Five future TV technologies at CES

13 January 2009 11:57 GMT / By Stuart Miles

This year's CES is a great way to see what televisions are heading our way in 2009, but it's even better for seeing what the television will look like in five to 10 years time. Here we look at the emerging television tech to look forward to in the years ahead.

3D TVs
Not content with offering you images that are High Definition, 3D TV is the next buzz word with virtually every television manufacturer showing off its interpretation of three-dimensional TV. It's clear that it's still incredibly early days for the technology with different companies taking different approaches. However what is apparent is that none of the manufactures have worked out a way for us to view 3D images without wearing glasses. Regardless of the technology, the end results from all manufacturers that we saw at the show have been impressive.

Estimated time to market: 2012.

Connected TVs
With TV makers worried that people will lose interest in watching television, preferring to spend time on their computers surfing the net, virtually all the TV makers showing their wears at CES had web enabled TVs. Following announcements from Samsung and Yahoo in 2008, now virtually everyone is offering the technology that allows you to check weather reports, news or anything else you can think of without leaving your sofa.

Estimated time to market: 2009.

Toshiba Cell TV
With televisions quickly becoming the digital hub of our living room, they are going to have to be a lot more powerful than they currently are. Toshiba is gearing up for the future by using the chip that it co-designed and built with Sony and IBM for the Sony PlayStation 3. The result is the Cell TV, it is one that, the company say, will be powerful enough to offer you six HD channels all at once. Why you would need to watch six HD channels at once is beyond us, but we're sure by the time the technology hits our lounges there will be a reason.

Estimated time to market: 2014

Sony and Samsung FOLED
Standing for flexible OLED, you get the quality, contrast and colour of OLED, but with the ability to bend the screen around anything with a radius of as little as 25mm. Concepts being shown off by Sony at CES included a bracelet and a one screen laptop with touch screen keyboard. Samung meanwhile showed off a PDA that when opened revealed a large screen for watching video on. The reality is, that eventually you could find yourself watching TV anywhere rather than just your living room.

Estimated time to market: Within 10 years.

Samsung TOLED
If you thought flexible televisions were exciting, then wait till you see transparent TV screens. Still at an early stage in development, Samsung was showing off a 70-80% transparent screen that you could watch television on while still seeing through it. The results, when they eventually come to market, would mean that you could turn your home's windows, your sunglasses, or even car windscreen into TV to watch EastEnders on while still seeing what's around you. Just imagine it - Satnav instructions that overlay on the road ahead of you, glasses that give you a heads up display as you walk down the street, or even your home's windows giving you vital stats about the weather, news, and stock reports when you open the curtains.

Estimated time to market: Within 5 years.

Full tags

Home Cinema, Televisions, Sony, Toshiba, Samsung, 3DTV, OLED, CES2009, Features