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Round Up of CES 2012 for Attorneys

January 23, 2012

Every year the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) displays the latest and greatest technology that will be available to you the consumer in the coming months, and even years. This year’s Consumer Electronics Show has been no exception, with the technology shown off being nothing short of science fiction. But how will this technology affect future attorneys and paralegals? We have a full run-down below on how the law office of the future will be affected by these ground-breaking marvels.

Input Devices

Using your eyes as the mouse- Tobii Gaze

Currently selecting anything on the screen is a four-step process. First you look to find what you want to click. Second, you grab the cursor and move it around to find its location. Third, you move the cursor to that location, and fourth, you click. This new input technology allows you to skip steps 2 and 3, so you simply look and click. Additionally when reading your transcript of the future, this system will automatically scroll through pages as you are reading them. This input device will also be perfect for the tech-savvy attorney on the go. It will enable them to do away with their laptop’s track pad, as well as having to carry around an external mouse. Combine this technology with the plethora of mind controlled devices out there (video), and you will never have to touch a mouse again.

Use hand gestures and voice to interact with your computer- Kinect for Windows

Kinect for Windows will allow council to control his or her computer in a similar fashion to what was seen in the movie Minority Report. You will be able to control your computer with just your voice and hand gestures. Kinect works by using a 3D infrared camera and intricately programmed software.  This technology is in its infancy, and will likely affect your life in ways unimagined as of yet.

Computing devices

Tablet Computers

The iPad has dominated the legal industry for quite some time now; however, Google and the rest of the tech industry are not ready to lie down and let Apple own an entire product market. Google has built a new version of their Android operating system (Ice Cream Sandwich) to remove fragmentation and allow developers to create one app that works on both smartphones and tablets. These new tablets have high definition displays, come in your choice of sizes (usually ranging from 7 to 10 inches), have HDMI out ports to connect to your TV, and are priced to move. A prime example of this is the Asus Memo 370T, which has the Terga 3 processor and Ice Cream Sandwich OS, and a price tag of just $250. Future tablets will run the next version of Windows (Windows on the lower power “ARM” processors that currently power iPads and Android tablets. This will allow any lawyer to have their desktop computer in tablet form.

Smartphones Galore

What will the future attorney on-the-go be using as their smartphone? Well, the three big players in the mobile world are now Apple iOS, Google Android, and Microsoft WP7. With Apple MIA at CES, Google and Microsoft are left to fill the void. Google has shown off a slew of new phones running the latest version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich, with their flagship Galaxy Nexus phone being announced on Sprint. These new phones are all running multicore processors with HD screens and loads of on-board memory to boot. Microsoft was not without their own Windows Phone 7 announcements. These included the latest fruit of their partnership with Nokia, the Nokia Lumia 900, which boasts a 1.4GHz single-core smartphone with a 4.3-inch screen and 512MB of RAM, and the HTC Titan 2, with a 4.7-inch display and a 16MP camera.

Thin, light, powerful and affordable laptops- Intel’s Ultrabooks

If you haven’t heard the term Ultrabook yet, you will. Powered and marketed by Intel, Ultrabooks have reduced size and weight while retaining standard performance by using low-power Intel processors with integrated graphics, solid-state drives, and a unibody chassis. For a simpler explanation, they are Macbook Airs running Microsoft Windows. They will all run Intel’s Core i processors, and will have to meet Intel’s standards for what can be considered an Ultrabook.  There are 20 different Ultrabooks set to be released in 2012 and all with a price tag around $1,000. This will be a MUST HAVE for any attorney who is tired of lugging around a heavy, bulky laptop.

Display technology

Glasses that create high definition 3D display- Lumus DK-32

In the future, attorneys and paralegals will no longer have to carry around laptops or even smartphones. When an attorney wears these prototype glasses, they will see what appears to be semi-transparent 82-inch HDTV screen 10 feet away from them. This will allow information such as real-time transcript feeds, exhibit information, and more to be fed to the council, without breaking up the flow of the deposition. Plus, once the display is turned off, the glasses go back to being 100% transparent. This kind of display will allow the lawyer of the future access their full desktop computer anytime, anywhere.

Portable touch controlled projector- Microvision PicoMagic

Sharing documents, images, videos, and even ideas with clients and opposing council can often be a difficult and time-consuming process. The portable Microvision PicoMagic project intends to make this process much easier. It will allow any attorney to throw exhibits up on a wall, and then control and manipulate the documents using a touch-based interface. This will essentially turn any wall into a giant tablet computer.

OLED, 4K, & Glasses FREE 3D TV

While TVs do not play a huge part in law offices beyond the lobby, a CES report would not be complete without the latest information on everyone’s favorite display. This year we are finally taking steps to move past the 1080p LCD HDTVs that have dominated the market for half a decade now.

OLED stands for Organic Light Emitting Diodes. CurrentLCD displaysare capable of between 2 and 16ms response time, and offer a refresh rate of 60 to480Hz. An OLEDcan have less than 0.01ms responsetime, andup to a 100,000Hzrefresh rate. This will totally eliminate any unwanted motion blur. In addition to disposing of motionblur,  OLEDallows each pixel to emit its ownlight, creatingthe deepest black levels possible in a display. This is not to be confused with current LED TVs that are currently on the market. Current LED TVs are simply LCD TVs that use light emitting diodes for backlighting.

4K is the future standard resolution of our TV screens. It stands for 4096 horizontal line of resolution. This is a departure from the current standard of measuring resolution which is vertical lines of resolution. 4K displays will have a pixel count of 4096×2160 while our current “1080p” TVs have a resolution of 1,920×1,080.

Glasses free 3-D uses what is called a parallax barrier and an eye tracking camera to send a different image to each one of your eyes. The result is a 3-D image without the need for the expensive, uncomfortable and silly looking glasses.

Whether you are ready for it or not, the future is on its way. The Consumer Electronics Show has given us a brief glimpse into what the law office of the future could have in store. Whether the attorneys and paralegals in your office are on the cutting edge of technology or still in the stone age, there is plenty of tech to be excited about just on the horizon.