CES 2012 will be marked this year by a lot of things: MSFT’s last voyage to the show, more than 2K exhibitors, $100 washing machines (a post on this will follow), and the new buzz word – the ultrabook. My attention, however, was captured by putting the word smart** in front of everything: smartTVs, smartCARS, smartTECH, overall, smartLIFE.
Now, I had this feeling that smart TVs simply allowed you to connect your social network accounts and browse the net, but smartness is coming to live with what we see from this show.
SAMSUNG super impressed me with the exhibited technology: no frames, voice control and face recognition. Here is my 2 cents for each one of the items. But watch the video first:
NO FRAMES
I always wondered why TVs, as standing/hanging units needed to have the painting-like frames of an inch and a half that polish the end of the screen. No frames is the way to go – your visual experience needs to move flawlessly from the room surroundings to a window of colors and light. So, I am super hyped that finally the frame is limited to a fraction of a hair. I hope to see a TV that doesn’t have one at all, with its structure being supported by the background panel.
VOICE CONTROL
Huge. Simple as that. Recognizing gestures and controlling the channels via voice simply retires the remote control. An innovation in itself, I cannot help but think that Apple’s personal assistant leads the way and I hope that when Apple releases it hyped TV set to have SIRI integrated natively. Now, Kinnect has done it for Microsoft and SAMSUNG is doing it now. But how we control things, beyond phones and TVs (think navigation systems and fridges) will change how we run our lives.
FACE RECOGNITION
Probably the most important aspect of all. Linking your Facebook, Google +, and Twitter accounts is one thing, but knowing who exactly from your household is watching the TV goes beyond “remembering your settings.” It gives you superb information about:
- what is being watched by whom (with all the stats coming into play – how long, what show, when you change the channel, how many people shared the experience with you, etc.)
- it could potentially allow manufacturers/TV producers to recognize eye movement and create instantaneous heat maps of what captures your attention
- it gives you the ultimate advertising power for TV! Imagine you and I watch a soccer game and there is the half time commercial break. Because the smartTV recognizes that it is you, and not me watching, you will have a different set of commercials running than me. Ultimate, personalized, TV advertising – I will get my tech gadgets spots, you will have your favorites as well.
In light of the last bullet point, I can finally see why Google is huge on smartTVs… cannot help but think: is BIG BROTHER (or Big G) already watching me?
