Last Gadget Standing Competition Reveals the Soul of a Company

Would you have the nerve to get up on a stage in front of 500 CES attendees and put on a production that falls somewhere between a high school play and Revenge of the Nerds? That's what we asked the 10 finalists at The Last Gadget Standing competition to do, and boy were they good sports. When you mix a bit of goofy fun together with great products you get very good results. I'm no theatre critic, but let me recap the presentations at this year's event.

Toshiba's Anthony Biancini entered the stage to the strains of a "godfather"-like violin solo, dressed in a black zoot suit and fedora that would make any don proud. He then demonstrated the Toshiba's Wireless Extreme Short Projector, capable of producing a 60-inch image from a mere 2.4 feet away. Gina placed the projector about five feet away from the wall, which produced a massive 120-inch image on the wall. Are you going to have to hassle with wires? Fughedaboutit! Are you going to have to put it 10 feet away in the room? Fughedaboutit!

iRobot's Nancy Dussault-Smith came out with a bright green Looj strapped around her hips and proceeded to give us a lesson in gutter cleaning. With a Tim Allen-like presentation, she detailed the dangerous lives of home owning gutter cleaners and showed how the Looj could propel its way down the gutter of a home, spewing leaves, pine cones, and goop out of its way. For a lifelike demo, iRobot came into the show carting their own roof.

Tom Henry and Bob Gulino from Logitech did a skit worthy of late night TV, with Tom introducing Bob as the white lab-coated scientist behind the newest Logitech diNovo Mini Keyboard—a palm sized keyboard for wireless keyboarding. Bob was a stuttering mad scientist who added a full sized keyboard, remote control, and mouse (plus a heap of media) to a big trash can called Combinator 3000. Sledgehammer in hand, he crushed the pieces in front of our eyes and revealed the Logitech keyboard as product of engineering genius.

Fascinated? Keep reading as we look at the next three contestants or watch a clip from the show posted by Bahareh Ramin of Yahoo! Tech.