Living the WAP life at CeBIT

The world's largest computer fair

The CeBIT in Hanover is the largest technology fair in the world. BBC News Online's Andrew Godleman was there and reports on the highlights.

CeBIT is huge. This year, around 700,000 visitors came to see the 7,800 exhibitors. The top US trade show, Comdex, drew just 200,000 people and had 2,000 firms showing their wares.

At CeBIT, the emphasis was on e-commerce, but other favoured 'buzz' words included:

• Wap (or "W@P" for the display boards): Wireless Application Protocol, providing new capabilities (news, shopping) to mobile phones etc.
• 'Blue Tooth': A standard for short-range wireless data transmission, which should allow larger amounts of video and PC network data to be transmitted without wires
• Broadband: High volume data transmission for the internet.

Future perfect? The cybernaut is ready for action

Prototypes on show included:

• Video mobile phones, or camera phones that enable electronic post cards (made up of images, sound bytes and/or text)
• PC screen 'visors' with ear pieces, that allow the user to watch their laptop's DVD film in privacy
• a touch screen terminal for shops that 'cuts' your selection of songs (which you can sample first) onto a CD, including printing your personal message on it.

Developments within existing technologies, some of which had been reported by the media previously, included:

• Printers to print on photo quality paper from digital cameras without the use of a PC
• Existing power cabling being used to provide local network connections for homes and/or small offices
• A system linking internet programme listings to digital video recordings.

Strange but true

High-technology can sometimes take surprising, if not bizarre, turns.

A high-tech 3-D experience

One of the stranger machines that is actually in use in Germany is a touch-screen device that produces smells to match the videos it shows you. It gently sprays into the air whilst showing you an advert for the related perfume or soft drink, etc.

New mobile phones have the potential to dramatically increase the dangers of using the phone when driving. They show a map and route details, and at walking speed they can even show you where you have got to, via positioning technology.

As well as PC screen 'visors', you could also use a seat fitted with hydraulic pistons to translate the visuals of a helicopter pilot game into movement. Olympus showed a monocular (one eye) version of the 'visor' intended to allow 'active' use of the screen. Wearing it makes the user resemble a member of the 'Borg' from Star Trek.

A translating scanner pen was shown. Unfortunately the 'translation' consisted of providing a dictionary definition in your language for a single word at a time in another language.

Deutsche Telecom had a full range of services available over Wap for German users. This included a telephone dating service, for subscribers who needed help with their social life.

Ahead of their time?

Fighting through the masses is not to the liking of some big corporate customers

The show was an opportunity for suppliers to show "here today" products, and "here today" prototypes. Unfortunately, the prototypes can be anything up to eight years ahead of consumer-priced reality.

Sometimes this is because of the lack of standards, and other times because of certification required to meet existing national and international standards.

The suppliers of several interesting new devices may also fail because of a lack of a local distributors capable of handling everyday customer requests regarding the product.

An example of a technology delayed is the flat screen monitor for PCs. These monitors have been at the show for several years, but are only this year anticipated to drop in price to an appropriate level for home PC use.

This show is brought to you by the letter 'E'

Visitors have to find their way around 7,800 stands

Inflatable E-letters being carried by show attendees heralded the importance of all those words that in the show context appear to begin with the letter 'e' - mail, commerce, business, etc.

Whilst exhibitors no longer find it necessary to explain why it is important, they often quote their web and electronic commerce credentials on their display boards.

Now you see them, now you don't

The 7,800 companies exhibiting account for most of the major names in information technology.

However, one big name was missing: Apple, who had been present in 1999, did not have a display this year.

Many firms have large displays and promotions one year, only to disappear the next as if they had never existed. Similarly, companies that literally didn't exist in 1999 had lavish displays this year.

The major players tend to have large stands in the same areas (the show grounds include many large halls). The change in recent years is that a lot more end users are coming to the show, and firms are using the opportunity to recruit them.

At the same time, some big corporate customers are staying away, because they believe that they deserve personal contact from their suppliers. Travelling in overcrowded trains or through traffic jams to get to the show, and finding their way through the masses in the aisles is not for them.

That said, the show is very well organised in terms of crowd management. New CeBIT 'partner' shows around the world may lead to changes in attendance in future years.