Whats going on at Conference These Days: 2010

CES not only boosts a massive show floor there is also a session’s portion of the conference. Most of my focus was on higher education. Much of the panel discussions dealt with stoical data that provide some background on students as digital consumers. The data showed that the top 5 online activities among student is checking grades, updating online profiles(ie facebook), checking assignments, checking email, and checking weather. The top sites they visited were Google(69%), Facebook (68% and roughly 160min weekly), Youtube(64%), ABC.com, Wikipedia, yahoo, and Amazon.

Students entering hire education today are considered digital natives in that they expect to be able to engage with others and gain feedback almost instantaneously online. They also expect to access anything, anywhere and everywhere. Today’s student want to see continual innovation to meet the demands of their rapid changing world.

YouTube EDU launched this past year is a great example of broadcasting education al material to today’s students. Since Youtube is one of the top visited sites by students it is only fitting that they developed their own educational entity. The site collects and highlight all the great educational content being uploaded to YouTube by colleges and universities and organizes them in catergories.
A couple univeristy’s were mentioned as leaders in high tech innovation among higher education.
ACU was the first university in the nation to distribute iPhones or iPod touches to incoming students. This allowed students to receive homework alerts, answer in-class surveys and quizzes, get directions to their professors' offices, and check their meal and account balances. ACU's vision for technology has been captured in a forward-looking film called 'Connected,' found online - along with information about ACU's other ground-breaking mobile learningefforts - at www.acu.edu/connected.

Also highlighted was Stanford’s iStandford program. iStanford allows users can access a campus map and course catalog, e-mail professors and get news and information about sports teams.
In the newest version, students can add and drop courses, see the real-time whereabouts of the on-campus shuttle bus, review their grades and course history and perform a variety of other administrative tasks that are normally accessible only over secure campus networks. That's because, in an unusual move, Stanford's IT folks allowed the developers to connect to core computer systems at Stanford.

See more about it here. http://news.stanford.edu/news/2009/march18/iphone-031809.html

I just returned from the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and I decided to blog about my thoughts, experiences, and the overall craziness that is the Consumer Electronics Show. My initial thoughts are a combination of “wow this is huge!” and “I wish I were taller to see over the hordes of crowds.”

The leader of the pack this year was definitely 3D TV. You could not turn around without viewing the world in stereo. There were Plasmas, LCD’s and my person favorite OLED 3D tv’s. Each were presented with sleek ,yet dorky viewing glasses but Samsungs had their own 3D TV without glasses.

I only wonder if the 3D TV will catch on or will it fade like the Hollywood gimmick of the 1950’s. The projected sales of 3DTV are expected to rise over the years from 0.6 million in 2009 to 10.7mil in 2013.

I honestly feel that the adopters of 3DTV’s will be, one the Sports enthusiasts, two the gamers and three the younger affluent generation who demand the latest and greatest.

While I think 3DTV is interesting, I myself find it hard to want to watch TV with those glasses on even if they make them look cool…or at least try to. The biggest thing with 3D television is creating worthwhile 3D content. What is the reason for 3d TV? Some say to create a more immersive experience. Of course immersion to me is gained from the content, the story and the whole user experience. Perhaps to make a better immersive experience the content can be 3d but the sound has to be equally as sharp and in surround.

But then again you can create all this exciting immersion but everywhere you look another savvy consumer is watching the latest movie or youtube clip on a 2x3 inch smart phone…hmmm
This brings up another interesting point. Every year TV has been the top consumer product until now. What do consumers want…smart phones. The Iphone was huge 2 years ago, and now the highly anticipated Nexus1 has been unveiled.

Of course the consumer’s electronic show boasts more than just TV’s and phones. Light Blue Optic’s Light touch creates a projected touch screen on any flat surface.

E-Readers were also big this year. Microsoft and HP unleashed the HP Slate but I think the winner in the e-reader category was the Entourage Edge which boasts a dual screen with E-ink technology for reading on the left and Google Android powering the right for web access. I guess the days of standalone devices are meeting their match.

Of course green technology is popular too. Regen’s ReNu solar panel Iphone charger was quite interesting. Regen’s is hoping to one day power all your home devices with solar panels.

Back to the TV’s again. The major electronics companies were unveiling their net connected tv.
The user interface of these tv’s supported popular applications such as Netflix, Youtube, Amazon Video, Facebook, Twitter and even HD Skype video calling.

From an educational standpoint, I think these net-connected TV’s would be a great enabler of distance education. Imaging taking your classes, collaborating with your classmates via HD video calling and having one on one conferences with your professor all through your TV. I bet the Jetsons didn’t see that coming.

Of course it wouldn’t be an electronics show if I didn’t mention a computer. I have to say Samsung’s semi-transparent OLED laptop was quite cool.

And I would also hate to leave out the Parrot AR Drone Quadricopter. This was a fun four-bladed helicopter controlled by an iPhone augmented reality app.

The following are some other interesting thing I found as I navigated through the massive exhibition.

Here is a prototype for a 4G enabled car.

D-Link Systems and Boxee created allows users to watch favorite Web TV shows and videos on their home TV. What is cool about this is you can choose your TV source. So if you want to watch a show via ABC.com you can or if you find one on HULU with no ads you can watch that streamed source too.

The Hover Cam was a combo scanner and camera that scanned in complete daylight with real nice level of detail.

Kodak's multi-touch table. Click here for the live demo.

Web TV...need I say more.

Microsoft collaborative music way allowed guest to create sounds by hitting designated buttons on the wall. Attendees could then download the song as a ringtone for their phone.