Firms Prepare High-Tech Demos for Next Week's CES 2003
By Mark Long -- e-inSITE, 1/2/2003
e-insite.net
At next week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Northern California-based ZAP will be unveiling a new technology that the company claims can triple the performance of battery-powered automobiles.
Subsidiary Voltage Vehicles has already signed an exclusive agreement with a European-based group of companies that has started production on several different types of light electric utility vehicles for urban transportation and commercial use. Group representative Riccardo Coles, says they are now working with ZAP to launch their initial sales in North America.
"We feel the timing for electric cars is now," said Coles. "There has never been more of a need throughout the world for clean transportation technologies. According to air quality studies, pure electrics are much more efficient and produce much less pollution than other technologies, including the new hybrids. We looked throughout the world for the best way to launch our new cars and decided that the USA is the right place and ZAP is the right company. We believe that ZAP has a recognizable brand in this industry and the right distribution strategy."
The first car to become available under the venture is expected to be a 25 MPH neighborhood electric car. The compact 2-door vehicle will feature all the equipment and features of conventional automobiles, claims the company, as well as several innovations in electronic propulsion design and engineering.
National and Microsoft will be unveiling a new Smart Personal Objects Technologies platform that has been designed to allow consumers to receive information from a variety of familiar products, including wristwatches and alarm clocks. The two companies also intend to showcase new wireless, touch-screen monitors that will allow consumers to use their home PCs from anywhere in the home.
National will also be showing off its latest conceptual product, the Geode Extended Office (GXO), a device that is designed to provide anywhere access to corporate data. Featuring a Super-PDA-size with a sleek industrial design, the device integrates a 6-inch color TFT display, full Windows XP Operating System and advanced wireless connectivity featuring 802.11b and Bluetooth technologies.
Sanyo and Magis Networks, Inc. will be demonstrating a prototype wireless television system at next month's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas that the two companies say will enable both real-time and stored video content to be wirelessly distributed throughout the home or office.
The demo will feature a Sanyo-designed wireless television access point and remote terminal operating in tandem with the new Air5 chipset from Magis, which transmits using the 5-GHz band over distances of up to 250 feet and with a throughput that can extend all the way up to 40 Mbit/sec. The Air5 chipset is based on an architecture that encompasses the IEEE 802.11a, HiperLAN2, and Wireless 1394 standards and offers security support at the Physical Layer. In addition, the company claims that its wireless network technology can support TCP/IP data throughput at ten times the performance of 802.11b. |
