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>> this week on "the communicators," we are on location on capitol hill where the consumer electronics association is sponsoring its annual ces on the hill. several vendors are up here showing off the new technology to members of congress and their staff. this week we are going to look at some of that new technology. well, next up on our tour of ces on the hill is clearview audio. first of all, i understand this won boston show for audio -- >> that is correct. we beat sony and lg. it was like a david and goliath story. we are only a 10 person company and we won best of show and the audio category. it is thrilling. >> what technology are you showing off here? patentede a highly

technology. it is called edge motion technology. ,e take a very thin, curved optically clear piece of acrylic glass and we actuate the edge with electronic actuators that stimulates the edge of the glass to create a panoramic room filling sound. we have 39 patents issued, applied for, and 14 issues. it is our competitive advantage in the marketplace on a global scale. >> why did it take 39 patents to get sound out of this acrylic? it took us 10 years to develop the technology. there is totally proprietary approach to make sound come out of this piece of glass. and we have all kinds of material science and other engineering in the design of the product itself. >> so, being issued 14 patents waiting on other patents, what is the hold up? >> well, really, well, we are waiting to make sure that they

can come through. patentsapplied for outside of the united states, because we need to protect it on a global basis. we also have some design patterns as well as well as scientific patents. so the look and feel of the product is also protected against people who do not recognize and honor patents. >> what is the process like for getting a patent from a small business? >> first of all, it is quite expensive because they made it quite expensive. it is not easy, and it takes a while. you do not get it within 24 hours or even nine months. sometimes it takes a whole year. in the meantime, you are in the marketplace unprotected. >> so, demonstrate the product if you will. >> ok. so, we're sending, we can send a bluetooth signal to the speaker. it processes it it into a left and right channel. you can feel it vibrate, can't you? and also, it's a dipole in that

it projects sounds backwards and forwards. disappears into the room because it fills the room with panoramic sound. wire, orun it with a you can run it directly with the bluetooth signal. i'm going to play a little bit louder for you. ♪ glass that's playing? >> feel it. it's vibrating. i will show you. what we are doing is we are vibrating at from the edge. so our fundamental technology would allow us to make the glass on a picture frame into a theker, allow us to make windshield of your car into a speaker, would allow us to turn light fixtures into a speaker. this technology -- that is why we have such strong patents.

they can do a lot of different things. this is our very first product. >> why are you up here on the hill? >> the message to congress this help us protect our patents because patents are critical to what we are doing. >> clearview audio. thank you, sir. joining us now is james grace who is with panasonic. what do you do a panasonic? >> i am the director for new product development in the automotive area. >> and what kind of product is panasonic developing for the automotive industry? >> we have a lot of business right now and what we call multimedia or input gaming. we are actually -- a lot of people do not know this -- but we are the number one market share globally in multimedia, audio, infotainment systems. a lot of what i do is looking at the future of those products. we're also trying to branch out into some other product areas, a lot of what we do in the automotive space is take our technology from the consumer area and figure out how to

apply it to automotive. that is a lot of what i do. figuring out how to bring the technology into the automotive space. >> so, what are some of the products you are displaying? >> we call this the rotary control tablet or sometimes the nextgen integrated -- the big innovation is the nobs we invented. there has been a trend in recent years towards cars being designed to use touchscreens. illuminating nobs. and it has a new high-tech feel to it, but it has caused some problems in terms of the system being harder to use. so what we have done is develop aese nobs and they are patented technology that allows us to put a rotary nob on top of the display. it is one of these best of both world situations. >> so, this would be built into a car? >> yes.

this would be built into the center stack of the car where you control the radio. and it's, we have designed it to be we think easy to use. you can put it into that jewel stream mode or full screen map mode. ,ut the real innovation here is you look at this nob. the function of this nob kind of changes as you use the system. so push here, it becomes an h-vac nob. and what it does is it allows me to get all the benefits of a touch system where i can reconfigure everything, i can use the color of the display to tell the customer what the function is, but they can actually reach out and touch an actual nob. >do you think that is a safer solution. >> how do you address the issue of distracted driving, with all of this equipment in cars today? we are all fiddling around. with nobs and displays. >> that is actually a big issue

