ENLIGHTEN3D

By Joshua Koopferstock

To start off the day, I sat down with the folks from IZ3D, the company that is probably the closest to putting 3D monitors into the hands of gamers.  The company’s 22″ monitor is actually 2 layers of LCD, each with linear polarization to give a 3D effect when wearing off-the-shelf polarized glasses.  The monitor is already being sold at Fry’s Electronics and Microcenter, and they promise that we’ll see it at Best Buy “soon”.

At $399 and already in retail, this is the best bet for gamers who want to start playing in 3D today.  There is a already a long list of games that are compatible with the system, and the IZ3D monitor requires no special video card other than dual monitor output.

In the afternoon, I made my way to the Central Hall, where the home theater and display companies were showing off their wares.  And were they ever!  The big players like Samsung and Panasonic must have splurged on CES, since they each had booths the size of a small Wal-Mart.

I doubt that, outside of their factories, there have ever been so many flat panel displays in the same building at once.  Both the 3D displays and the Ultra High-Def displays (a prototype) at the Samsung booth were visually astounding.

I finished off the day looking over some of the newest camera technology at the Lumix and Canon booths.  Facial recognition has become common place in the last few years in still cameras, and Canon announced that in their Vixia videocam line, they will now have autofocus based on facial recognition as well, allowing you to focus on many faces, or the one of your choice (because YOUR kid is the star of the 8-9 year old soccer league).  Plus they had a sweet dance to tell you all about it.