AIM Institute Technology Blog

This is about the coolest thing I’ve seen in a long time….

Best of CES 2012 (in no particular order)

1. HD Video Recording Sports Glasses
Site: www.szlongzy.com
Cost: $79

These sunglasses look like common sports sunglasses, but feature a camera located directly between the wearer’s eyes. The camera records at 30 frames per second and stores its images on an internal 32GB micro SD card. Images are transferred via a USB 2.0 connection (no driver needed). These glasses will interface with Mac OS 10.5 and higher, Win 7, XP, 2000, Vista. The camera is turned on and off by pressing one button.

2. Mac Magic Bar
Site: www.mobeetechnology.com
Cost: $59

The Magic Bar is an inductive charger for Apple bluetooth keyboards and Magic Trackpads. Simply insert the rechargeable batteries that come with the item into the keyboard, then connect the charger to the USB port to provide power. This will allow the keyboard batteries to be inductively charged throughout the day. Anyone that uses these bluetooth devices knows that they devour batteries. The Magic Bar ends your battery purchases.

3. Biscotti TV Phone
Site: www.biscotti.com
Cost: $199

Biscotti is a really simple device that turns your TV into a high-definition telephone. No computer is needed! Simply connect Biscotti to your TV’s HDMI port, link it to your GoogleTalk or Gmail account, and point its built-in WIFI to your home’s wireless router. When someone calls you via GoogleTalk, Biscotti will notify you and swap the screen so that you can take the call.

4. Sphero: Part robot, part ball.
Site: www.gosphero.com
Cost: $129

Sphero is a 4″ inch ball that is controlled by remote control. That’s it! Playing with the sphere is addictive.

5. iPort Flush-mount systems for iPad
Cost: $420

Many modern heating, mechanical, and sound systems are now controlled by smart phones or tablet devices. This product allows a way to attractively mount your iPad in the wall to be used as a kiosk or a control device.

6. Henge Dock for MacBook
Site: www.hengedock.com
Cost: $55

The Henge Dock is a vertical docking system for MacBooks that is much more affordable than other docking stations on the market. Docking vertically saves room on the desktop, but also uses the weight of the laptop to keep it securely in place.

7. The Invisible Keypad for iPhone

Cost: Not released yet

The invisible key pad gives iPhone users a tactical keypad that greatly increases typing speed and accuracy. The clear plastic keypad simply slips over your current iPhone and gives the user the feel of an actual key with a raised “bump.” The plastic is able to transfer heat accurately to choose the desired letter on the keyboard with no transfer to adjacent keys.

8. iOs Medical Products
Cost: Not released yet
Vendor: http://goo.gl/ygN3c
This line of affordable medical products interfaces with your iPhone to deliver quick, easy medical information. All of these products have an associated iPhone or iPad app that interfaces with the physical device. Popular products are the baby monitor, blood pressure monitor, and blood glucose monitor for diabetics.

9. SmarTouch Inductive Gloves by IsoToner
Cost: $19-40
Vendor

These gloves allow the wearer to use touchscreen-enabled devices while wearing them. The forefinger on each glove features an inductive surface that is able to transmit movement to the screen.

10. Non-wireless, wireless speakers

Do you have a favorite pair of wired speakers that you’d like to mount, but don’t have any way to run the wires through the walls? These mounts feature a wireless transmitter that fit into the wall as well as posts to connect your wired speakers. Your speakers are then attached to the mount box. The sound is transmitted via a module (included in kit) that connects to your stereo amplifier to the receiving unit in the wall-mounted box.

And here are the pictures from our second day at CES.

 

CES Day 2

Pictures of CES Day 1.

 

CES Day 1

The Untethered Fitness session geared towards the technology that helps you become healthier and keep being healthy.  Four companies were represented at the panel: Scosche, Bodymedia, Basis and Motorola Mobility.  The session was presented in the panel format, with a moderator leading the discussion, followed by Q&A.   The current fitness movement can be likened to the green movement from a few years ago.  The key is making health fun, or the gamification of fitness by using badges or other rewards.  Americans collectively need to lose 4.5 billion pounds.

