If you've ever wondered what kinds of computerized capabilities your next car is likely to give you, more than 600 exhibitors savvy on this subject -- including heavyweights such as Microsoft, General Motors, Ford, and Kenwood -- will be on hand to let you see and try things out for yourself.

But although a lot of the latest bells and whistles are geared to slicker audio and other mobile entertainment, a good many of them should also make it safer and easier to drive a car -- always a key consideration, but especially so with car crashes still happening because of careless text messaging and cellular handset calling while rambling down the road.

Just for starters, if vendors get their way, even cars with lower-end pricetags will begin offering richer sound experience, through audio entertainment niceties ranging from SurroundSound to just emerging HD (high definition) audio.

Meanwhile, at some point soon, your kids should be able to watch TV on display terminals and wireless headsets in the back seat -- with the content either stored on the auto's hard drive system, broadcast out by a commercial TV service, or piped in wirelessly from your home network or some other remote source.

And here's a hint about what direction mobile video is taking right now. At CES 2008, car stereo system maker Kenwood plans to give the world's first public demo of a working prototype of an emerging mobile broadcast service called MPH (Mobile Pedestrian Handheld) In-Band Mobile DTV (Digital TV).

Also in the near future, you should be able to keep an eye on the kids from the front seat with the use of special in car cameras from manufacturers such as Magna Donnelly -- while maybe training additional cameras to the vehicle's "blind spots" on the road.

From pre-CES 2008 show industry buzz -- along with a look at other CES and auto shows of the recent past -- we forsees innovations in car electronics across at least five areas; GPS multifunctional devices, voice recognition, audio, video, and safety. Most of these seem virtually definite to meet the light of the day in Las Vegas next week, in some shape or another.

Multifunctional GPS

Even as far back as CES 2006, vendors such as Magellan were adding MP3 playback and photo viewing capabilitities to the voice-guided directions and map views of in-car GPS units. A company named Xact brought Sirius satellite radio reception into the mix, too.

The next year, in a keynote speech at CES 2007, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates rolled out Sync, a Ford-developed system that uses Bluetooth wireless to communicate with cellular devices and a USB port for connectivity to input devices such as iPods and MP3 players.

Also with Sync technology, once a Bluetooth phone is connected, users can download software to the car, thereby enabling voice command capabilities.

Conversations can be hands free, because the user's voice is picked up by a microphone hidden behind the vehicle's rearview mirror. Sync turned up last summer as a standard feature in 2008 Lincoln models and a $395 option in a couple of handfuls of 2008 Ford model vehicles.

Now, at CES 2008 next week, Ford will announce its intentions to become the first US auto maker to include Sirius Travel Link -- a system that uses satellite radio to provide info on real time traffic conditions, sports scores, and every changing fuel prices -- within its onboard GPS systems. Travel Link will be included in new Ford, Lincoln and Mercury models in 2008.

Voice Recognition

Also at CES 2008, a number of other vendors should be on hand to challenge Sync with additional voice-recognition systems, intended to improve on previous technology with larger vocabularies, more personable machine voices, and other competitive differentiators.

US Telematics, for example, will be demoing an upcoming new edition of Vivee, a voice-enhanced e-mail and SMS texting product that works with Microsoft Windows Mobile for Pocket PC Wireless. Vivee already provides an animated talking avatar that reads incoming e-mails aloud.

But through a new voice recognition feature announced at the end of November, drivers will soon be able to send e-mails and text messages with spoken commands. Essentially, after listening to the user's spoken response to incoming messages, Vivee software will translate these responses into text in a choice of SMS text or POP e-mail formats.

According to Howard Leventhal, US Telematics' CEO, the revamped Vivee will offer much more flexibility than Sync. So far, Sync can only respond by SMS texting -- as opposed to e-mail -- and with only a short list of canned responses. Moreover, Vivee is portable among car models, whereas Sync is only available in Ford vehicles.

In the future, US Telematics expects to upgrade Vivee further with GPS-enabled location-based services, such as spoken announcements about restaurants available in the area where the car is currently located.

Gesture Recognition

Other vendors are expected to demo gesture recognition as an alternative method of communicating with GPS systems and other onboard devices.

At last year's CES, for instance, a concept car designed by storage vendor Seagate exploited gesture recognition as a method of controlling a multifunctional GPS system connected to a 60 GB Seagate hard drive, for holding in-vehicle video and audio entertainment libraries.

