Every January, the Consumer Electronics Show attracts more than 140,000 visitors to the Las Vegas Convention Center with million-dollar displays of the latest wonders. This year, much of the attention was on super-bright big-screen TVs (including one from Toshiba that generated 3-D images without glasses) and wafer-thin Ultrabook computers (which will try to steal a bite of market share from conspicuous no-show Apple).
But while the dealmakers and analysts touted a future where our smartphones will control cloud-connected appliances, I looked for humbler gadgets, the kinds of things that are sold in the SkyMall catalog and make you kick yourself for not thinking of them first.
On the plane I read an ad for a pedometer called the Striiv, and a few hours later I was talking to the developers. Striiv is a pocket-size device that counts your footsteps and provides graphical, Game Boy-style feedback to keep you motivated. As you reach your fitness goals, the company donates money to charitable causes such as clean water and polio vaccines in Third World countries.
Another product I saw in the SkyMall catalog and then tested at the convention was the NeatDesk scanner. It can turn a stack of crumpled, cocktail-stained receipts into editable documents to fool your boss that your trip to Vegas was hard work.
A competing scanner was the most enticing device I saw at CES this year. The HoverCam ImPress is a briefcase-size system that can squeeze a mountain of hard-copy books and magazines into the e-reader you got for Christmas. The ImPress even turns the pages automatically, so you won't have to slice your first edition of “Brave New World” into individual sheets. HoverCam is new to the consumer market, but a rep told me that that the $499 device should be available soon. In the SkyMall catalog.
The sprawling convention covers the equivalent of 31 football fields. The major brands entice visitors with gadget giveaways, scantily clad "booth babes" and the occasional celebrity (such as Seth "Scott Evil" Green, who posed for photos to promote a video-sharing app called Shodogg). But on the margins you'll find family-run operations that appeal to the Show Me mentality.
When Brunn Roysden, the inventor of a rubber bluetooth keyboard called myType, saw that my credentials said “St. Louis Post-Dispatch,” he mentioned that he attended the Missouri School of Mines in Rolla (before the name was changed to the University of Missouri-Rolla and then the Missouri University of Science and Technology). Roydsten's cleverly engineered keyboard for iPads and Android devices folds to the size of a deck of cards and comes in five colors.
At CES, stylish accessories often outshine the pricey gadgets they're designed to complement. At the booth for M-Edge, I was impressed with the canvas covers that can make an e-reader look like a vintage book. A rep told me that users can design and upload their own covers, and that they are printed at a facility in Ste. Genevieve.
The local company with the loudest bragging rights remains Yurbuds. CEO (and triathlete) Seth Burgett told me that the sales of their snug-fitting earphones have increased one hundred-fold since 2009. Yurbuds are now available at more than 9,000 locations worldwide (including Apple stores), and the company has expanded its product line to include models that loop behind the ear, have mute buttons for answering phone calls and come in multiple colors chosen by a former designer for Swiss Army products. (Swiss Army itself was at the convention, showing off pocketknife-size USB drives that can hold up to a terabyte of data — and cost up to $3,000.)
At the booth for St. Louis-based Energizer, I saw publicist Jamie Haley, whom I met at the Sundance Film Festival in 2006 when she was there with Alton-native director Brian Jun ("Steel City"). Along with the batteries for which the bunny-themed company is best known, Haley showed me multiport wall plugs, tabletop solar cells and USB device chargers with clever cord-management reels. The company's increasing commitment to aesthetics was represented by a faux-candle LED night light and a glowing desk lamp that would complement the streamlined house of tomorrow. Now when the light of inspiration clicks on, it could say "Energizer."
