This thing is gotta be one of the craziest things launched at this year’s CES. A leopard skinned taser! As if there weren’t enough issues with that topic. Have you ever been tased? Tempted to buy this thing?

Plantronics is the official sponsor of the 2008 CES Blog and Podcast Lounge.  The lounge features wireless and hard line Internet, over 60 workstations, lounge space to rest and relax and a ’sound proof’ podcast room for interviews, as well as couches, tables, TVs and refreshments. 

The lounge has been a great place for bloggers and podcasters to come and have a quiet place to work and relax in the midst of the CES craziness.  Check out these pictures.

I’m not much of a gamer, but do enjoy a good round of Guitar Hero, so how excited was I to get a sneak peak at the new game coming out of Jada Toys, called Air Guitar. 

Players wear a little battery powered pack on their hip connected to a mini amp and a “magical” belt buckle that picks up cords as they move the included “magical” pick up and down in front of the belt buckle to the designated song.

Demo guy and gals rockin out:

Here’s the gear and packaging up close. And also check out the videos here and here!

I just had to give it a try…it’s amazing how hard it is to do your best “rocker face” when commanded to do so by a crowd of random onlookers. I thought the hat would help, but the result is less rocker and more “I just ate a lemon”. Oh well, you get the point.

Game is out March 1st and cost is only about 20 bones.

On the show floor at the Venetian today, I saw a couple of cool camera technologies.

The first one I saw was by a company called 3DV Systems, who uses this nifty 3-D camera to control deliver an interactive gaming experience like the boxing demo they were doing below. Notice the player is not wearing any sensors or gloves or anything at all. The camera simply translates his movements into 3D actions within the game:

Here’s an up-close of the nifty camera:

The product also enables hand movements to open and close files and browse through images –think of the wall in that move, Minority Report.

Another cool technology was these underwater camera goggles by Liquid Image. Definitely a necessary addition for anyone traveling to Hawaii and enjoying the the beautiful snorkeling there. Or anyone with a family pool and kids who enjoy developing underwater dances, I suppose.

Saw a cool company today at CES called MusicIP, which I’d describe at Pandora on steroids. They describe themselves as “music identification and discovery”.

The software/service has an iTunes plugin downloadable for free, which I saw demoed today and helps auto create music playlists based in similar songs or even similar “energy” levels.

Go by and see them in the exhibit hall at the Venetian

Their software is also coming standard on several MP3 players such as ones by Disney. They had several on display.