CES: The Year of the Interface

Yesterday, the official CES Press day saw a lot of activity as hundreds of reporters shuttled between press conferences for various product announcements. It looks like 2012 will indeed be the year of the interface. Tom Malone, president of Audiovox (pictured), announced two new gadgets called Car Connection and Care Connection.

Care Connection is a watch-sized device to help care givers better manage the needs of patients who suffer from Alzheimer’s disease. The device tracks the location of the wearer and reports the data to the caregiver's smart phone (via downloadable app). It’s also a Bluetooth enabled phone so the patient can communicate with the caregiver via voice.

Car Connection is a device that goes in your car (naturally), records data on how you drive, and gives the information to your insurer. The appeal? Safe driving could earn you a discount on your insurance premiums, as already illustrated by the Progressive Snapshot insurance initiative. Malone predicted that this sort of self-surveillance will become very mainstream in the coming years. The device would also let parents monitor their teenagers' location and driving habits. Car Connection disables texting in all the devices in the car so your hyper-social teen won’t receive and can’t send communications while trying to drive. Both Car Connect and Care Connect will be available in a few months.

Malone also debuted an in seat video monitor that's Andiod-based to allow passengers to download movies from the Internet and text. But that happens safely from the backseat.

Nokia president Stephen Elop announced the launch of the new Nokia Lumina 700, notable for its Windows phone operating system.

The big event was the Steve Ballmer keynote with Ryan Seacrest. Ballmer announced the launch of the Windows 8 operating system. More remarkable were the future applications he outlined for the Kinect (part of the Xbox 360 videogame device). The Kinect is a sensor device that you would mount on your television. The voice recognition on it allows you to execute a lot of commands hands free and interface with the machine via arm movements. Last night, Microsoft announced a new partnership with Seasame Street so viewers can now customize their own Seasame Street broadcast with the Kinect. The gesture recognition capability is impressive. Probably my favorite moment of the presentation wasn't the awkward banter between Seacrest and Ballmer but when a girl threw an imaginary coconut at Elmo and Elmo caught it. I think that was Steve Ballmer's favorite moment as well. Watch the entire presentation here.