Style, power and portability: HP dv5Has everything audio that can be invented been invented?
"Everything that can be invented has been invented."
--Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. patent office, 1899.
This infamous quote has been bandied about forever, but let's try to apply it to our times. Sure, the old commissioner was off by a bunch of decades, but what's left to be invented in audio and video now?
Yes, there will be higher than high-definition video, HDMI 1.4, and speakers that sound like real life, but those are refinements of already existing technologies.
(Credit: Steve Guttenberg)Perhaps we've hit an impasse and we're not going to see any really new products for a few decades. What will a 2012 Blu-ray player do that a 2008 player cannot? Oh right, there may not be any Blu-ray players by 2012, there may a new format by then. But what will it do that a 2008 Blu-ray player cannot?
How about an iPod small enough to be injected into your bloodstream? You would just think about a song or movie, and it would play back in your head.
Who knows, maybe by 2012 there will be wireless speakers that don't have any wires. But it might take until 2022 before someone figures out how to make totally wireless speakers that actually sound good.
Maybe the best we can hope for are products that are easy to use--ones that don't come with thick user manuals; they just work. Products so intuitively designed they don't need explanation.
What do you want that doesn't exist now?
Something bigger or smaller than what you have now?
Give us an idea for a totally new audio or video product.
Or if you agree that there's nothing left to invent, by what year were we done?
Steve Guttenberg is a frequent contributor to magazines and Web sites including Home Entertainment, Playback, and Ultimate AV. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
- Topics:
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Audio/MP3,
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Rants,
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Home theater,
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High-End Audio
- Tags:
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Poll,
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the future,
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iPod,
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new inventions,
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wireless speakers
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-Bill
the apache helicopter pilot has a HUD eyepiece that clips onto his helmet, so wherever he looks he will see his HUD. and how long has the apache been around for? ages. and anyway aircraft HUDs are nothing to do with high end audio & video anyway!
back to the topic, personally i think eventually we wont have to worry about storing our own music collections, because every album in the world will be stored in the 'cloud' for us to stream at our will wirelessly to personal devices (perhaps implants) but then someone will work out how to hack into these implants, and through hipnosis, assemble the largest army the world has ever seen! maybee its already happened?
Steve - way to get everyone thinking!
I predict this will occur 2nd April 2017 at 3:22pm Greenwich Mean Time
wow - absolutely brilliant! wireless speakers without any wires!
Since we still have the capacity to learn more about our world, there are still inventions to be invented.
Plus I'd really like someone to use this technology to build a computer that can sing "Daisy, Daisy..." we're already off target by a few years on that one....
What about components that actually talk to one another completely regardless of make, model, or brand?
I think evejam is on the right track. Definitely good (maybe even corporeal 3-D, and I would love to see taste-o-vision. I love food, and there are so many recipes out there, that to be able to taste them before dropping the time and money to make them would be great....
As for what I want to see invented? How about a human mind that no longer carries hate? Maybe a little yellow pill taken once a year on your birthday?
I'm afraid hate and love come together...
Yep this is my copyright....... No.... no sensors will be used to guage your distance from the speaker.
I wonder if sound does play in your head, if you reap the benefits too? like if you are on the bus, no one else would have to listen to some guy's music, but does that guy still hear everyone around him just as normal and his music is just over laid on top of ambient sound? or is ambient drowned out by the sounds in his head?
That's okay, I suppose, but he used too many words. He could have made the picture smaller and only used 10 words to convey his brilliant thinking on this topic.
We have yet to see amorphous crystals being used for storage. That alone would revolutionize the audio/video industry alone. Not to mention it's impact on us globally.
1. All hand-held and mobile audio devices using the iPod docking standard and protocol.
2. A single, standard cable that connects all audio components; including speakers.
3. Audio components with ethernet connectivity.
4. A high-rez [24-bit/96kHz] audio file capable of delivering 5.1 audio that is down loadable.
5. Dolby Headphone (or equivalent) for MP-3 players.
Single example, though an over simplification of what you're saying, it follows on the same logic, thus perfectly proving my point:
A caveperson feels like they have something stuck in their ass (could it be your head?) so they stick a stick up there to see what it is (prob by dislodging it and bringing out). Today, we could swallow a camera pill or use some sort of camera on a controlled arm to do the same thing. New invention? By your logic? not at all. It essentially does the exact same thing.
But, let me ask you how you would rather have your head dislodged from your ass; by having it hooked with a stick and pulled out? Or removed by some laxitive brought on by some invention of modern medicine?
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by jscott418
November 20, 2008 7:16 PM PST
- The trouble is audio has taken a back seat to video lately. Has anyone seen some of the crap they call hi fidelity lately? Sure, their is some really good stuff out there yet. But not as much as their used to be.
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See all 45 Comments >>Why plug digital audio into a amplifier that cannot produce frequencies down to 80hz? Don't even get me started about speakers. New technology has just given us more technology crammed into a piece of hardware that only works OK at doing some things. Yes, we have managed to do more with less. But at what costs. I for one have gone back to analog audio and am happy to have done it. Some things are better left alone.