Last year’s trend is this year’s reality
18 April 2011
At the giant Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show in January 2010, the move for 3D from cinema to living room was very much underway.
At last week’s Gadget Show Live (held at the NEC, Birmingham, 12–16 April 2011), there seemed to be 3D everywhere. This was very much ‘commercial reality’ products as well, on sale from the stands.
Nintendo with its 3DS is making headlines for having a 3D console which doesn’t need the silly glasses. I haven’t had a go of this but I believe the 3D image is very effective and maybe it will bear translation to bigger screens. In terms of the ‘silly glasses’, many of those at the Gadget Show were more ‘Men In Black’ than ‘Man in Benidorm’ – the cooler look definitely aimed at the gaming community.
But if we accept that 3D is now an established trend, what else was on show in Birmingham?
First of all you have to identify which show – my prime business at the NEC was to be at National Electronics Week (NEW), an all encompassing event for those working in the electronics industry, from design through to manufacture.
After a faltering start in London over the past few years, largely on account of it being such a difficult time for industry, the move to a more central venue appeared to have paid dividends, with more visitors and a greater variety of exhibitors. With so much of the electronics supply chain being channelled through distributors in the UK it is not always easy to spot technological trends, but it was certainly nice to see the British electronics industry with a smile back on its face!
With the considerable attractions of NEW being my main reason to be in Birmingham, I only had a relatively short visit to the Gadget Show. I avoided the dedicated Gaming Hall, as such pursuits hold little interest for me, and tried, without success, to identify any recurring themes running through the rest of the exhibition halls.
Perhaps, having been through a decade when complexity was seen as good, when the ability to use something massaged the ego of electro-geek, the focus has shifted more towards user-friendliness. Your average consumer doesn’t necessarily want to understand how something works, they just want to switch on the button and be served up ‘whatever the function is’ on a plate. Across the computing stands, audio, games, home appliances, toys, my conclusion was the same – they may be more complex than they were five or ten years ago but they are much more accessible.
And on the subject of accessibility, to make an incredibly contrived link, one other thing that I did notice was the plethora of electric bikes. Presumably the drivers of avoiding congestion and reducing travelling costs are combining to give these machines their popularity. They have to have a cycle function apparently or they count as mopeds, but in many of the versions I saw that was just a token gesture. This is one area where the constant quest by electronics designers to reduce power consumption and improve battery performance and hence battery life is paying dividends. As a keen cyclist I am not sure that they offer much in terms of recreation, but as a commuting vehicle they could be a far more common sight on our city streets in the near future.
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