Devices such as the Bobybug, Fitbit, and MotoACTV collect your workout routine, step counts and calculate how many calories you have burned in a day.  The data collected is uploaded to a website where the Dashboard or Portal provides you with up to date information on your progress.  You can share this information with your friends, from which they can provide feedback and encouragement.    Using the Dashboard increases the engagement with the users.  Having automatic or ‘passive’ data collection is key to keeping engaged.

The Dashboard or Portal website can be used to log your meals, Logging your meals is one aspect that can be difficult.  Over time, remembering to log your meals gets pretty hard, but making it easy will be the key to adoption.  Keep an eye on this feature in the near future.

These devices only help with education.  It is using the information to create habits and continuing a healthy lifestyle which will be the biggest plus from this technology.

 

 

As is always the case, you just don’t have a clue about what to expect the first time that you attend a conference in an unfamiliar location. This was no exception. First of all, the CES site strongly encourages attendees to stay at one of the sponsoring hotels to utilize shuttle services. We quickly learned that there is no one checking hotel keys at the shuttle stop, so it probably would be more cost-effective to rent a car and stay at a budget hotel. There is free parking at all of the casinos, so we could have driven to the casino and caught the conference shuttle each day. If the decision is made to stay at a sponsoring hotel/casino, beware of the high nightly tax and the resort fee that is added onto the nightly fee. OMG–it’s outrageous!

Once we made it to the conference, we found that there are plenty of places to get food, but the lines are incredibly long and the prices fairly steep (big surprise, huh?). Instead, stop at the local hotel convenience shop in the morning and buy a few granola bars, waters, or sodas to keep in your backpack so you don’t have to pay $9 for a bag of Fritos and a mountain dew.

In 2012, there was no free WIFI at the conference. Fortunately, we had a Verizon Mifi to provide an IP so that we could keep up on blogposts and email from homeplate. There were several people that were audibly upset that there was no working Internet, but I can sympathize with conference organizers since it would be an incredible undertaking to provide a solid connection for well over 150,000 geeks—all carrying a cell phone, iPad, and a laptop (a total of 450,000 connections).

The conference center is so large that it does take some planning to see even a fraction of the exhibit floor. The iPad/Android app works pretty well, so it’s best to plan your day by choosing (ahead of time) the sessions and exhibitors that you want to visit. The conference center is divided into South, Central and North (like OPS schools) and is accessible via free shuttles throughout the conference. Launch the app, choose your sessions, then look to see where they’re located so that you don’t waste time riding the bus back to exhibits that you missed the first time.

We learned the hard way that vendors listed in hotel hospitality rooms are not really there to be visited by common folk like us. Jon and I went to the Roku room (because we’re huge fans) only to be summarily turned away and ushered out the door. These rooms are for buyers who are being introduced to upcoming features in future releases, so an NDA is required. We would have gladly signed one, but weren’t given the chance… At least Roku answered the door. EyeFi was locked up and didn’t answer our knock.

That’s all for now. Great conference, but we definitely would have done some things differently!

Andy Van Schaack, Senior Science Advisor
Livescribe Inc.

Dale Dougherty, Founder
Make Magazine

James Caras, CEO
Sapling Learning

John Ittelson, Professor Emeritus, Liaison
California State University, Monterey Bay, California Virtual Campus

Marc de Vinck, Director of Product Development
Make Magazine

Students are tired of carrying around 75lb backpacks, so this session presented some ideas to help students lighten those backpacks by using digital tools. This is especially easy to accomplish within the STEM discipline. First, a summary of STEM research was presented. On average, STEM students grade point averages tend to be one half grade lower due to the difficulty of the discipline. Many students choose a different path of study because of this to maintain higher averages for scholarships. Fortunately there are rich software packages freely available to help STEM students succeed.