Instead of fumbling around with CD jewel boxes or the USB port for your MP3 player to put on a new song, you could select from audio content already stored on your hard drive simply by waving your hand in front of the LCD display in a few pre-defined ways.

At the time, Seagate also talked up the prospects of providing RAID arrays in the back of the car, for even more copious storage of video and audio files for use on the road.

Mobile Video

Where Bill Gates served as a headline keynoter at last year's CES, General Motors (GM) CEO Rick Wagoner will fulfill a similar role at CES 2008.

In December, GM introduced new key fob devices that will replace the buttons traditionally used for locking the car and pop open the trunk with an LCD screen that also obtains information about what's under the hood and inside the dashboard. From up to 1,000 feet away, drivers will be able to use the fob to change the radio station, for instance, to check tire pressure and perform other diagnostics.

More significantly over the long term, though, General Motors is a member of the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC), a group that is now promoting the use of MPH mobile-DTV to bring TV programming and data systems to cars.

MPH mobile-DTV is one of several "in-band" technologies now being looked at for augmenting the terrestial transmissions of local TV stations.

Beyond having ATSC's seal of approval, though, the MPH approach reportedly includes additional error correction and data redundancy, for smoother TV reception while either walking around with a handheld device or driving a car.

Meanwhile, at CES 2008, Kenwood -- the first radio manufacturer to announce support for MPH mobile-DTV -- intends to demo a working prototype of new in-car mobile TV receivers which are based on that technology, which was originally developed by Harris, LG Electronics, and LG's US R&D subsidiary, Zenith.

Although ATSC hasn't yet decided whether the transmission system for MPH will be subscription- or advertising-based, word on the street has it that this choice might be made during the first half of 2008.

Still, proponents of a competing mobile video system should also be out in full force at CES 2008, promoting the A-VSB technology originally demo'd at last year's show. Members of the A-VSB coalition include Samsung, Rohde & Schwartz, and now, mobile device manufacturer Nokia.

For kids and adults who might be watching either streaming video or stored content on display terminals in the back seat, CES 2008 exhibitor Unwired Technology will show wireless headsets that fold out flat, for storage in a seat compartment.

Richer Audio

Also at CES 2008, Ford will reprise the Ford Flex, a car first shown at the SEMA 07 auto show. The Flex will feature Dolby Pro Logic II, providing Dolby Surround Sound from any stereo or two-channel source -- including both TV and music systems -- along with Dolby's Advanced Sound Filter.

Moroever, Ford recently announced that the Mercury MKS 2009 will become the first vehicle to ofer a THX II 5.1-Certified surround sound audio system.

New HD audio-compatible devices and services are also anticipated for CES 2008. For instance, Ibiquity -- the owner of a large AM/FM radio network which can be used in either digital or hybrid analog/digital mode -- will demo MSN HD Direct, an informational service that uses HD Radio technology.

Safety - Plain and Straight-Forward

Some of the new car electronics technologies to be shown at CES 2008 combine entertainment value with on-the-road safety.

It might be fun -- for a while, at least, -- to "speak" your e-mails to an avatar-driven onboard message delivery system, or to command your in-vehicle storage system to replay a song with a mere wave of your hand.

At the same time, though, you'll be keeping two hands (in the case of voice recognition) or one hand (in the instance of gesture recognition) free to manipulate the steering wheel, which is something it's still advisable to be able to do when trying to drive a car.

But other technologies set for CES 2008 are more plainly geared strictly to safety. CCTraffic.Net, a traffic distribution platform from Clear Channel Radio, will be demo'd by several GPS systems makers that are using the system in their devices, including Mio, Tom Tom, Navigon, Garmin, dmedia, Harmon Kardon, and Clarion.

Also at the show, Magna Donnelly reportedly plans to introduce new cameras for the front seat of cars, so drivers can keep a watch over children in the back without needing to turn around and take their eyes entirely off the road.

Magna already makes cameras that catch blind spots when the car is in reverse. on cars such as the Honda Odyssey minivan and the Ford Super Duty pickup truck, these images are projected on to rearview mirrors.

IBM, a big name vendor that returned to CES last year after a ten year absence, will also be present at CES 2008, this year showing off its embedded technology and electronic gaming and online content, along with hardware and software in more traditional categories.

After a string of acquisitions related to telematics and various other aspects of auto electronics, IBM is also reported by some analyst firms to be eyeing deep involvement in the development of a nationwide "telematics infrastructure" which will support emergency communications among vehicles themselves -- about road conditions and other emergency issues-- regardless of car model or manufacturer.