It's all about you: The human touch comes to CES

In our final wrap-up of last month's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, we look at one of the major trends that will shape consumer technology in 2008 and beyond. STEVEN AMBROSE explores the touchy feely side of new gadgetry and discovers it can be very human after all ...

There was a time when gadgets were the exclusive domain of geeks and enthusiasts, and the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was the ultimate gathering of like-minded geeks and gadget fanatics. Flashing lights and strange boxes that few could understand dominated the show. Well folks, times have changed. The CES, much to the horror of the geek brigade, has gone all touchy feely.

The big news at the 2008 CES was, you guessed it, the human touch. From LG to Panasonic, from Philips to Sony, not to mention Microsoft and Motorola, these diverse companies had one simple message: let’s make it easy to use, let’s make it look good, and let’s make it fun and entertaining. Most companies were finally giving real focus to the natural human interface with technology.
All the big TV's and their companies new technologies were out in abundance, but the overriding impression I gained from the show was that, finally, all the companies were trying to understand how people would best enjoy and use their gadgets.

This took quite a few forms, the first of which was truly lovely TV designs, such as the new TV ranges from LG, Samsung, Sony and Philips. Gone were the bland square grey or black boxes and in were almost sexy, curved transparent and sculptural designs.

LG showcased their new widescreen high definition LCD screens with an ultra thin form factor of only 4,2cm thickness and a really simplified, easy-to-use interface. The technical specs were top notch, as could be expected. However, the wow factor is that most of us would be proud to have this piece of art in the living room.

Samsung were not to be left behind. They unveiled a huge range of new LCD and Plasma TVs, again focusing on design and functionality that make life without a 10-year-old to assist, far easier. The new Samsung range featured ultra slim form factors as well as an innovative new case design, which they boasted came from advanced automotive engineering. The new look featured a translucent rounded glossy look that softens the usually hard look of consumer electronics, and make the new range soft looking in a high tech and very futuristic way.

It is difficult to put in words the way these new TVs looked, save to say they were very stylish and made other products look rather boring. Samsung also released a number of TVs that plug directly into the home network, and offer selected internet feeds to be viewed directly on the TV. A complementary range of organic looking and fully integrated – by this I mean simple to operate off one remote – surround sound and audio systems were also released.

Samsung's HT-X710 Home Theatre in a box System

Philips electronics wowed the crowds both at their booth, and at their impressive press conference, with a new range of audio and video products. The highlight was their so-called green TV, featuring smooth rounded curves, built in backlighting, top notch specifications and the lowest energy usage of any 42” LCD currently on the market. Complimenting these new TVs was a wide range of electronics which seamlessly integrated together, in order to make the overall experience easy and very satisfying for most of us.

Phillips Eco TV

As a confirmed technology geek, I was seriously impressed by the attention to detail in making the new Philips range easy to use, and even easier to integrate into your home. I was not the only one impressed as Philips went on to win CNET’s "Best in Show" award at CES for their power-saving Eco TV.

Philips are making what used to be merely a consumer electronic device, into a signature piece of furniture that helps define your personal style and space. At the core of the new Philips Design Collection are innovative and state-of-the art designs taking familiar objects, like your old square LCD TV, and giving them a new sense of “intimacy”, according to Philips. Their design language has moved away from a 'masculine technology box' to a smoother, more feminine approach that integrates seamlessly into most home environments.

The above products and companies were by no means alone in their quest for the natural human interface. In fact I saw many demonstrations where TV's came to life with gesture technology.
Microsoft CEO Bill Gates, in his keynote, made much of the revolutionary table based Surface Computer interface and voice recognition in the car, while Intel Corporation CEO Paul Otellini seriously talked up the gesture-based interface of Nintendo Wii. In addition, there were plenty of emerging new ideas around interfaces exhibited on the trade show floor.

Natural human interfaces, ones that involve human movement, tend to be incredibly engaging. Take the amazing success of the Wii console, both in South Africa and worldwide, as an example. It's rarely more noticeable than at CES - the crowds nearly always gather around those exhibits that provide some kind of interactivity.

One of the most popular I saw and often could not get near, was the WAVEscape advertising platform, developed by Reactrix and exhibited in partnership with Samsung. WAVEscape is trying to be the Wii of advertising.

CES Attendees play with WAVEscape on a Reactrix-powered Samsung TV
(Picture: New York Times)

WAVEscape is a stereo near-infrared vision system that sits above a television to enable interactions between viewer movement and content on the screen. It uses a stereo 3D vision system to sense the distance of a person from the television,in the same way a person has two eyes to gauge proximity; the computer can get the full shape of everyone's body up to 15 feet away. At CES, Reactrix demonstrated how users could stand in front of a Samsung LCD and interact with several games and information sites, using the movement of their limbs.

WAVEscape was developed by Matt Bell, Reactrix's chief scientist and founder. It is inspired by an earlier product he invented called the Stepscape - a 2x3 metre interactive floor-projected display deployed in shopping malls and other public spaces that can sense a person's presence as they walk over it.

Bell says users are 10 times as likely to recall the message of an interactive advertisement as a static one. "It is a revolution in the way people relate to TVs," he said. "The TV is now able to sense you and respond to your wishes. Gestural interfaces are exciting because they are so natural. We communicate with body language. You get a display that's able to understand body language and that's very powerful."

Touch, feel, swipes, gestures. All very human and that is where we are going. As we move into 2008, we will see more and more of these interfaces and technologies finally come to maturity, to integrated technology, that was previously the exclusive domain of the geek, into our mainstream lives.

All of us at Gadget.co.za have had lively debates about stuff just working; in fact “lively debate” is being polite at times! It was very gratifying to see the major corporations finally getting to grips with the simple fact that technology has to work as promised , and advertised, and become user friendly in a way that almost anyone can get it working, without help from your friendly cable guy, or spending weeks perusing the manual.

Steven Ambrose