Though this isn’t exactly a TV for the mass market, Hannspree certainly made a splash at CES (and on the web) with their newest anti-gadget. Surprisingly it isn’t a gimmick, either, and will be hitting the market in March for those of you who need a new TV … and love polar bears (a large demographic, to be sure). No word on weather of not the TV can catch seals for dinner, but I at least hope it comes with a waterproof remote.

Image via Gizmodo

Everyone company wants to be “green” now and doing their part, or at least claim they are green, because it is so popular right now.  I haven’t seen much actual progress yet unfortunately (especially from the electronics industry), but then I ran across this interesting prototype from NEC.  They have created a remote control that doesn’t use batteries or any source of external power except for you.  It’s not going to save the world or anything but every little bit helps.

Apparently the device draws its power from the actual clicking on the buttons — something called “scavenging” or, (more appealingly) “harvesting” because it uses waste energy for a good purpose.  Basically it’s the same idea that Swiss watchmakers have been using since the late 18th century to wind watches automatically.

NEC joined forces with the company SoundPower in order to work the technology into their remotes. When a user clicks a button vibrations are created, these vibrations are what they actually draw the power from.  Each click generates enough vibrations and power in order to send the command which means the device should be “sustainable” … another one of those green words.

Personally, I think NEC has a very interesting concept on their hands. It would be very nice to never have to change the batteries in my remote again, specially since I never remember how to properly throw them out.  Then again it would probably be a whole lot greener if we didn’t have to use remotes at all, or at least 10 per household.

I like the Wii just as much as the next guy — but it starts to wear after a while. Jumping around and swinging that remote is fun for some games, but in the end I’m pretty sure its a passing novelty. The people at Canesta seem to agree with the fun part, but also seem to think that motion control is here to stay. Canesta’s new motion sensing chips are looking to add full-body 3-D gestures to computers, games, and a few other devices.

Canesta’s technology uses cameras to detect motion, which can then be interpreted as control gestures. I suppose you could use gestures to control anything if you really wanted — handstand for rewind or maybe a roundhouse kick to turn on your TV.  Okay, maybe not. But CanestaVision could be used in a ton of different awesome and creative ways. I’m just not sure it will ever become a common-place form of control.

One thing about our device interfaces — whether they be computer keyboards or television remote controls — is that all the buttons are labeled, and each provides a single, unique action. Motion-based controls lack this clarity and specificity. With motion-control systems, you have a vision system processing and interpreting your movements. Unfortunately, interpretation means there is room for error. Moreover, users have to learn a set of gestures that they will have to repeat accurately in order to get the desired results — and there is no built in list of choices as we get with a keyboard, for example.

I think Canesta has a great technology, but making people move around to do things like channel surfing just isn’t going to happen. Microsoft will be using a similar technology in their Project Natal for the Xbox 360, which makes more sense to me. Of course no one says you can’t add motion controls to augment existing systems, but there is a reason we still use keyboards and such.

Still, I could be wrong. Perhaps in the future this is what it will be like to type out a report for school. Then we can say that the computers have learned to control us, for they will be the ones quietly standing by while we exert all the effort.

InstallCard actually offers quite a wide array of installation services from installing satellite radio to outdoor broadcast antennas (was not expecting to find that one). It seems that their business is much like Geek Squad but perhaps a bit more specialized and a little cheaper. Instead of just paying for a large general home theater setup you can order smaller individual setups. For example InstallCard has a card for AV Hookup, Flat TV, Bigscreen TV, Remote Setup, and Speaker Setup.  So if you only need your speakers wired you can just buy the Speaker Setup card.  They do have more general setup packages but there are multiple restrictions on each type of setup.

Which brings me to another point: if you choose to get the Universal Remote Programming e-InstallCard you should be aware of those restrictions. The service includes setup a single remote and up to 8 controlled devices. However, you only get up to 4 macros for launching activities. Also they will not actually touch any A/V equipment, and all your devices must be in the same room. So if you have two rooms with equipment you will have to buy another card in order to get the support person to walk into the next room. Or maybe you can just stack all of your stuff in one room and see what he does.

Somewhere, someone is missing the underlying problem — we need to make it easier to setup universal remotes. If you buy a Philips Pronto Remote for $600 you shouldn’t have to hire someone for another $250 to set the thing up.  That is almost $1000 dollars before you even get to turn your TV on (we actually have a testimonial on this from someone who has completely changed the way you live, but you’ll hear more about that when we are ready to publish the interview). For a thousand dollars my remote better be able to tell me what to watch and hold a decent conversation. At the same time. Both ways. Uphill. In the snow.

With all these “green” products being released now you would think the planet’s climate would be all set.  We’ve got everything from eco-friendly bikinis, big “green” bombs, and magically “clean” coal. Now One for All has joined the green product blitz with their Energy Saver Remote — a salvo against the “stand by power consumption” issue that has become a craze of late.

Basically the Energy Saver Remote is a fairly generic four-device universal remote with a big green button. This green button controls an outlet extender that you plug a power strip in for your entertainment system. When you are done watching TV, instead of having to manually switch off (or unplug) all the devices to fight the “vampire power,” this remote will simply shut off the power strip. Of course this prevents any of the devices from entering stand-by mode (well, almost — the outlet extender still uses stand by power, but not much…).

You might have been able to tell that I’m having a hard time getting behind this product. To me it just feels like “greenwashing” from top to bottom.  If you really want to be green, why not just flip the switch that’s already on the power strip instead of spending (GBP)£33 for another universal remote?  Use that money to buy a water filter. Or maybe a couple of those wireless outlets. Now, I’m not saying we shouldn’t be vigilant on issues like stand-by power because every little bit helps, but our time and money can be spent elsewhere for a bigger effect. Wouldn’t manually shutting things off be more “green” than having these products created and manufactured to make shutting off a power strip easier?

Green issues aside, there are other problems here. For example, anyone with a set-top box for cable or satellite TV is going to have problems with this remote, because when these lose power, it takes about a half an hour for them to restore the channel guide information. Presumably restoring that data requires some server somewhere to send the information over – which probably consumers more electricity than all those devices on stand-by. Of course I could fix this by plugging it in somewhere else and not having it tied to the same power strip, but since it looks like these set-top boxes are leaders in stand-by power consumption, I feel like it would be missing the point completely.