A lot of the early online academic systems were simply assessment engines. Now, modern software is able to engage students in activities, give immediate feedback, and make extra resources available. In addition, the systems are considered “approachable” by students as most would rather tell the system that they don’t understand concepts rather than tell their teacher. (I’m not sure this is a good thing!)

In a recent research project, students rated online STEM activities as more valuable to learning STEM content than their teacher OR their text book. Teacher was rated second, textbook was 8th in line. Their research (Univ of North Texas) also found that many teachers feel guilty not personally grading their students’ homework, however the fact is that this allows teachers more time to refine classroom teaching and refine lesson delivery methods.

The next speaker is the editor of makezine.com. This company is a spinoff of the former Heathkit. Their company creates electronics “kits” that allow young people to work with their hands to create gadgets and most important–to play with them. He stated that every Apple product is stamped with “Researched and designed in the United States, built in China.” Make magazine is a monthly publication that provides products, ideas and projects for STEM teachers. (Video of “Why I Love My 3D Printer) from Ignite Phoenix. The MakerBot will allow STEM students to design products and actually build them for about $1000. (Grant idea, summer camp?). This kits re-connect kids with the physical world, giving them a break from their virtual world at the same time they are learning how their electronic tools work. These devices are direct gateways to careers in engineering, mechanics, and physics.

The LiveScribe pen was the next item featured that should appear in every child’s digital backpack. The pen captures everything that is written and spoken, and also has a speaker so that the pen can read the recording back to you. This is an especially important for students since they often take notes (not very well) and don’t study them until the night before the exam. The pen allows students to listen to lectures as many times as they like. This also presents opportunities for dyslexic students who process auditory cues much better than visual (which are often reversed).

The LiveScribe pen allows teachers (during office hours) to use the pen to work out solutions to homework problems while narrating the steps, save it as a simple pdf, and post it to class website. There is a Livescribe app for android and iPhone as well that allows students to access their LiveScribe files. Another interesting application would be to create symbols with the pen that symbolize words to allow someone with no speech to be able to create sentences by simply pointing at those symbols. This could be used with ESL students as well as their parents and families when a translator is not available.

Jon Bucci – Vice President, Advanced Technology, Toyota Motor Sales USA
Joni Christensen – Head of Uconnect Systems and Services, Chrysler Group LLC
Chris Cook – President, Mobile Electronics Retailers Association
Myles Kovacs – President and Co-Founder, DUB Publishing, Inc.
Nick Pudar – Vice President, Planning and Business Development, OnStar LLC
Jake Sigal – CEO, Livio Radio

“People don’t care about buying your stuff. They care about buying what your stuff can do for them.”

There is no more technical piece of equipment than an automobile. The challenge for manufacturers is to allow the public to drive green, drive connected, drive safe, and drive cool. There is increasing pressure from authorities to disconnect drivers from the grid at the same time drivers are demanding to be connected to the grid. The industry’s viewpoint is that if they don’t include connectivity in cars, the public will find a workaround for themselves and it will probably be a less safe solution.

The only way advanced technologies will happen is with active communication between OEM, aftermarket, and the consumer which is why CES is so important to all three entities. The open innovation market is being embraced by the auto industry, but some still are designing their own proprietary stereo and entertainment systems. When “communization” occurs between manufacturers, an “app store” for vehicles will happen where auto owners will be able to customize the capabilities of their cars by purchasing, downloading, and installing updates and features to their vehicles.

