Consumer devices continue innovation amid flailing economy

Consumer devices continue innovation amid flailing economy

Manufacturers of consumer electronics — like those in many other industries — are trying to deal with the current economic situation and the impending reports and predictions about how the consumer is going to spend its money. As an example, the Consumer Electronics Association pulled back its forecast late last year from a 3.5% fourth-quarter wholesale shipment revenue increase over 2007 down to 0.1%.

There is still a lot of innovation, however, to meet the needs of current and next-generation efforts such as DisplayPort, HDMI, and wireless applications. And, most of that innovation will be on display at this year’s International CES (www.cesweb.org) in Las Vegas, Jan. 8 to 11. In this section, we’ve highlighted some of products that will be exhibited during the show.

Energizer (www.energizer.com) will unveil its Prismatic zinc-air battery that promises to help OEMs design smaller and thinner devices. At press time, the company had not released much information, only stating the new battery technology offers run times up to three times longer than similarly sized alkaline or Li-ion devices to enable the highest energy density of any consumer portable power solution (either disposable or rechargeable).

The RipCord2 (www.ripcord2.com) from Staccato Communications represent the industry’s first 65-nm, single-chip CMOS ICs for WiMedia and Wireless USB applications such as handsets, DSC/DVC, printers, PMP, wireless A/V, and mass storage. Features included a fully integrated RF front-end, digital baseband, MAC, and IO, as well as USB 2.0 host/device and SDIO 2.0 interfaces.

The NX-ST101 speaker-wire termination system from NXG (www.nxgtechnology.com) enables speaker wire to be terminated in 5 s. Using high-compression technology the interconnect ensures flawless termination and requires no measuring or stripping insulation.

Expanding its ActiveConnect family, Gennum (www.gennum.com) the ActiveConnect GV8502 is a semiconductor housed in a standard copper cable assembly that can drive displays at distances up to 30 m — more than 15 times the reach of passive DisplayPort.

Fulton Innovation (www.fultoninnovation.com) will be demonstrating its eCoupled technology, which supplies power and communication through an inductively coupled power circuit that dynamically seeks resonance to allow the primary supply circuit to adapt its operation to match the needs of devices it recognizes. Texas Instruments is currently working with Fulton Innovation to develop wireless power solutions that can charge portable devices without traditional power cords.

BUG is a collection of electronic modules from Bug Labs (www.buglabs.net) — an open-source modular hardware company that provides modular components they liken to Legos for building gadgets. The modules—which represent specific functions such as camera, keyboard, video output, etc—snap together to build a host of electronic devices. Users can tap into BUGnet, an integrated programming environment/community — to build, program, and share devices.

Supporting DisplayPort LCD TVs, projectors, and high-end monitors, the PanelPort VPP1101 receiver from IDT (www.idt.com/go/panelport) allows customers to connect their multimedia devices to any type and size of monitor with an external DisplayPort connection. The device significantly reduces EMI by using spread spectrum clocking technology.

Designed for custom home-theater installations, the AV in-wall power filter and connection kit from APC (www.apc.com) works in conjunction with the company’s AV power protection solutions to protect wall-mounted televisions and ceiling-mounted projectors in remote locations against surges, spikes, or even blackouts. The connection kit ships with input and output receptacle boxes, an 8-ft output power cord, and a 2-ft input power cord for TV/projector.

Ralph Raiola

For more information on and to register for the International CES in Las Vegas, from Jan. 8 to 11, visit www.cesweb.org.