Josh Greer of RealD, a leading provider of 3-D technology for theaters, said 3-D TV sets will eventually invade homes, but “it’s going to take a little while.”
Greer was among the panelists at a session titled “Big thinkers and disruptive technologies.”
“There’s no doubt it’s going to happen over the next few years,” Greer said.
He said the success of 3-D movie “Avatar” caught manufacturers off guard when it came out. This year manufacturers are releasing 3-D TVs with lighter, passive glasses similar to those used in theaters, unlike last year’s models that largely used battery-powered glasses. RealD’s research and development hub is based in Boulder.
Panelist Mike Rayfield, a general manager at Nvidia, said Internet-connected TVs “will disrupt the way advertising is done.”
There will be “new kinds of advertising technology consumer-triggered or consumer- defined advertising,” he said.
AT&T’s Mel Coker reeled off several interesting stats, including estimates that 50 percent of handsets in the U.S. will be smartphones by the end of this year.
Award winners
With the connected TV serving as the Robin to the tablet’s Batman at CES, a wave of new remote controls are in development to allow viewers to treat their TV screen much like a computer monitor.
To that end, one of the Innovations Award winners this year is a remote from TiVo featuring a slide-out keyboard, similar to many of today’s smartphones. Another award winner featured a touchscreen and trackball mouse.
Some pay-TV providers already enable channel changing via apps on tablets, including Comcast with its iPad app.
Another gadget that caught my eye was RCA’s portable mobile device charger, which recycles existing energy from WiFi, artificial light sources and the sun to charge and power small electronics devices. A solar- powered keyboard also received an innovations award.