Toyota is now including entune in its vehicles that allows inclusion of web-based content in vehicles by simply pairing the user’s phone via bluetooth with the vehicle. This year, Inform has been added that includes Facebook and Yelp. This allows the automobile to use your cell phone’s data connection in the vehicle while it’s docked in the Inform dock. Toyota is striving to design and include a safe way to allow drivers to stay connected while in their vehicle, but it’s a slippery slope since there is steady resistance by authorities to allow connected drivers. The automobile is yet another example of convergence: cars are the intersection of transportation, communication, and entertainment.

uConnect is being included in Chrysler vehicles. uConnect has been developed with the philosophy that technology in cars should already be familiar to users already, otherwise it won’t be used. Touchscreens, menu choices, toggling, and standard menu jargon should mirror what users already are familiar with at home, work, and with their other personal devices.

OnStar was present at this session as well. OnStar was initially an aftermarket product, but was later included as a standard product on all vehicles. There is obviously a lot of pressure on OnStar to evolve since other manufacturers are implementing their own similar solutions. Recently, OnStar has released “Remote Link” that allows users to interact with their vehicles via their smartphone. Also, OnStar will open up their API to developers this year in March 2012. They have also partnered with RelayRides (similar to ZipCar) which allows cars to be shared when they are not being used. OnStar is the foundation to their business and allows RelayRide users in a city to locate cars that are available for use.

The next speaker addressed the problem of how to integrate “apps” into modern vehicles. How do manufacturers know what music you want while you’re in your vehicle? What to include: Pandora, iTunes, Rhapsody, Spotify, Google Music, and a good old-fashioned radio station featuring your favorite DJ. The problem is that each automaker is developing their own solution rather than a common solution that will work in any vehicle. LivioConnect was created initially to get music into living rooms across the world. Now they have created a software package that will work with any auto’s main logic chip that will allow integration of apps developed in the open market into any modern vehicle. Not mainstream yet, but LivioConnect is seeking to create a common platform that will work with any vehicle and that will allow open development. Time will tell if this is an accepted solution.

In summary, automakers understand that they are no longer simply producing machinery. They are now deeply immersed in the consumer electronics industry–a place that no one really predicted they would be. This is a challenge, because auto manufacturers have relatively little experience with CE products, yet when they don’t work they detract from the brand’s reputation very quickly. Failure in this realm is not an option, because if the user is dissatisfied with the tech interface in vehicles, they will abandon the brand very quickly.

While attending sessions and visiting exhibit booths is a big part of our trip to CES, Jon and I also made a point to observe how the conference itself is conducted and see if there are modifications that we might make to Infotec’s format. Here are a few observations:

First,there are no bags or programs that are given out at the registration booth. There are stacks of conference programs near the registration booths, but no bags or flyers are given out at all. Attendee name tags are mailed to participants prior to the conference along with a card (similar to a credit card) that contains attendee biographical information. This card is scanned when entering breakout sessions to authenticate admission as well as when booths are visited for lead generation. Also, entry to some sessions requires registration and an extra fee–not all sessions are included in general registration fee of $100. We really need to figure out a way to track each and every person that enters the breakout sessions. That information is probably as valuable (maybe more) to give to track sponsors than who visits their booth. We should add this as a goal for 2013: Refine nametag scanning (QR or barcode) to scan all breakout session participants.

As the breakout sessions take place, the room docent counts session participants at beginning, halfway through session, and again at the end to see how many are in room to see if session dwindles. This identifies the weak speakers that fail to engage their audience.

All sessions are rated online–no paper option is even available. Interestingly, the app that is used is very similar to AIM’s Infotec site. However, it is a downloadable app rather than a website. It does not seem to work well on Android yet, but works perfectly on iPad. One really cool feature is that it allows all information to be cached so that no internet connection is needed to use the app at the conference. It also contains all exhibitors and breakout sessions, and allows the user to place a “star” next to sessions as they browse. When finished browsing, the user has a schedule of all of their selected sessions as well as the ability to print it (unnecessary). Unfortunately, the app contains no search capability (if you would like to know where Klipsh or Bose is located) nor does it allow searching for speakers at the conference. It does feature an index of all speakers. It also does not include a QR code reader as a part of the app. QR Codes are EVERYWHERE at this conference–I guess I’m not believing the hype that they are going away soon. If we do create an Infotec app, it should include all of these features as well as advertising to upsell to exhibitors. It should also have an Omaha Entertainment section that lists places to eat, coupon code for free drink, etc as well as directions for how to get there (from present position) since most mobile devices have GPS info.

