Gadgetory

we can now control our televisions with a wiggle of a finger I'm Bridget Carey this is your CNET update when it comes to smart home technology you could say we're in an awkward adolescent phase right now companies are giving us new ways to control our home devices through apps but they don't always work together nicely some respond to your voice commands but who wants to yell at your TV to change the channel and then there's hand gestures the company eyesight has developed technology to control your television with little wiggles of your index finger I got to check out a demo of their product in action it's called single cue and you mount it to the top or bottom of the TV it's about the size of a Kinect the camera inside the text when a finger in the room is raised and that finger just has to sway left right up and down to scroll through a menu to make a selection you tap your finger to your thumb if you're channel surfing you could do rapid-fire tapping to cycle through channels it's very sensitive on my first try I was a little irritated trying to get it to select what I wanted and sometimes it wouldn't register my finger is being raised maybe it takes some time to perfect those Jedi channel surfing skills you can also put your finger to your lips in a shushing motion to mute the TV I was concerned about the privacy but the creators say it's not identifying your face or sending that data off site anywhere rather the camera is just looking for the shape of a finger if you put your finger down and someone else on the couch lifts their finger they take over control it picks up anyone in the living room in a 67 degree arc the single cue connects to multiple cable and satellite boxes as well as media streamers like the Apple TV it connects with Phillips smart lightbulbs if you want to set the mood lighting with your finger it's $200 and on sale now that's pretty pricey for something that can be temperamental at times you can spend less on a logitech harmony home control all-in-one remote but then again finger waving is more impressive to guests and speaking of Logitech it just came out with another new home gadget an Internet webcam called the largest circle it's not quite a traditional security camera for $200 you can get push alerts when motion is detected but it also lets you check in on family members with a live streaming video feed you can have a conversation with two-way talk and it sends you a 30-second video recap of your day it competes with other webcams like the nest cam but maybe the best invention to come to the smart home is the smart Budweiser beer cooler dubbed the Bud II it tracks how much beer is inside and it shows a number on the front door of how many cold ones you have left this link IQ smart fridge also knows how warm your beer is based on when you put it in it gives you a cold countdown when beers are ready to drink it also reminds you to pick up beer before game day and you can set it to scroll a custom message on the front but you may need to have a few beers to convince yourself it's worth three hundred dollars that's it for this tech news update for Moorehead to see Netcom from our studios in New York I'm Bridget Carey