Two Faced TV

It's the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) time again and day by day new gizmos are being rolled out.  The latest new offering has the whiff of an idea that takes an older idea and turns it into something more useful.

Samsung, the technology company that has spent more time in court fighting off Apple this last twelve months than anywhere else has come up with a cracker of an idea that should spell the end of the battle for the TV remote control.

They have leveraged the technology used to produced 3D TV at home - I'm not a huge fan of the 3D movement, Avatar did a sterling job and Up worked quite well,  However I felt the first half of the new Hobbit film was spoiled a little by the 3D effects which distracted more than enhanced.  OK, by the final frames the technology worked well enough, but I didn't feel the film gained anything from the technology.  Virtually averything else I've seen in 3D has been diminished by the effect, so I've not felt any burning desire to invest in a 3D TV and spend my evenings wearing coloured glasses indoors.

Anyway, that technology that can fool us into thinking we are looking at a three dimensional image on our TV screens can be used to present two independent TV programmes simultaneously.  The programme you see depends on the pair of glasses you are wearing at the time as the glasses, with built in speakers, screen out one programme leaving the other intact.

So I could sit watching a documentary while my wife could sit and watch a film beside me.  Now that's progress.  However I suspect it won't ratify the problems with the remote control - it will only take one mistaken change of channel on the other person's screen and that's the last I'd see of the remote control.  I'd have to pass constant instructions for channel and volume changes from that point on.

And I'm not sure what would happen if one of us is watching a really funny programme - I tend to laugh out loud which I'm sure would be irritating at the tear jerking moment of a romantic drama being watched adjacent to me.

So perhaps this isn't such a good idea as it sounds like the war of the remote control will escalate and divorce proceedings are likely to ensue after a week of watching different programmes.  So instead of designing a product that should allow couples to spend more time together, it looks like Samsung's invented one designed to split couples up instead.

Back to the drawing board, Samsung!

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Tech Forecasts for 2013

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