Consumer electronics show woos visitors in Las Vegas
A light on the emWave PSR, chosen as the favorite among online voters, becomes green as a visitor releases stress through bio-feedback.
The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) kicked off here on January 8 with exhibitors displaying gadgetry ranging from snazzy new smartphones to envelope-sized computers to 3D high-definition television sets. The show came to an end on January 11.
Despite the recession, some 2,700 manufacturers of high-tech products, about the same number as last year, turned up for this year's edition of the world's largest consumer technology trade show.
The show floor of the Sands Expo and Convention Center morphed into a giant electronic amusement park as visitors, buyers, vendors and journalists shuffled from booth to booth checking out the latest in hardware and software.
Gary Shapiro, president of CES sponsor the Consumer Electronics Association, acknowledged the economic malaise which has taken some of the buzz out of the show this year but said he hoped his industry could help turn things around.
"Innovation is the best medicine to end economic stagnation," he said in a keynote speech. "We are the industry that will breathe life into the economy."
Lending glamour to the affair was movie star Tom Hanks, who helped pitch Sony's new products, which include quirky items such as video bifocals and an "alarm clock" that wakes users with pictures, music or video of their choosing and then serves up news, weather or sports from the Internet.
With laptop sales now surpassing desktop sales, providing one of the rare bright spots for the industry, Sony released a P Series Vaio notebook computer small enough to fit in a suit jacket.
Singer Stevie Wonder was on hand to lend support to a line of "vision-free" products for the blind. "Me, I'd like a car I can use to get around," he said, while acknowledging "that may be a long way off."
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