CES: Sony's XBR-LX900 HDTV -- half robot, half TV

There are a ton of 3D HDTVs at CES, but I have to hand it to Sony for managing to jump ahead of the crowd. Their top-of-the-line XBR-LX900 series TV comes with a built-in proximity sensor that automatically dims the TV's backlight when you're not in the room. This in turn helps you save money/not waste electricity. Gimmicky, yes, but pretty cool nonetheless.

Sony calls it the Intelligent Presence Sensor. It's essentially a tiny camera/lens built into the TV's bezel. It use face detection to track your mug and another cool feature is that if you (or a child) is sitting too close to the TV, the backlight will turn off. (Sony's playing the "mom" role and making sure you don't ruin your eye sight by sitting too close to the TV.)

Another interesting feature is that the TV will adjust its speakers based on where you're sitting so that you'll always get a full "surround sound" effect regardless of whether you're sitting directly in front of it or off to the side. That I thought was really cool and impressed me a little more than the proximity sensor.

We saw a demo of all of this and it worked pretty well. The face detection wasn't always as smooth, but considering there were a lot of us standing in front of the TV, it did a good job at tracking most of us. When the Sony rep covered the lens, the TV slowly dimmed itself off.

The edge-lit LED TV also features 240Hz motion technology, built-in Wi-Fi, Netflix, Amazon VOD, and YouTube streaming, and it comes with two 3D glasses. (Word on the street has it that most TVs don't come with the glasses!) It's due out in June. When we asked how much, the Sony rep smiled and said, naturally it'll cost more than our regular TVs. In other words, start saving now.