Sony shows 3D is the future in its CES keynote

Posted by Joe Svetlik on Thu 8 Jan 2009

Here's what's on the horizon for the Japanese giant

Sony pulled out a star-studded keynote, featuring Tom Hanks, Usher, and a host of other creative tech heads championing its products.

But the real stars were the concept tech on show. 3D dominated, with previously unseen footage of 3D films from Pixar and Dreamworks, as well as sporting highlights. Don a pair of glasses and you're thrown into the action.

Pixar's offering was based on its film Cars, and looked great. Dreamworks, meanwhile, showed a clip from its upcoming Monsters Vs Aliens, in which a giant girl fights a huge robot on a beautifully rendered Golden Gate Bridge.

If these huge companies are already working with 3D, it really can't be that far off from moving from the realm of sci-fi and into our homes.

Also on show was a Flex OLED screen - a flexible version of its super hi-res screen used on the 11-inch OLED TV. Pretty astonishing.

Stepping away from the cinema, Sony's concept alarm clock uses Wi-Fi to grab music, movies and pics from the internet, along with info like weather reports. It also learns your music taste and bases recommended downloads on that.

Finally, some glasses were shown by Sir Howard Stringer, Sony Chairman and C.O.O. that let you watch a film in the corner of the lens while also seeing what's in front of you.

Life With PlayStation was also demoed, showing a world map with more info taken from online. It should launch this Spring.

On the Blu-ray front, Sony announced it owns 50% of the US market. More than 10 million players have been sold, and sales this year are four times up on last.

John Lasseter, award-winning director from Pixar, said: "We at Pixar have never been as excited about a technology as we are about Blu-ray.You can't go back once you've had it. We sweat over every detail on our films at Pixar, and finally the consumers are able to see that."

Link: Sony

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