Innovation universe: The Consumer Electronics Show 2013

To give you an idea of the scope of this event, the International CES consumes 1.86 million square feet of exhibit hall space in the city, comprised of 3,700 exhibitors and over 154,000 attendees. It's kind of a BIG DEAL!

From my perspective, there are so many products and just not enough time. Our focus for the last two years has been on mobility based technology and card based technology. We chart out days, make our contacts in advance, and begin our interviews. Banking Exchange will be there again this year with a film crew (yours truly plus assistants) video-documenting as many banking relevant technologies as we can.

What is the future?

We live in a digitally immersive age where technology has become the interface to an extended lifestyle. We use technology more than we realize. It is expected that devices using the touch interface and the voice recognition interface (speak and it shall respond) will continue to experience explosive growth. Displays becoming more and more video-detail intensive will also continue to evolve. In some cases you could say that with the new video display technology it is "Better than being there!" Imagine that!

Skype and FaceTime (the Apple iOS version of Skype) is growing in popularity, particularly when you use Wi-Fi hotspots as opposed to your data plan. The next step from my point of view would be the melding of 3-D technology and holographic displays. It would be very easy to place four holographic projection cameras (one on each corner of a tablet) to enhance the communication experience. The infrastructure is there to accomplish this in a Star Wars type context, but I am sure it will suck-up the gigabytes let alone battery power-but it would be cool! The applications for this form of communication could be distance learning, tele-medicine, or just long distance calling!

Another future technology I envision is virtual kinesis. A kinetic interface that, using a special glove or other touch device, enables you to virtually touch the person on the other side of your conversion-imagine a virtual handshake. The three dimensions of hearing, seeing,  and touching are all delivered at the same time-no longer separated by distance. It is really like being there, or as Pablo Picasso said, "Anything you can imagine, is REAL." How profound is that!

The International Consumer Electronics Show is REAL!