where trying to help solve, which is a good segue to this other product that we have on display. unfortunately, it was not able to bring the entire interior of this vehicle here, but we developed the driver focused hmi. the idea behind that is that we took all the stuff that might normally be found in the center of the car and we moved in front of the driver. the target that i gave the team in designing the system was to tsa'sd all of n requirements. in one case we exceeded them by more than 30%. in terms of the requirements that says you're not allowed to put displays low in the v driver's vision. it's designed to keep you from putting a display next to the dr iver's knee where you are having to look down in order to operate it. we put all the content that might normally be found in the inter of the car and put it

front of the driver. everything is designed around a two layer menu system. you only have to go up, down, or left and right to get access. absolutely. >> there is the display there. >> we put everything in this instrument cluster, as well as the head up display. it's a good example of technology that comes from our consumer space. up display andd a car is not all that different from a projector. panasonic has been in the projector business for a long time. so we are taking that technology and applying it in the car, which gives us displays that are 40% smaller than our competition. the benefit there is that we think our customers can put them in more cars. and the more displays there are in cars, we think that is a way of addressing safety. >> what kind of regulations do you have to deal with besides just havaining things on the

side of the car, when it comes to a heads-up display, does that have to be approved? >> absolutely. i another thing we have designed as a past time requirement. guidelines that say you he you should be able to complete any seconds.less than 15 if you are looking at the screen, you can look at it for two seconds. you should be able to do anything within 15 seconds. it should be entering a navigation destination, finding a song on your ipod. it is very broad in its definition. we inc. the definition of this two layer -- we think the definition of this two layer menu system is we have put everything two steps away. audio, navigation, information, and settings. in one has a drop-down menu. we think we have exceeded those requirements as well in terms of getting every customer to access all those features.

one of the things the team did was we left a lot of stuff out. i think that is the key to making systems that are both fun to use for customers and safer to use. for example, there is no way of typing a navigation destination into the system. b,c,d.'t tan't type a, we use voice. one of my favorite features is we have had limited an app. it is showing it on the screen. we call it the remote pilot app. multiple are using their phone in the car. the passenger is looking up one restaurant they are going to you. if someone is going to type that destination into the system -- here you can find her you're going and hit a button. and it sends the destination to the car. then the customer gets a head up display that says, you are getting an incoming destination. would you like to go there? we think it is a way of giving people access to what they are doing anyway, using yelp to find

this destination. as soon as she hits that button, it is going right to the head up display and it gets right into the navigation system. the driver does not have to fiddle around with typing anything in. we really design the system around a new way of looking at the interior of a car that we think is both safer and easier to use and more enjoyable. >> what about voice, use of voice in some of the cars? >> yeah, that is another area where panasonic has a good advantage. we've been in the microphone business for a long time. forwe do a lot of systems, example, active noise control. a system in a car where there are a bunch of microphones detecting the road noise. then we generate sound in the system that cancels out the road noise. those microphones, that same technology can be used to

improve a lot of voiceowwork as well. we have one piece of technology called an array microphone. there are a couple of different microphones. it, and it isnot to almost as if you're sitting in the library talking. we think those technologies will help us make speech recognition performance better, because right now it is a little irritating to people when they this radio station and it said -- to use a -- did you say roll down the window? we think those technologies advantages will help it make it easier and better. >> is technology in cars exploding? >> i think it is. i have been talking a lot. i have been doing speaking engagements about something we call the car-ness of the car. for the past 10 years since i have been a part of the industry we have kind of had this explosion of more and more technology. in a lot of ways trying to

duplicate what people have in their consumer devices in the car. and then in a lot of cases i think we have gotten away from what it means to be driving a car, which is actually really fun and cars are amazing. i really like driving them. i think a lot of people do. i think we need to start focusing the technology and how to make the customers' drivuing experience better. that navigation example i gave was a good one. people do not want to be bother with typing in where they are going. if you can just hit the button and it goes there, that is better. i really think the innovation that is going to make cars safer and better is when we start to say just because we can does not mean we should. is's design things that focused on making the cards. better. >> any things we will be staying at the market? >> not quite yet. we have not announced a customer for the rotary control tablet.

