How to get in the zone at CES

By Chris Long Reporter, BBC Click

Here BBC Click looks back at the giant CES show in Las Vegas and picks out some technologies and gadgets that may have been overlooked.

Covering CES is always a challenge - what to look at, what to ignore? The show tries to help by gathering like-minded technologies into their own areas or zones.

More than 20,000 gadgets and technologies were on display at CES

In the Sustainable Zone - which was dedicated to green technologies - Taras Wankewycz was promoting the use of water.

"We're bringing fuel cell technology to market," said Mr Wankewycz of Horizon Fuel Cells. "These are energy conversion devices which convert a zero carbon fuel into electricity.

"The storage method for the fuel is very different. Consumers have a small cartridge that contains a powder and all you need to do is top up the cartridge with water. This activates the cartridge and it then has the energy value of about 270 watt hours or about 9-10 laptop recharges.

"The first application for this device is emergency power - disaster relief. Such devices can be used when blackouts last more than a few days."

It may not seem that powerful, but it is working on a more powerful technology that could deliver up to five kilowatts by 2009.

Motor Zone

On show in the section of CES devoted to the car was technology to help those driving at night - a thermal imaging camera that can do a better job of seeing in the dark.

Dash users will help each other avoid traffic jams

It is called FLIR - Forward Looking Infrared - and is generally used by the military.

The FLIR camera is mounted behind the number plate and its inventors claim that on a clear night it can see a kilometre ahead.

Also in the Motor Zone was a demonstration of a technology that used cars themselves to do a better job of working out what local traffic conditions are like.

Called Dash it uses the mobile phone network to broadcast information about traffic conditions back to the operator of the service. If a car is travelling at 5mph in a 30mph zone it knows the traffic is bad.

This helps to build up a picture of how good or bad roads are at certain times and this data is then when drivers use it to plan a route. In this way it will hope to send drivers around jams.

It is also connected to Yahoo's local search system, so if a car is close to running out of petrol, pressing a button will bring up information about which ones are nearby and how to get to them.

As with many other Web 2.0 technologies, the more people that use the system the better and more up to date the information is.

Imaging Zone

A Canon camcorder on display in this zone showed off improvements to the way these cameras zoom in and how they share images around.

Normally these cameras switch between optical zoom and the blocky digital zoom, but Canon's advanced zoom tries to improve matters.

It has found a way to combine information normally discarded by a CCD imaging chip with special optics to produce spectacular zoom results that lack that telltale grain of the digital zoom.

I can walk into any T-Mobile hotspot and with the push of a button, actually be able to upload my photo wirelessly and share it with family and friends right there on the spot Sandy Sasser, Panasonic

Panasonic has developed a camera with built-in wi-fi that enables people upload images wirelessly while on the go.

"We have a partnership with T-Mobile hotspots, and Google Picasa web albums," said Sandy Sasser of Panasonic. "So I can walk into any T-Mobile hotspot, which is 8,500 hotspots in the US and with the push of a button, actually be able to upload my photo wirelessly and share it with family and friends right there on the spot.

"Once you've uploaded your photos you can see them online, using the camera. That allows you to use the camera to delete photos or make them public or private.

"The other unique feature of the camera is that you can e-mail a URL link to your photo album to your family and friends."