From a palm-size DJ studio to a monitor that lets mute people make telephone calls, hot gadgets headed for the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) floor had early debuts on Tuesday.

While the world's premier gizmo extravaganza doesn't officially get under way until Thursday, reporters got glimpses at CES innovations during an Unveiled event in a Las Vegas conference centre.

Taiwan-based MSI showed off a unique "hybrid" netbook that combines solid state and conventional disk drives in a power-sipping, tough, mini-laptop designed for simple computer tasks and getting on the internet.

Netbook offerings are expected to be among major themes at this year's CES, which runs through to Sunday.

"It's unbelievably light," MSI spokesperson Mark Olson said as he balanced a hybrid netbook on his palm.

"It's a great computer for a student to take notes or to take on a business trip. It's all about affordability and light weight."

The MSI U115 netbook weighs just over kilo and will sell for $500 or less, according to Olson.

Making music

Near the MSI display, Sweden-based Tonium showed off a sleek black Pacemaker device that is essential a handheld music DJ studio.

"We put everything a DJ works with into this," Tonium supply chain head Richard Hernemyr said as he cradled a Pacemaker in one hand. "You can play with music, work as a DJ, or just share with friends."

A circular touchpad lets users mix tunes with simple finger strokes and software in the device automatically synchs beats of songs being blended or manipulated.

"You really don't have to know how to beat-match," Hernemyr said. "It does it for you."

Pacemakers will be priced at $550 when they become available in March or April, according to Tonium.

Wireless TV

LG Electronics proudly displayed a wireless 55-inch LHX flat-screen television that US marketing head Marc Sorkin says combines all of the South Korean company's best technology.

The high-definition LCD television, still in development, gets content beamed to it from a small box that can be hidden out of sight. The LHX should be less than an inch thick when the final design is produced, Sorkin said.

"This may be the thinnest LCD television on the market when it comes out," Sorkin said. "We are trying to achieve this piece of art that really blends on a wall."

The LHX should be in production in 2010, according to LG USA.

Words for the mute

A pair of US companies at Unveiled has devices to enable people relying on sign language to communicate with those that rely on spoken words.

A picture-frame size VPad equipped with a computer screen and a web camera streams video of a person speaking in sign language to interpreters who then act as translators during telephone calls.

"I'm deaf," Viable's Glenn Lockhart signed while explaining how VPad's work. "If I want to call my grandmother, she is 88 years old, we can't talk on the phone. With this, I can chat with her."

VPad's are priced at $699 and the translation service is free.

Krown Manufacturing has built a device people can use for face-to-face translation from sign language to spoken words.

Users type sentences using a touch-screen keyboard on the handheld device and it is instantly depicted in sign language on a video screen.

The device currently has a vocabulary of 3500 words with more to come.

"This can help bridge the communications gap," said Karen Stearns of Krown.

Other gadgets

Meanwhile, TriSpecs showed of sunglasses with built-in ear buds and Bluetooth circuitry to relay music or conversations wirelessly from MP3-players or mobile telephones to wearers.

Ian Chisholm of Interactive Toy Concepts sported camouflage fatigues as he took aim at a flying toy duck with a plastic gun that fires signal beams.

"You hit is once; you hit it twice," Chisholm said. "The third time you hit it, it is going to fall from the sky."

In a sign that CES is continuing an Earth-friendly green theme that took root last year, top-ranked innovations include environmentally-sensitive "EnviroMax" batteries from Fuji.

The alkaline batteries, slated to hit the market in April, are made of recyclable materials and contain no cadmium or mercury.

"People threw away 10 billion batteries last year," said Jeff Kreidenweis, a Fuji spokesperson. "If we have to do it let's get the right stuff in the landfills out there."

Undaunted by global economic turmoil, some 2700 makers of televisions, computers, mobile telephones, chips and other technological wares will tout their latest innovations at the 2009 International CES from 8-11 January.

Added to the mix will be studios that make films, television shows, and music delivered digitally to devices increasingly tied to the internet.

AFP