Signal Processing Takes Center Stage at 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show [In the Spotlight]

It has become a post-New Year´s ritual. Each January, representatives of over 2,700 electronics industry product developers trek to the annual International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas to present the technologies they´ve been working on during the previous 12 months to a curious world. This year, over 153,000 attendees visited exhibits covering over 1.86 million ft2 (172.8 m2), or the equivalent of 32 football fields (not counting aisles and other common areas). As always, signal processing devices and technologies could be found playing crucial roles in many of the products shown at this year´s CES, including smart phones, tablet computers, three- dimensional (3-D) televisions (TVs), digital cameras, and various types of audio systems. Actually, it was hard to move more than a few feet along the show´s crowded aisles without bumping into some type of signal processing-powered product (see Figure 1). From a signal processing perspective, here are the highlights of CES 2012.