think: the hand-controlled computer from the movie Minority Report. Here’s a video demo of the Hitachi TV in action.

Video content from everywhere A big trend for TV manufacturers this year will be plugging their sets directly into the Internet, eliminating the need for an external set-top box to deliver content. Sony, Vizio and LG were just a few of the consumer electronics companies announcing that their TVs will be connected to the Internet and offer a much wider range of video options. Now, you won’t need to buy an additional box like a Roku or the recently-released Blockbuster box to directly rent movies from the likes of Amazon, Netflix and Blockbuster, or to watch web video from YouTube (which will look pretty sweet now that it’s streaming in HD). That capability will be baked right into the set. Now, the trick will be making it easy to navigate through all of those video content choices.

Widgetize! Widgets were another buzzword from the CES show floor. All sorts of folks are working to bring widgets to your big screen. Yahoo and Intel are going to stream extra information, like sports stats and current weather, to on-screen widgets that run on your TV. And MySpace will be introducing a widget that will let you chat and send messages to your friends on the social network through your TV. Anne Sweeney, co-chair of Disney Media Networks and president of the Disney-ABC Television Group, said that her network could even start incorporating widgets into shows like Lost to provide extra clues about the mysterious island. But with all the scrolling text, and tickers that already appear on-screen — not to mention network logos and animated promos that crawl across the TV during programming — are widgets something that we really need? Evidently, people think so.

For years, the news about televisions was all about better pictures, bigger screens. Now it’s not just about how your TV picture looks, but what your TV can do. This, of course begs the question — do you really want your TV to do things? After all, the term “couch potato” wasn’t invented for nothing. But lazy viewers take note: many of these innovations will make it easier than ever to get more content than you ever dreamed of. So, drop that remote control, and wave hello to the future of television.

This article also appeared on BusinessWeek.com

Follow us on Twitter or subscribe to the feed

Related Posts

Powered by Sphere

Sphere
Topic: Hardware
« Previous Post Next Post »

Comments & Trackbacks

  1. [...] sets from Sony, LG and Samsung were among the most buzzworthy products showcased at the recent Consumer Electronics Show. They’ll come to market later this year with [...]

    Are Consumer Electronics Makers the New Content Gatekeepers? « NewTeeVee on January 15th, 2009 at 9:00 pm - Permalink

  2. [...] sets from Sony, LG and Samsung were among the most buzzworthy products showcased at the recent Consumer Electronics Show. They’ll come to market later this year with [...]

    Are Consumer Electronics Makers the New Content Gatekeepers? | Viral Video Maker on January 21st, 2009 at 10:13 am - Permalink

  3. [...] One of the big trends to emerge so far this year is the connected television set. Just about every big TV manufacturer is coming out with a set that plugs into the web to deliver news, social networks and even [...]

    How Much Web Do You Want on Your TV? « NewTeeVee on February 16th, 2009 at 9:11 am - Permalink

  4. [...] of the big trends to emerge so far this year is the connected television set. Just about every big TV manufacturer is coming out with a set that plugs into the web to deliver news, social networks and even [...]

    How Much Web Do You Want on Your TV? : Giacmocothat on February 23rd, 2009 at 10:33 pm - Permalink

  5. [...] VUDU recently slashed the price of its set-top box down to $150, citing strong holiday sales and lower component costs. But cost reductions and the ability to purchase indie movies aren’t going to move the needle for VUDU. The industry is either adding services to existing devices (Netflix on Blu-Ray and Xbox), providing a lower cost option (Amazon and Netflix on the $99 Roku) or dumping the notion of a set-top box altogether (net-connected TVs). [...]

    VUDU Offers HD Movies for Purchase On Demand « NewTeeVee on February 24th, 2009 at 8:03 am - Permalink

  6. [...] Plus, what’s available is constantly changing. More Net-connected Blu-ray players and television sets will hit the market this year, and just this week a new entrant called ZillionTV stepped onto the [...]

    A Fresh Look at the Ever-Changing Set-top Box Scorecard « NewTeeVee on March 8th, 2009 at 9:17 pm - Permalink

  7. [...] of the big trends to emerge so far this year is the connected television set. Just about every big TV manufacturer is coming out with a set that plugs into the web to deliver news, social networks and even [...]

    How Much Web Do You Want on Your TV? : Share4rums.Com’s Blog on March 25th, 2009 at 9:32 am - Permalink

  8. [...] can now be accessed through TiVo and other set-top boxes. And televisions are increasingly plugging directly into the Internet to access new forms of content and [...]

    Is Online Video a Threat to TV? on March 26th, 2009 at 9:02 pm - Permalink

  9. [...] TVs: There are more than 50 broadband-enabled TV models due out in 2009, but analysts estimate that only about 3 million total sets will be sold in the [...]

    The Streaming Content Is There, But Not Enough People Are Watching It — Yet on May 29th, 2009 at 12:02 am - Permalink

  10. [...] TVs: There are more than 50 broadband-enabled TV models due out in 2009, but analysts estimate that only about 3 million total sets will be sold in the [...]

    Technic Dude » The Streaming Content Is There, But Not Enough People Are Watching It — Yet on May 29th, 2009 at 3:45 am - Permalink

  11. [...] TVs: There are more than 50 broadband-enabled TV models due out in 2009, but analysts estimate that only about 3 million total sets will be sold in the [...]

    Technical blogs with pictures and videos » The Streaming Content Is There, Just Not Enough People Watching It — Yet on May 29th, 2009 at 6:00 pm - Permalink

  12. [...] TVs Transform at This Year CES Posted by root 1 hour 54 minutes ago (http://newteevee.com) Here a video demo of the hitachi tv in action newteevee how a google powered set top box could make a splash middot newteevee vid biz tv com if your comment doesn 39 t show up immediately it may have gotten caught in our trusty but marketing consulting by Discuss  |  Bury |  News | TVs Transform at This Year CES [...]

    TVs Transform at This Year CES | Wood TV Stand on May 31st, 2009 at 4:20 pm - Permalink

Leave a reply








Safari hates me

If your comment doesn't show up immediately, it may have gotten caught in our trusty (but occasionally overly ambitious) spam filter. Please drop us a note and we'll retrieve it.