Back in early January, I went to CES and was completely overwhelmed. My constant joke was (and still is) that the so-called booths are big enough to have their own zip code. I took a ton of video footage, convinced I would return home and turn that into a montage that really showed everyone the absolute strangeness of CES.
I failed. I came home, switched out suitcases, and headed back out on the road again pretty soon after returning. However, I discovered a video today from my CES partner-in-crime. I spent most of the event with my friend Jason Griffey, who is Head of Library IT at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga. He’s in the midst of planning a new library building, and the place is going uber-digital. (Someday I should get him to write a post here on digital libraries.) Jason managed to put his own CES montage together and that’s what I’m dropping here.
Enjoy the oddness, the hugeness, and the just plain silly at CES 2010:
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Cheers! Tweet Michelle @writetechnology, send her technology news at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, visit her wine blog when you’re thirsty, and drop by her day job.
Walking around CES, I was completely drawn to animatronic animals, or robotic pets. First there were the seals; then on my last day, I found Pleo. Of course I’d fall in love with the robot dinosaur … I’m one of the folks who owns a Nabaztag. Unlike the Paro seals, who have a purpose in rehabilitative therapy, the Pleo is simply a toy. In fact, he’s an expensive toy, retailing at $349 on the Pleo site and only a few dollars less on Amazon.
Pleo is supposed to be a one week-old Camarasaurus dinosaur. He interacts with you completely, expressing tons of emotion with his big blue eyes. His “sophisticated sensory system has devices that enable him to hear, see, sense touch and to detect objects.” Every Pleo comes with a training leaf, a companion guide, a rechargable battery and an AC charger. He weighs 8.8 pounds and is 15x4x8 inches.
I can’t believe how far robotics have come, making toys like the Pleo accessible to all of us. He’s not exactly the coolest tech in the world, but he definitely is rather bubblicious.
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Cheers! Tweet Michelle @writetechnology, send her technology news at michelle[at]writetech[dot]net, visit her wine blog when you’re thirsty, and drop by her day job.