Archive for November, 2009

MTC-600 Onboard Car Computer

Maxtrack, a Brazilian company, will be showing their MTC-600 on-board car computer at CES 2010. This is a pretty impressive piece of equipment that can handle just about everything in your car.

Several devices are integrated into the system such as keyboard, message panels, passenger counters (yes, passenger counters), billing equipment, cameras (there are four cameras), sensors, actuators, among others. It will gather all the information about your car and store it. Your car will know if it’s running or not, what direction and speed it’s going and whether it’s in an open area or not. Most of that can be handled by a good GPS system, but this car computer does a bit more.

Sensors placed throughout the automobile will monitor and take specified actions for just about any situation it encounters, from controlling the interior temperature and ambiance to identifying and recording information from any peripheral you want to hook up to it. It can even tell you about your bad driving habits that can cause extra wear on the automobile.

And, of course, it can all be done through voice commands, as well. The digital audio component stores voice commands, environment sound with music equalization in up to eight frequency ranges, volume control, among others.

The four cameras can be programmed to react to different events like start a recording when the driver slams on the brakes. So not only do you get to watch as you slide your car through the garage door after locking the wheels up on an icy driveway in person, but you get to enjoy it with the rest of the family over and over again. Won’t that be fun?

Here are the technical specs from the MaxTrack website:

At less than 2” tall, this baby could be installed just about anyplace in the vehicle. I would imagine it could also be adapted for motorcycles (Imagine Dennis Hopper’s “Billy” riding a Harley that’s smarter than he is).

Maxtrack Industrial Ltd. Will be in booth: North 1023 at CES 2010.

You can visit their website Maxtrack.com.br.

The Archerfish Intelligent Monitor

Archerfish has added smart technology to your nanny camera. It goes beyond simple motion capture with an intelligent system that you can program for specific events. When the event occurs, you can have it notify you remotely via email, still image or live video.

It’s an amazing system that can control up to four video surveillance cameras at one time and be programmed from anywhere with any internet connected PC or netbook. You can tell the cameras to look for certain people or cars and send a notice to your cell phone if they approach your house. Other things it can keep tabs on for you are waiting for that package you ordered to arrive or if someone is messing with your liquor cabinet.

Home security systems have come a long ways. It’s nice to know that if Big Brother is going to be watching, you can control what he sees.

Archerfish will be in booth South 1 21934,South 1 21936 and their website is MyArcherfish.com

Noise canceling headphones have been around for some time, but now we are starting to see the same technology applied to noise canceling headphones earbuds. Everyone is familiar with Bose  QuietComfort® headphones, but carrying around a set of bulky over-the-ear headphones in order to listen to your iPod is not really possible. There are two new alternatives that show a lot of promise.

Bose Noise Cancelling Earbud Headphones

First, Bose has come out with their own option for portable media devices called, surprisingly enough, Bose® in-ear headphones. I’m sure that given Bose’s background and quality that this product delivers everything it promises, however, specs aren’t available for these ear buds and Bose doesn’t plan to exhibit at CES 2010. (Why? Beats the heck out of me.)

Bose In-ear Noise Cancelling Headphones

I can’t imagine the reasoning behind not releasing the specs on the headphones, especially for a set of headphones that will cost you $99.95 (SRP).

Fortunately, there is an alternative that WILL be at CES 2010.

Audio-Technica U.S., Inc. (Booth: South 1 21840) has come out with their own noise canceling earbud headphones, the ATH-ANC3 QuietPoint® Active Noise-Canceling In-Ear Headphones. Audio-Technica has released their specs and they look great. Like the Bose headphones, they use active noise-canceling to reduce external noise by 80% (up to 20 dB). Pretty impressive for a small fit-in-your-ear set of headphones. They do run a bit more than the Bose set, at $169.95 (SRP), but the increased price brings some great added features. The one that caught my eye was a monitor button that lets you turn the noise-canceling off so you can hear someone trying to talk to you without taking the buds out of your ears.

Quietpoint Active Noise Canceling Earbud Headphones From Audio-Technica

Here are the specs for the ATH-ANC3 QuietPoint® Active Noise-Canceling In-Ear Headphones:

Specifications measured with headphones in active mode.