At last evening’s “CES Unveiled” press event at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas well known audio equipment maker Klipsch Group, Inc. unveiled their LightSpeaker System.  The LightSpeaker System (below) combines wirelessly connected loudspeakers with an LED solid state lamp that can be retrofitted in a conventional ceiling can by simply screwing the unit into the Edison base lamp socket.

The wireless base station can connect up to two audio sources such as an iPod or compact disc player.  The wireless transmitter’s 2.4GHz technology handles up to eight LightSpeakers providing for stereo sound in multiple rooms and the user can set up two separate listening zones. The transmitter or remote will control the sources, zones, lighting levels and volume.  The LED bulb is rated for 40,000 hours of use and Klipsch claims the LightSpeaker reduces lighting expenses by 80 percent, using 10 watts to produce light that’s bright enough to replace up to a 65 watt bulb. (We will try to determine whether actual lumen output of the LightSpeaker is comparable to a 65 watt reflector bulb often used in ceiling cans as we do not expect that the US DOE Caliper program will get around to testing the LightSpeaker in the very near future).  Further adding to the LightSpeaker’s green credentials, Klipsch points out that the LightSpeaker LED bulb contains no mercury as do compact fluorescent lamps.
A basic LightSpeaker system consisting of two LightSpeakers, a transmitter, radio frequency remote, mini jack to RCA plug cable, lenses and trim, retails for $599.  Additional LightSpeakers are available for $249.  Although this may seem pricey, Klispsch makes several points in the graphic below concerning the cost effectiveness of their new product.
Klipsch also point out that installation and set up are quick and easy, and that homeowners can take it with them if they move.
While it’s too early to say if the LightSpeaker will catch on in a big way, it is easy to see that smart companies like Klipsch are exploring products that provide consumers convenient solutions for old problems while offering greener products as well

Novel camera technology enables new products, form factors

your cable or home phone provider, you can buy a wireless router that uses the WiFi standard, and if your computer has a WiFi network card, you'll be able to connect your computer to the router and thereby connect to the Internet!  In the case of the wireless printer example, the printer is not connected to the Internet, so the wireless connection you're making is simply to allow your computer to communicate with your printer to avoid the need to use a cable.


What does Wi-Fi stand for?
You'll often read that it stands for "Publish PostWireless Fidelity," however, that's actually not the case.  It's actually said to be a play on words to mirror the commonly used term "Hi-Fi," and is simply a more consumer friendly term referring to the wireless networking IEEE 802.11 technology.  There are a number of version of this standard that you may have heard of, including 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, and 802.11n.  Generally speaking, these represent different speeds and security standards.  Newer versions are typically backwards compatible, which means that if you buy an 802.11.g router, it will still work with your older computer than may only have the 802.11b standard.  The same logic applies to prepaid WiFi, as prepaid is simply a payment option.

NEW YORK, January 12, 2005 - Educational technology developer LeapFrog has released details of a new pentop computer. Dubbed the FLY, the pentop computer is designed to bring interactivity to the most prolific and user-friendly interface of all (pen and paper) and offers real-time audio feedback to users as they write and draw on special FLY paper. Read More

August 31, 2006 Panoptic’s proposed C-Thru 3D Video Surveillance System could be loosely described as a formalised, scalable implementation of Superman’s X-ray vision. The system enables one or more surveillance agents, using a single high resolution, auto-stereoscopic display, to remotely monitor the security situation of an arbitrarily large number of locations at-a-glance. Agents can see, hear and transport their focused viewpoint through walls, floors and ceilings, zooming into a specific location to monitor it at a level so acute that it seems beyond the levels of even science fiction. Designed to enable both wholistic site-wide and granular-level security, the system is ideal for monitoring airports, shipping ports, transit sites and other ports-of-entry, hotels, casinos, shopping malls, campuses, military bases, large buildings and building complexes, offering total situational awareness at a glance. Read More

September 6, 2006 Making its first public appearance at the IFA international consumer electronics fair in Berlin, the Multimedia Dome is the first digital dome theatre to feature natural spatial sound: it envelops visitors in fascinating universe of video pictures and sound. The Multimedia Dome was developed at the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Architecture and Software Technology FIRST and the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT, the inventors of the MP3 format which has taken over the world in the last decade. Read More

The first commercially available Brain Computer Interface

The evolution of the Computer Human interface may seem to be rooted in the infernal keyboard and its recent travelling companion, the mouse, but much work is being done in the areas of virtual worlds, voice recognition, handwriting recognition and gesture recognition to give us a new paradigm of computing. It now appears we are on the edge of another brave new virtual world – the direct interface between the brain and the computer is here. One of the Holy Grail’s of research, there are many such projects going on around the world at present. Now the German g.tec (Guger Technologies) group has taken the technology out of the lab and into the real world with a complete BCI kit, and amazingly, there’s also a kit for a pocket PC - a super-low-weight biosignal recording system “g.MOBIlab” is used to measure the EEG and the data processing, analysis and pattern recognition are performed on a commercially available Pocket PC or in this case, your windows PC. The first BCI system will enable the composition and sending of messages, and control of a computer game. There’s also an invasive (implanted) option still being trialled in the laboratory – this is significantly more effective abnd the system can already accept and process input from both the embedded array and the cap array. Though the first work in the area is focussed on enabling paralysed humans to communicate far more freely, the potential to enhance one’s communications quite freely is clearly not that far away. There’s also the potential unlocked by putting such a device into the hands of thousands of eager and capable amateurs who will no doubt broaden the understanding of the human mind with their pursuits. The BCI system is nominated for the 2007 European ICT Grand Prize. Read More

The 3D air-mouse you wear as a ring

May 21, 2007 The computer mouse and flat "desktop" themed operating systems have hardly evolved since their inception. But the recent creation of a genuine, working 3D mouse system that you wear as a ring on one finger could open the door to a new model of GUI display that lets the user explore an interface in intuitive 3D. Could we be moving towards a revolution in interface interactivity? Straight out of "Minority Report," meet the MagicMouse! Read More

The first commercial Brain Computer Interface

The Computer-Human Interface has a new heavyweight contender technology - brain computer interface technology pioneer Emotiv Systems will have its EPOC neuroheadset to market before Christmas 2008. The lightweight US$300 EPOC is worn on the head but does not restrict movement in any way as it is wireless. The set detects conscious thoughts, expressions and non-conscious emotions based on electrical signals around the brain. It opens up a plethora of new applications which can be controlled with our thoughts, expressions and emotions, including for example, the prospect of live animation using the unit’s facial recognition sensors to mimic a gameplayer's facial expressions in an animated avatar

TrueTouch touchscreen solution

Cypress Semiconductor Corp. has launched the TrueTouch touchscreen, a single-chip model that can interpret up to 10 inputs from all areas of the screen simultaneously. The “multi-touch all point” feature could be used for inputting multiple locations into a GPS, gaming, keyboard implementations, or the efficient adjustment of sound and video settings

We often talk about 3G and the reasons why its important. One of the common need is for small groups to work together while on the move or in places where they don’t have broadband or WiFi hot spots. Wireless internet access of your own is what you need. MiFi is a pocket-sized router/modem made by Novatel Wireless that converts a 3G signal to Wi-Fi.