The electronics revolution is moving off your laptop, tablet and phone and into the rest of your belongings.
At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, the news was how technology is marching off the computer screen and into your car, your kitchen and your closet.
Much more than in previous years at CES, technology was taking over other everyday objects. Ford, Audi and even Rolls-Royce were present to show off new entertainment devices that are being installed the back seats of cars and that promise to take over the front seat once the driving is entrusted to a computer (down the line).
Also read: What's New at CES This Year? (Video)
Technology promises to remind car owners when maintenance is nigh, or monitor the driver to make sure he or she doesn’t fall asleep. Meanwhile Pandora, the internet radio service, is working with car manufacturers to give consumers endless listening choices in their new cars.
The kitchen is not immune. One of the quirkiest items was a technology in a fork that allowed you to time how quickly you are eating, with a circuit completed when the diner closes his or her mouth around the fork.
There were virtual fitting rooms that allow users to try on clothes via computer, rather than go to the trouble of physically putting something on.
And Panasonic had a mascara holder that enhances your ability to make your eyelashes look longer.
Tumi, the luggage maker, had a T-Tech booth with lots of gadgets for dressing up your gadgets.
The show of course featured the most up-to-date television and computer screens, and there were plenty of those at the sprawling LG and Samsung displays. At LG, there were ultra-HD computer screens, ultra-wide monitors for “immersive” viewing and $25,000 monitors that seemed to mimic 3D without the need for glasses. These ultra-HDTVs have four times the resolution of standard HDTVs, bringing movie-theater picture quality into the living room.
Still, I wasn’t as interested in the phones, phablets (tablet-sized phones), tablets or laptops as I was in noting that several companies are making gadget-sized mini-printers — including 3D printers — that produce tiny little photos of not-terribly-good quality.
If that's the case, who needs the mascara?