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Thursday, January 17, 2013

CES 2013: Technology for entertainment and health



by Mark Ollig     
               
       

The 2013 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) has ended, and all the exhibitors have torn down their booths.

Looking back, CES 2013 did introduce us to some remarkable new gadgets and technology.

Social media buzzed about the new Ultra-HD, OLED, and OLED Ultra-HD TV’s, computing tablets, self-driving cars, and futuristic healthcare technology.

Last week, yours truly mentioned the hashtags being used on Twitter to communicate user and company messages during CES 2013.

The CES website reported the online analytics company, Simply Measured had tracked the total tweet messages during the four day CES using hashtags #CES, #2013CES, #CES2013, and #CES13.

One percent of the total shares of CES tweets over the four-day event referenced 10 companies, including: Google, Sharp, Apple, and Ford.

The four companies with 2 percent of the total were: LG, Qualcomm, Panasonic, and Audi.

Intel Corp, was alone at 3 percent.

Coming in with 4 percent of the total CES tweets were HP, and Sony.

The number-one-tweeted- about company during CES 2013 – with 7 percent of the total– was Samsung, which had 351,355 CES hashtagged tweet messages.

Even though CES is looked to as the major consumer technology showcase of the year, for some folks, it has lacked a bit of its luster since tech giants like Apple, Google, and Microsoft stopped using it as the venue for making their major product announcements.

Instead, they have opted to hold their own special conferences with invited members of the press and special guests.

CES is also no longer used as the sole location for new cellphone product announcements. Other events, like the World Mobile Congress, have been used as the stage to make such announcements.

By the way, the World Mobile Congress will take place Feb 25 – 28 in Barcelona.

Apple holds its own special event press conferences whenever a new iPhone or iPad is introduced, as does Microsoft, when announcing a new operating system, or computing tablet.

CES is still, however, the place to be for seeing what is next in televisions.

During this year’s CES, the announcement for the new OLED television by LG was made, and the combo Ultra-HD OLED televisions showcased by Panasonic and Sony were presented.

Also seen at CES was the 110-inch Ultra-HD television by Samsung, which has four times the resolution of currently available HD televisions.

“If you make the pixels that much smaller, then you can sit that much closer to the TV and still get that really sharp picture,” said Ryan Chicoine, who is with Samsung.

Chicoine’s statement caused me to remember something my mother told me as a child, “Don’t sit so close to the television.”

Verizon’s CEO, Lowell McAdam delivered one of the CES keynote addresses.

He spoke about when they launched their 4G LTE (fourth-generation long-term evolution) wireless technology product during CES 2011.

In 2011, the average speed of wireless networks in the US was less than 1Mbps, said McAdam.

He continued by saying today’s wireless speeds over LTE are now in the 10 – 12 Mbps range.

A digital health summit was also held at this year’s CES.

Digital sensors, mobile devices, and access to the information cloud, were discussed.

Doctors, healthcare and technology professionals, addressed a number of medical, personal healthcare, and technology topics.

One healthcare item discussed – which I found very interesting – was about a futuristic-looking healthcare robot called the RP-Vita (Remote Presence Virtual and Independent Telemedicine Assistant).

This robot is about the size of a person, and it has the mobility to travel through the halls of a hospital or healthcare center.

RP-Vita can check in on patients, obtain their medical vital signs, and provide other services.

RP-Vita has a built-in stethoscope, and additional medical equipment which can be operated by a remotely-located healthcare provider for obtaining live medical readings.

This healthcare robot allows for a direct one-on-one “telepresence-communication” between the patient, and healthcare provider.

A display screen and video camera sits atop the robot and is used by a doctor or other healthcare professionals, in order to have face-to-face conversations with the patient.

This visual two-way communication uses videoconferencing technology.

RP-Vita is available from InTouch Health, which develops and manufactures telemedicine remote presence medical devices.

I made a picture of the front, side, and back of RP-Vita you can see at http://tinyurl.com/b8zppbh.

Detailed information (including three short videos), about the RP-Vita healthcare robot, can be seen on the InTouch Health website at http://tinyurl.com/cjnmc56.

To learn more about the CES healthcare summit on Facebook, login and go to https://www.facebook.com/DigitalHealthSummit and on Twitter visit http://www.twitter.com/dhsummit.

One CES 2013 YouTube video said the one word which best described this year’s show was “innovation.”

CES 2014 will take place next Jan. 7 to 10.