CES 2009 Consumer Electronics Show - Day 1

Booth “candy” comes in many different forms, some choose to keep with the human element and hire the traditional booth babe to help draw in foot traffic.  Others resort to fancy displays or vehicles.  We were walking by the Panasonic booth when we noticed this Ducati GP bike and stopped to take a picture.  A fast talking sales guy saw the press badge and quickly lead us over to a marketing person to explain the Xact product.

These little chips are GPS transponders designed to protect property and promote personal safety.  They can be fitted to a carrying strap to keep track of kids or various family members or can be inserted into personal property like laptops or ATVs to guard against theft. 

Of course you can use them for just about anything including invasion of privacy but since you’ll be paying a monthly fee for the privilege they see it as a win win.

The CES show was rather lucid this year but if you look carefully sometimes you’ll find something cool.  That was the case with this next product.  These headphones are a true 5.1 surround sound headset and mimics how we perceive sound.  Instead of having the speakers over your ears in a static placement they are located across the top of the headset and connected to the ear piece with the red tubes. 

These tubes are actually sound pipes that control sound timing based on distance.  The result is rear sounds that physically start behind your hear and pass forward and vice versa.