CES 2013: Philips uWand

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One of the biggest problems with smart Tvs these days

is the remote.

You got something like the Apple TV remote,

and it's got just a couple buttons on there

and it's pretty much completely useless,

and then you've got some of these monster

Google TV remotes that have a thousand buttons

and a QWERTY keyboard, and it's just way overkill.

Phillips has a solution that's somewhere in between.

It combines the convenience of using a smartphone

with the buttons you're used to on a traditional remote.

It's called the uWand.

Inside, it's got an IR camera that can detect

its position in 3D space, and it's also got

an accelerometer so it can detect flicks and other gestures.

We tried it out with some prototype

software here at Phillips, and it works pretty well.

It only took about two minutes to get used to

and it has really precise control onscreen.

I think it's a really nice balance

between what you can get from a smartphone

and what you can get from a normal remote.

It comes in a couple different models.

This one does not have a QWERTY keyboard,

but there is one that does.

It can also come with voice control.

It's not available for purchase for consumers,

but third party manufacturers can license it.