Freescale hosts technology forum

The newest, hottest electronics are on display in downtown Austin. Freescale is hosting its annual technology forum this week.

Companies, with the help of Austin-based Freescale, have come up with ways to creating a way to drive a car without touching the steering wheel.

A microwave by Midea can cook multiple foods at the same time at targeted temperatures.

"It's for people to have meat, potatoes, carrots in the same dish without you having a steak that is cold and a mashed potato that is going to burn your face off," said John Dixon, Freescale Marketing Director.

One device called the Energy Curb shows which items are drawing out the most electricity in your home and how much it's costing you. It allows you can cut back on your use and your bill.

But no need to grab a remote or flip a switch. If you've got the Myo arm band, you can control any electronic item in your home with the simple movement of your hand.

"So, you're able to point to your TV and go volume up, down. Channels, left, right," said Dixon.

All items are on display this week at the Freescale Technology Forum being held at the J.W. Mariott in Downtown Austin.

"We've already had 35 thousand engineers come through this is the last six months. And what it does for the engineers is it allows them to see a lot of the technology that is very cutting edge functionality as well as technology that they can implement into their products," said Dixon.

One of the main attractions is a corvette and its driver.

Former Indycar racer Sam Schmidt was paralyzed from the neck down in an accident 15 years ago.

Arrow Electronics helped him drive again.

"He wears the head apparatus and this is by his mouth and when he wants to accelerate he blows air into the tube," said Joe Verrengia of Arrow Electronics.

To steer, Schmidt uses a hat with reflective balls attached to it.

"There's four cameras pointed at Sam in the car looking at Sam while he's driving. Those cameras track his head movements. When he turns his head to the right or left, those cameras pick up those movements and within 100th of a second translate those movements to the car the car steers exactly in that direction. It's as quick, or quicker than my hands on the steering wheel," said Verrengia.

Schmidt recently clocked 107 miles per hour behind the wheel.

"Having been a racer all of my life I think a large part of my identity was lost when I wasn't able to drive again and control everything. This gave quite a bit of that back to me," said Schmidt.

"By helping him we believe that we can demonstrate how we can help all disabled people," said Verrengia.

The show moves out on Thursday.