we have interest around the world. i was just in china last week showing that off at a conference. i had 100,000 of them with me, i could've sold them all. unfortunately, i only had the one. this concept here was a vision we had. we have seen companies like audi and bmw showing concept cars that reflect similar ideas. i think it will not be too long before you see these things on the road. >> some of the new automative technology being put out by panasonic. benjamin -- is the president of my i.d. key. >> we are located in california. you about atalkt to really exciting but. my i.d. key is a small handheld device. quite light. what is wonderful about this device is that allows you to protect yourself. this advice allows you to store all of your passwords and files

encrypted on 16 gigabytes here. 256 encryption. you can only access this device with your finger print as well as a special code that only you know. the all required to access device. once you're in the device, you can access information immediately on the device or i allcome in here and look at sorts of different types of passwords. i can basically come in and look at that information immediately. in addition to that, the device has the ability to talk to other things. it has wi-fi. it can talk to the laptop through that. andconnect through usb charge at the same time. i'm going to go ahead and connect this. basically, what we have got. i'm here at amazon looking to do a log in. i have already authenticated and clear the device.

we work with all web browsers. we automatically know we are going to amazon. we find a relative profile to log you in. we simply click it and it fills in user id for your. >> does it go through a -- >> no. one of the things we thought about, and this is controversial. if i am a hacker, i am attacking in three areas. one, your computer -- to your mobile device and three your c loud. so, our thought processes trust no one. all we want to do is have all information only on this device. which you can create a backup of. i want to keep it with me turned off most of the time. >> what's in this device? what are you using, what kind of technology? >> for starters, there's a hardware -- chip on the device. what that means is that there is

special technology at a physical level that is protecting the information stored on the device in addition to the map. which we know today even from the announcement that encryption works. it'sey is to make sure being done properly. we are trying to make that accessible to everyone. >> benjamin chen of my i.d. key. joining us on capitol hill is michael -- what do you do for a living? >> vice president for ilock? authentication. >> what does that mean? >> what we do is technology based upon your iris. people are familiar with biometric security. next to dna, your iris is it. yourowered, tied into computer. we will show you how you can log into your computer use a light

-- utilizing your iris. if i take a look at this. see it turn green. voila. with this device comes a password management tool. what we can do with that as we can tie in any sites that we visit writerly that require our credential, tie in our operating systems, whether it is mac, le nusx, windows. we can tie it with your iris. passwordst these long and forget them because we now have something that is much more secure to authenticate. >> where does the image of the iris, is it stored somewhere, in the cloud? >> what we have done is we take createof your irises and a mathematical representation which becomes a biometric template. then we discard the image.

the only thing stored on this device is a unique code. it's about as secure as you can possibly get. >> we were talking with another company earlier about ears. and the uniqueness of ears and how they've developed technology that will open up your phone with ears. >> there are numerous biometric markers that can be use in accessing and use for security applications. there's levels. if you look at dna. that is the most authentic way of discerning to people from each other. next to that is iris. after that, it kind of goes off a cliff when you look at finger prints, palm veins, facial and voice recognition. rates, aook at accept lot of those other types of products, you're looking at one and thousands. we are looking at one in 1.25 trillion.

identical twins have identical dna, but they do not have identical irises. i like to let people know those facts because that is when it makes them open up to the opportunity to look at this type of biometric marker as something that is a lot more secure than some of the other things. >> is this a product that is on the market today and how much does a retail for? >> vox is our partner. we will be shipping in mid-july. price point sub $300. that is why we chose vox, because of the consumer electronics space. >> why would somebody who is just a casual user, would this work on the phone? why would they want to spend 300 bucks to secure their password? >> if you look what has happened in the news as of late, heart breach, morerget and more often these stories are coming up. if you were to ask the average

user right before christmas, if your devbit card or credit card got shut down, would a $300 investment and worth it for your peace of mind? to tie to your bank? i think most people would say yes. i know i would. i think that is one of the big things. as time goes on and technology increases, obviously, the price points start to decrease as volumes pick up. >> who developed this technology? >> we did. we headquartered -- are headquartered in manhattan. our research and develop it is done is princeton -- in princeton. we manufacture in the u.s.. >> eyelock. thank you for your time. the founder and president of biometrics out of seattle, washington. >> out of blaine, washington. >> what is descartes?

