Demo@15 highlights unique new products

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Demo@15 took the audience of 700 attendees on a virtual ride to the future this morning with demonstrations of high-tech products to come.

VKB demonstrated to a group of venture capitalists and the media a virtual keyboard technology that projects the laser image of a keyboard onto any flat surface. The infrared keyboard is connected to sensors that detect every keystroke.

While a separate device was used during the demonstration that connected to a cell phone through Bluetooth, Jonathan Curtiss, president and CEO, promised that the virtual keyboard would be embedded in cell phones, handhelds, and other small devices later this year and in 2006.

Curtiss sited a number of business and industrial applications where the keyboard makes sense. Curtiss got the biggest laugh, however, when after recommending the keyboard for use in clean environments such as hospitals, he sited a recent healthcare study that said eating lunch out of a toilet bowl was safer than eating lunch off a keyboard.

Another company using imaging technology to create something new was MDA with its Instant Scene Modeler (ISM). The ISM device captures images in 3-D by using two cameras — a left and right camera — in a single device to take pictures in stereo. The data from the images are sent to any 3-D modeling software application that can create the image. The image can then be rotated and used to measure objects. As an example, a mock crime scene was created and the ISM was used to photograph a victim. A mouse click from the victim’s head and another mouse click at his feet was used to calculate the victim’s height. 

The ISM device is already capturing the interest of both forensics experts as well as those in the mining industry who could use the device for ore assessments.

Bloggers were not forgotten either in the first round of morning demonstrations. Serious Magic presented a video blog creation tool called Vlog It. CEO Mark Randall drew loud applause from the audience as he showed how anyone with his Vlog It application could create shows that had the same quality as a professional television news broadcast. With the use of fake backgrounds that made it look as if he was reporting from Cannes and the Pentagon, Randall inserted graphics as he spoke. While the audience watches the images, Vlog It users see a teleprompter-like panel on their screens that enables them to coordinate and read from prepared text that can be either live or pre-recorded.

While up until now only print media had to worry about bloggers putting reporters out of business, the Vlog It system may have the Dan Rather’s of the world worried, too.

The morning session started to wind down with a presentation by Motorola that also drew applause from the audience.

Using a cross between satellite radio and wireless technology, David Ulmer, Motorola director of marketing, showed how users can download, save, pause, and play live music as well as their own MP3 files over standard car stereos, cell phones, or on home stereo equipment.

The afternoon sessions promise to be just as interesting.