CES 2010: Tools and Technologies to Watch

Companies such as PowerMat (www.powermat.com)
and WiPower (www.wipower.com)
were showing solutions at CES that use inductive technology to charge your smartphone
by simply laying it on the mat. Imagine having a laptop, scanner, phone, camera,
etc. on your desk that were on and charging, but there were no cables anywhere
in sight. These pads can even be placed on your nightstand or be built into
car dashboards so that your smartphone is charging as you drive to a client
location.

TOUCH DISPLAYS: Accountants and consultants have had access
to tablet PCs with touch screens for the past five plus years, but they have
not really been adopted firm-wide because accounting applications have not been
integrated enough to make the extra investment worthwhile.

This could change as new form factors with touch capability move us closer
toward “paperless” adoption. Lenovo (www.Lenovo.com)
touted the world’s first hybrid laptop called the U1 that looked and worked
like a traditional tablet PC, but the screen could be disconnected to work like
a Netbook/Slate with its own integrated processor and connectivity.

The roll out of Windows 7, which supports touch screens, may change the way
tax and accounting professionals look at tablet PCs since so many users have
become familiar with touch capabilities through the use of their smartphones.
CES vendors took touch to the extreme with displays and formats as large as
your conference room table. Microsoft (www.microsoft.com)
expanded ways to use its “Surface” table by adding games and applications,
Intel (www.intel.com) rolled
out their InfoScape “cube,” which was two panels over six feet tall
that enabled you to rotate images as if they were a globe, and Kodak (www.kodak.com)
created a “digital river” of images with attached data flowing down
a 30-foot display where attendees could interact with objects as they flowed
by. All these technologies could eventually converge to replace our desktops
with touch capability so we can meet with clients and effectively work with
digital images of tax returns or other client documents in a very secure format
(and without the paper).

eREADERS: Speaking of eliminating paper, Amazon’s Kindle
(www.amazon.com/kindle),
The Sony Reader (www.sonystyle.com)
and the Nook by Barnes and Noble (www.BarnesandNoble.com/nook)
have paved the way for a new industry of electronic readers that are changing
how digital content is being delivered. While most magazine publishers think
in terms of “issues,” most people think in terms of “searching
for types of content,” which people can access from the connected eReaders
at their convenience. There were so many innovations in this area that CES actually
created a separate eReader Technology Zone where over a dozen providers showed
off digital reader products as well as add-ons.

Many of these eReaders are adding 3G digital cellular and WiFi capabilities
to allow users to go out and find what they specifically want access to without
having to go to a book store, with the bonus of holding hundreds of books (or
tax research and accounting guidance) that are keyword searchable. An interesting
side note: Both my high school and university have gone to eReaders in lieu
of textbooks, which points to the next generation of accountants in our firms
being very familiar with this technology and wondering why the firm keeps any
physical content at all!

VIDEO CALLING: Many of today’s laptops come with integrated
webcams, and home users have been using personal webcams such as the Microsoft
LifeCam (www.microsoft.com)
and Logitech QuickCam (www.logitech.com)
on home desktops with free services such as Skype (www.Skype.com)
or Oovoo (www.oovoo.com).
We expect this technology to creep into tax and accounting firms in the near
future, particularly since it is easy to set up on individual workstations or
the larger display screens that many firms have put in their conference rooms.
Intel announced its WiDi (Wireless Display) system (www.intel.com/consumer/products/technology/wirelessdisplay.htm)
at CES that can project laptop screens to the display, which they expected to
be available this year. And a number of electronics manufacturers were integrating
Skype into their large screen displays so you can do video calling in your family
room at home.

IPTV: Integration of TVs and the Internet was bound to happen,
creating the IPTV, which will become the natural extension of your workstation
or smartphone to access digital data. This means that you can check your email
at the office, on the phone during your commute home, and while you are watching
TV at night because the data will be accessible wherever you want. This was
referred to as PCDC (Personal Computer Digital Content), which would include
the tools for this data to be custom formatted for whatever size screen you
are using. Think about reviewing a tax return on your wide screen HD TV!

IPTV could be one of the most disruptive to the consumer electronics industry
because all data (including movies, pictures and even tax returns) could be
pushed from external servers anywhere, negating any need for the DVD or Blu-ray
players that most people have in their homes today as all information would
be “streaming” through secure channels.

3D HD: The reality today is that our world is three-dimensional,
but until recently computer processing and screen rendering technology has never
been good enough to deliver it at a consumer or small business level. As a result,
we have settled for two-dimensional screens and data (or paper). This will change
dramatically in the next few years as 3D takes off. While it started slow with
movies such as this year’s “Avatar” blockbuster, and the creation
of ESPN’s 3D sports channel in the near future, the real driver will be
the three-dimensional gaming arena that will push the technology towards common
adoption. Intel touted its new i5 (www.intel.com/corei5)
and i7 (www.intel.com/i7)
chips at CES, which were based on chip technology tested by DreamWorks to develop
the “Shrek” movies and are now available on home PCs. One of the
engineers showed how they had connected two consumer HD video cameras to create
3D “home movies,” so this transition is already driving costs lower.
Let’s face it, three-dimensional paper is a more “natural”
way of looking at things, which is why some people have a hard time transitioning
to work on a screen. However, 3D HD could potentially change how we review audit
reports or tax returns in a digital format that is not only more secure, but
that can be backed up and viewed anywhere and at any time the users wants to,
which are some of the biggest limitations of paper.

SOLUTIONS ON A CHIP (SOC): Finally, there has been a boutique
industry of vendors creating custom computer chips for specific testing or processing
functions, but availability has been priced out of most markets. This is changing
rapidly as production processes have improved to the point where multiple chips
doing unique functions can be quickly designed and consolidated. This technology
is not accounting-specific but promises to revolutionize the medical testing
(eldercare) industry as a single diagnostic chip will have the capability to
test for eight or more specific diseases and provide immediate results for a
fraction of the current cost for any one test … and will dramatically
change how patients manage their own health. This technology is, in effect,
a testing lab in a box with near immediate results that could revolutionize
how our medical clients operate.

Technology utilization within tax and accounting firms has traditionally lagged
behind adoption in many other industries and even home consumer use. By studying
the trends that are being rolled out at industry shows such as CES and exploring
the technologies adopted by other industry groups, accountants will find tools
and technologies that will give them a competitive advantage over their peers
and change the way we practice accounting.