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Jun 29, 2006 9:15 am US/Eastern
Tech Expo Showcases Products Of The Future
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
The C3 Expo is a business technology show, but since most tech is launched in the business world, the event showcased plenty of soon-to-be consumer tech products. Tech Editor Brett Larson gives us a sneak peek from the C3 Expo at what products we might be seeing sometime soon.
One highlight was the new video camera from Mobotix. It can be set to e-mail or call you if it sees anything suspicious, and operating it is point-and-click simple. You can watch the camera from the Internet to see live or recorded images.
They're being used for airports security and even at American Embassies abroad, but they can also be used to monitor activities at, for example, weekend homes, said Mobotix's Ralph Hinkel.
Another fun new product is the laser inscriber. In eight seconds it can turn a piece of metal into a map of the United States!
It can also engrave personal information on your devices. It inscribed my name on the back of my cell phone in less than three seconds!
The Expo also showcased new portable hard drives to make backing up your computer even easier. New easy-to-use software from CMS makes the process point-and-click simple and with their Automatic Backup System, you can always turn to DriveSavers if you forget or neglect to back up.
DriveSavers is a data recovery service firm. Spokesman John Christopher said they can rescue data from crashed and broken disc drives. He said that drives are mechanical devices and none will last forever, so DriveSavers can save data after everything from total computer failure to flood damage.
Christopher said the company can disassemble a drive to the component level and rebuild it from scratch to recover data in as little as 24 hours.
Finally, the C3 Expo presented durable computers -- tablet computers that are water-proof and can even survive being dropped. They're perfect for nurses, doctors and even clumsy school kids.
So do some of these products sound too high tech? Just remember, from fax machines to e-mail, the most common tech products started out in the business world, worked out some kinks, and now you use them every day.
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