Conference center staff members are circulating constantly to make certain that the temperature is comfortable and the sound system is perfect. The staff are extremely helpful and easily identifiable. Also, there are charging station pedestals located all over the conference for quick-charging laptops and cell phones. This could be an upsell for sponsors or even a new way to replace the Cox smoothie booth. The charging stations are co-located with modern furniture and coffee tables. Maybe AIM could purchase modern furniture as a part of the 3rd floor collaboration plan, then use it for conferences?? There are food booths throughout the facility selling light snacks and soda (chips, individually wrapped cookies, soda, beer @$2) and people seem more than willing to pay the fee for a quick snack.

Our registration also included free shuttle service to and from the Convention Center. The buses were frequent, clean and fast. Is it possible to devise a shuttle plan for our Infotec visitors so that they don’t have to pay the parking fee? If not, may I suggest that we include parking the parking fee in our registration?

This session began with humorous YouTube segments of David Letterman showing the iPad (which ultimately fails), trying to send a tweet, and finally showing off the new iPhone. Some of the previous products featured in this CES segment over the years were laptops, flat panels, and even the first mobile phones. Apple and google have created “ecosystems” that have transformed how customers interact with their products. iPhoto, icloud and many other apps all interact with the iTunes ecosystem that Apple developed. Android Devices all interact with the market ecosystem and the developer ecosystem.

Eric Schmidt was a guest and spoke about the benefits of the android ecosystem since there are so many new developers contributing to the landscape. This allows the ecosystem to grow and evolve. Googletv has now been integrated into 5 major manufacturers of TV’s and allows all of your android products to talk to each other as well as control their hardware products.

Apple has enjoyed success by standardizing hardware components but only allowing certain apps in their store. Right now android is activating 700000 units per day. The kindle fire runs on android but they have chosen not to allow it to be a part of the open Android model. There may be a new dilemma emerging: as new companies emerge that use android but don’t follow rules, will customers grow frustrated when their android devices won’t work with products that have not followed ecosystem model. Schmidt predicts that those hardware companies will not survive. Is that a dig at Apple? Is that a hint that they should open up their hardware to the masses to help develop apps for them?

Hardware takes on a different role in an ecosystem since many products must be able to participate (refrigerators, washers, etc) on software that they didn’t write and apps that they did not create. Samsung has created tv’s that continue to expand the ecosystem and has partnered with google to create all new ways to utilize something as common as a tv. Envision a room in your home where you manage your media content, then you move into a different room in your house where you manage premium services, then move into the utility room where other appliances are working in the background. That is the job of manufacturers–give people hardware products that allow them to utilize the Internet cloud and their personal hardware devices effectively and efficiently.

The next major move in industry is to subscribe to content, yet have access across all devices seamlessly. This also is making its entry into the enterprise workplace as well. More and more businesses are becoming BYOD. Also, the enterprise used to set the standard for hardware for its employees. Now, employees are setting the pace for their employers, and the expectation is that companies will have to find a way to keep up with the informal hardware standards that its employees are setting.

There has been so much buildup and development to get to this point and it’s almost surreal that we are active participants in this ecosystem. What do we do now that we’ve “caught the bus?” Some predict that users will begin to demand more streamlining of services and devices. As our lives become more complex with more choices, consumers will begin to demand all of the complexity with great simplicity. Whoever can deliver that will be the next billionaire.

Overall summary: android is huge now but it’s gathering steam and will easily surpass all other development platforms. Apple’s closed mentality may really limit its expansion, and this can be observed at every verizon store where there are 3 iPhones on display (that are all alike) and 18 android phone on display that have a wide variety of hardware features.