Digital devices move into homes

By PETER GRIFFIN

Digital convergence in the home was the main theme at the huge IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin last week, where the world's largest technology makers showcased their latest devices.

The internet fridge

Although many firms were touting the TV set as the digital hub of the modern home, Korean electronics company LG was pushing the internet fridge.

LG has built into a brushed-steel fridge a 10Mbps (megabits per second) ethernet link, allowing high-speed access to the web or a home network. Embedded in the front of the fridge is a 38cm LCD screen, fitted with a web camera and microphone. You can record video messages for the rest of the family or videoconference friends for cooking tips as you stir.

Using the 17GB hard drive, you can store MP3 files, to-do lists and expand the provided recipe database.

Handwriting recognition allows you to log the expiry dates of items in the fridge. Alerts will pop up on the day of expiry, warding off lumpy milk forever.

The fridge self-detects mechanical faults and in some countries can go online to contact a repair centre.

Despite its intelligence, the internet fridge does not have the long-anticipated ability to scan the contents of your fridge and re-order items as they are used. At £6000 ($16,556), you'd expect at least that.

Mirror TV

Dutch electronics maker Philips showcased the Mirror TV.

The bathroom mirror takes on a new life as an LCD display delivering information as you shave, brush your teeth or beautify yourself.

Polarised mirror technology allows most of the light from the LCD to pass through the mirrored glass and be seen reasonably clearly.

Internet content can be displayed, as well as reminders for the day or web-streamed video.

A version of the device at Philips Homelab research centre is connected to in-floor scales that give a digital display of the weight of the person standing before the mirror.

Philips sees users ordering new cosmetics, shaving cream or health items online through the mirror.

The company says a large US hotel chain has ordered Mirror TVs to put in its rooms.

Set-top boxes

New Zealanders associate Nokia with cellphones, but the Finnish company is vying for a slice of the home entertainment market with its digital set-top boxes.

The Nokia Mediamaster allows users to access free-to-air digital television and radio signals without subscription through an existing rooftop aerial.

Such devices are becoming popular as terrestrial television goes digital in Europe, allowing the delivery of high-quality pictures and interactive services.

New Zealand faces its own move to digital in the next few years, and firms such as Nokia, which will target the Asia Pacific region with Mediamaster, will be to the fore.

Built-in memory allows the set-top boxes to organise content and programming guides, but the Mediamaster's most unique function springs from Nokia's mobile bent. Users can take a photo using a PXT-capable camera phone. They can then beam the picture to their set-top box for display on the TV screen.

In-car displays

The constantly falling price of LCD displays and their greater power efficiency is seeing them appear increasingly as in-car displays.

Car stereo maker Blaupunkt senses the opportunities here, decking out a four-wheel-drive at IFA with displays of all kinds, from LCD GPS (global positioning system) displays to screens built into headrests that allow rear-seat passengers to watch DVDs or play Xbox and PlayStation games.

Digital displays are still the domain of high-end vehicles but that is changing.

Auckland firm Navman hopes to build a global business out of fitting GPS displays into the dashboards of new cars.

Also on display from Blaupunkt was a range of digital radio receivers.

Digital radio is common throughout Europe and allows information such as traffic reports or song titles to be sent by radio stations to those equipped with digital radios.

Card-based video cameras

Panasonic unveiled miniature video cameras based entirely on the SD card storage format - the emerging alternative to digital videotape.

Portable storage drives are being built into an increasing range of consumer electronics, from digital cameras to DVD writers and plasma-screen TV sets. The 156gm SV-AV100 records footage to an SD card at a rate of up to 6Mbps in MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 format.

An economy bit rate can be selected to fit several hours of footage on a 512MB SD card at lower video quality.

The camera goes on sale next month for about £910 ($2510).

Electronic ink

E-books have been around for some time and the huge Gutenberg Project has given web users the ability to pick up thousands of classic novels in e-book format for free. But the drawback to e-book take-up is the dissatisfaction people have with reading from a computer screen, which produces glare and cannot replicate the tactile experience of holding a book.

Philips showcased a prototype of E-Ink, a small, lightweight electronic book that is probably the closest technology has come to book-quality imaging.

It is capable of up to 200,000 page views before the battery needs recharging - static images and text chew up little power.

Unlike laptop and Tablet PC screens, the display can be viewed from many angles.

Philips hopes to have models selling next year for about US$500 ($879).

* Peter Griffin attended IFA as a guest of Philips.