We name the best car tech from CES, visit the very different auto show in Detroit, and hear about a total cell phone ban in cars.
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SHOW NOTES
• Best of CES Awards, including Gracenote CarStars
• All the car technology from CNET's CES coverage
• CNET's coverage of the North American International Auto Show
• A call for a total ban on driver's using cell phones. Period.
CES 2009: Car Tech wrap-up
Our heads are still spinning a bit from the onslaught that was the in-car electronics hall of CES 2009. From every direction, there were speakers the size of extralarge pizzas and flashy video displays vying for your attention. Amidst the cacophony, our (ahem) skilled Car Tech editors were able to spot a few gems and a few diamonds in the rough.
(Credit:
CBS Interactive)
As evidenced by our Car Tech ...
Read the full post at CNET's CES 2009 blog.
You can choose a music guide from your collection.
Imagine having your favorite recording artist talking to you from your dashboard, recommending new music that you might like. Now imagine the music available to you in your car extending to just about every track ever recorded. Let's take it a step further and say you can use your car stereo like an instant messenger, where you can recommend songs and playlists to people on your buddy list. Gracenote CarStars does all of this, and its slated to become available in a 2011 model car, with a release date sometime in 2010, although Gracenote currently isn't releasing details about which car company.
If you know about Gracenote, you're probably into music. This company maintains a database of song information, from ID3 tags to actual song signatures created by analyzing a track's waveform. Gracenote partnered with Voxonics, which does speech mapping, to create its recording artist guides. Choose your favorite artist, as long as Gracenote has created a profile for them, and you will hear their voice suggesting music you might like, in whichever language you choose.
The MusicStation lets you play music from a vast library.
(Credit: CBS Interactive)Gracenote also partnered with Omnifone, a company offering a mobile music subscription network, to create a feature called MusicStation. Pay the monthly fee, and you have access to music from every major and many indie labels. In your car, you can search for new artists or browse others that aren't in your immediate collection. MusicStation also has a social network, which lets you maintain a buddy list, so you can share your music.
Find our more about Gracenote CarStars by checking out our photos.
Brian Tong gets a first look at the Gracenote CarStars system, which scans your music collection and selects and artist to be your personal musical guide, giving you track suggestions depending on where you happen to be driving.
Gracenote supplies cover art to Ford's jukebox interface.
(Credit: Ford)At CES and the 2008 Detroit Auto Show, Ford will show off its next generation navigation system, initially to be made available on the all-new Lincoln MKS. The system's 40GB hard drive will include the Gracenote database, which will automatically tag any CDs ripped to the drive, something Gracenote already does in the Cadillac CTS and Lexus LS 600h. But Gracenote goes an extra mile with Ford, providing cover art for music playing in the system. Users will be treated to a scan of the album cover art while tracks from the album play. Further, the system incorporates Gracenote's Media Voice Operated Control System (MediaVOCS), which uses the existing voice command engine to enhance recognition of artist names. Although it is similar to the existing Sync system's ability to recognize spoken artist names, MediaVOCS offers further refinement, not only recognizing difficult names, but also accepting multiple names for a single artist, such as understanding that "The Stones" means The Rolling Stones or that "Dylan" means Bob Dylan. We haven't found out yet if you can tell it to "Get the Led out" to play Led Zeppelin.
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