Wireless devices a big hit at Cebit tech trade show

By Matthew Miller
Bloomberg News

HANOVER, Germany — Virtual keyboards, wireless devices and phones with built-in cameras were among the thousands of products being pitched at this year's Cebit, the world's biggest technology trade show.

A virtual keyboard that can be projected and touched on any surface was shown by Siemens Procurement Logistics Services at the Cebit fair this week in Hanover, Germany. The virtual interface from Developer VKB Inc., based in Jerusalem, can be integrated in mobile phones, laptops, tablet PCs or sterile medical-like environments, and could be a revolution for the data entry of any minicomputer. The miniprojector that detects user interaction with the surface also simulates a mouse pad. Associated Press

Some of the products at the Cebit, which ended yesterday:

• Deutsche Telekom AG, Europe's largest phone company, demonstrated a device, Research In Motion Ltd.'s Blackberry, that lets users send and receive e-mail and uses Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Java software to download and run applications such as games.

• International Business Machines Corp. showed the WatchPad 1.5, a prototype computer-watch that was developed by the company's research lab in Tokyo with Japanese manufacturer Citizen Watch Co. The computer works as a controller for household devices, such as TVs and air conditioners, and allows users to browse the Internet. Information is sent through short-range wireless technology called Bluetooth. IBM said it doesn't expect to sell the watch, which was used instead to demonstrate the technology.

• Logitech International SA will sell a keypad made out of flexible fabric for Palm Inc.'s handheld organizer at the end of March. The KeyCase can wrap around the device while traveling and folds out to a full-sized keyboard for typing. The product will retail for about 150 euros ($132).

• Microsoft Corp., the world's largest software maker, showed its new Mira software for the first time in Europe. The system wirelessly connects a flat computer screen to a PC, enabling users to browse Web pages and e-mail while walking around the house or office as far as about 190 feet from the computer. The first version of Mira won't allow users to watch video images or play games on the screens, Microsoft said. Products using Mira will be available in Japan and the United States before the Christmas shopping season.

• Motorola showed wireless equipment designed to be built into a car's dashboard that allows users to make and receive phone calls without taking their cellular handsets out of their pockets. The device will be available this summer and will work with any mobile phone that supports Bluetooth technology.

The second-largest maker of mobile phones also showed a phone, the A820, that supports both current wireless technology and the faster Universal Mobile Telecommunications System. The phone has a color screen and a digital music player.

• South Korea's Samsung Corp. showed the world's largest flat screen that uses thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal technology, or TFT-LCD. The 40-inch display is designed for TV or computer screens.

• Sendo Holdings Plc showed the Z100, a phone with a color screen that doubles as an electronic organizer. The handset, which used Microsoft Corp.'s operating system for phones, will debut in about three months, said Chief Executive Officer Hugh Brogan.

• Sony Ericsson showed the P800 mobile phone that has a digital camera and a color touch screen. The phone allows a user to take a picture and send it as a message to another handset or through e-mail. The company displayed a plug-in camera for its T-68i model, as well.

The handset venture also displayed the Chatpen, an ink pen with a camera at the tip that "reads" the user's handwriting. The pen, developed by Sweden's C Technologies AB, has a Bluetooth radio semiconductor that lets it send hand-written messages to a computer, phone or electronic organizer.