>> we are a technology company committed to the design, development, manufacturing off biometric authentication solutions, is adequate for the mobile sector. 9 >> in english, what does that mean? >> i have an android smartphone that is locked. i am going to engage the scanner and capture an ear impression to unlock my device. to showcaset ergo an ear biometric or we also have a software development kit that is available to enterprise customers that are looking to add a biometric player of security to their applications. phoneyou uoopen that because of the shape of your ear? >> ears are a unique human characteristic, as unique as a fingerprint. there is no national registry of ear impressions like there is finger prints. so people have concerns about finger prints can unlock their

device with an ear. it is also noninvasive. so, for example, if i were to do it again, i do not have to take my eyes off you. if my scan failed, we have also added a tactile feature. the phone will vibrate. >> when and how and where did you get this idea? >> well, i'm a 12 year oracle vet. i retired in april, 2011. i have always been interested in identity and access management solutions. so the idea came to me quite some time ago. it took some time to develop. there are lots of people who said he could not be done. we're here to prove them wrong. >> what brings you to capitol hill? >> we are dissipated in the consumer electronics show in las vegas. we were invited to participate in ces. thrilled to be a part.

a lot of issues that affect small and medium-sized technology companies. we operate out of the state of washington. we are concerned about andigration, attracting retaining talent. we operate a development center in a university town, bellingham, washington. we are located near western washington university. we do our best to retain those talented engineers that come out of university. those are some of the issues that are important to us. we saw an opportunity to participate and share some of our experiences with members of congress. >> is your product available now, available as an app? how much does it cost? >> so ergo is available on google play, specifically for android devices. available for $3.99. we also have a cross-platform software developer and kit for enterprise customers. that is available as a demo on the apple store as well as on

gogglogle play. companies can contact us if they want to embed ergo. >> descartes biometrics out of blaine, washington. mark parker is the president of truegrip. what is trewgrip? >> it is a handheld keyboard that gives you the opportunity to type in a mobile setting. when you're out in the field, if you want to be productive, you have got to take notes and go back to a laptop and do your typing. this gives you the ability to type in a mobile setting. keyboard, now your hand is gripping the device and can type at the same time. werty the same q keyboard. p becausell it trewgrib

that is how it is aligned on the keyboard. >> demonstrate how you would use this product. you have a phone plugged in. >> these are the indicator keys. if you're not a touch typist, you can look at the front and locate the key on the back. i do not have to be a touch typist. i am on an exercise here. in thedon't you type name of the company and your name so we can see it demonstrated? youre just put regular smartphone in this? where did you come up with the idea? >> just years of watching people do, trying to work with mobile technology in the field. --t it's asking here just watching people working in the field with mobile technology. so the camera can see you.

>> because that what counts. i'm going to move the microphone over here. go ahead and do your thing. what you are doing now is simply typing. but the typing is being done on the back. your fingers on the back of the keyboard. >> correct. i'm typing the same way i was on a flat keyboard. worrse wh -- worse when you are on camera. it is the same, basic concept. anyone can learn how to do it. >> how long in development was this? >> we started development in 2010. we work through the process. lots of different iterations of this that we went through. we started dabbling -- dialing it in. we continue development. vegas.ces in las a lot of good response. we continue to move forward. >> you were a finalist for best of show. i want to show this pack.

mark parker, what is your background that you came up with something like this? >> a software developer. i went to school for it. the software i developed is for mobile workers, people that collect data. seeing them fumble around with technology, i was sitting at my desk when i and said, what if we could pick those keys up and them so the person could type and hold the device? >> do you need a special app on your phone? >> basically a bluetooth keyboard. once you have connected it, you can use any app. >> what are these added buttons over here? >> different keys, arrow keys. you have them under the thumb. you do not use them as often. >> what does this retail for? >> $249. but we are doing a discounting campaign. the more people who pre-order will bring the cost down, ring

the price of accordingly. so our targets are 1000 people will drop the price from $249 to $199. if we can >> we will drop the price down to $149. i think in some ways, it can do the voice. that is what some people's a look does what some people are looking to today to doing work in a mobile setting. it is one of the challenges. for us it is about typing, mouse movement, the ergonomics of it. it is more comfortable. >> mark parker, president of tru grip. one of ces 2014 finalists. >>