CES 2013 (Part II)

A couple days ago Microsoft announced their research project dubbed the IllumiRoom. I'm going to have you watch the video below, its easier to explain once you've seen it.

Now you may be thinking, "Oh this is a cool concept but a shame it isn't real." That is what makes this so amazing, this was in fact filmed and no post production was used to generate the effect displayed. That alone is impressive, but then I stop to think, that's the future. As cool as TV's and HD and UHD and OLED and all of the various screens we have are. None would be as cool as the "everything screen". This video shows us that maybe one day in the future, your screens aren't constrained to a certain size or a certain ratio.

Moving on from the IllumiRoom, we have another interesting piece to share with you. Self driving cars sound like something from a sci-fi movie. Well that future is now (kinda) and was shown off at CES. Now I'd like to make a special shout out to Google and their self-driving vheicles.

Google has been developing a self driving car system for quite some time now, though they didn't make any appearance at CES. What excites me about self-driving cars now is that car manufacturers are getting serious about it now.

Audi showed us a technology that took self driving a step above what other companies have shown. Say your at a mall, you car will then drop you off where you want and go find a parking spot all on its own. Then when your done, it comes and picks you up! It definitely is still very limited in its actual ability and you probably won't see it as an option for a few years, but it's cool that they are working on it.

Today however is the last day of CES, so make sure you check out your favorite tech blog, or other news source to see all the cool things we didn't cover!

CES 2013 (Part I)

The Consumer Electronics Show hosted in Las Vegas shows us an exciting glimpse into the future of consumer electronics. This year in particular was quite amazing to see unfold. Here are some of the highlights we found to be interesting.

Samsung is a well known for their amazing display technology. This year they did not disappoint and in fact, pushed the display industry even farther. Smart TV's are becoming more and more prevalent in homes, along with the industry standard of 1080p HD. Most of us wouldn't know where to take TV's from here, but Samsung sure showed us that they have a vision. They (along with many other TV manufacturers) showed us the new standard of UHD (Ultra High Definition). This new standard of UHD also goes by the name 4k, which not surprising is 4 times the resolution of 1080p. This means there are literally 4 times as many pixels in a display. Pixel count isn't everything though; important factors include contrast ratio and color display. Contrast ratio is simply how white the whites are and how black the blacks are, and color display is how accurate and pure the colors on display are.

Enter OLED screens. Now you've probably heard of LED displays, in fact you may even have one. The difference with OLED's is they don't have any backlight or lamps to brighten the screen. The traditional TV's with LED and LCD screens have a light underneath the bezel of the display that shines a light on the screen, making the pixels visible. The problem with that is it causes blacks to appear gray and colors to appear "washed out". OLED is the answer to those problems; on and OLED screen each pixel lights up, and when black is displayed, the pixel turns off, meaning you get true blacks and accurate colors.

So what does this all mean for you the consumer? Enhanced picture quality. When you go see a movie in a theatre, that movie is not in 1080p. The movie is usually in 4k and uncompressed. That means you get movie theatre quality, in your living room (depending on if you have a 4k blu-ray of the movie). The amazing thing is though, 4k and OLED screens have been around before, but for the first time ever, Samsung and the others are releasing consumer friendly versions that you and I could afford. Some pictures of their amazing displays below:

Curved OLED display

85" UHD OLED screen

Ultra think UHD OLED television

Part II coming tomorrow...